Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps to counter the potential use of (a) AI and (b) other means to influence the (i) operation and (ii) outcome of the next general election.

The Government is committed to safeguarding the UK’s elections and already has established systems and processes in place, to protect the democratic integrity of the UK.

The Government has established the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which has a mandate to safeguard our democratic institutions and processes from the full range of threats, including digitally manipulated content. The Taskforce ensures we have a robust system in place to rapidly respond to any threats during election periods, including novel threats from AI.

The Online Safety Act places new requirements on social media platforms to swiftly remove illegal misinformation and disinformation - including artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes - as soon as they become aware of it.

The new digital imprints regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, will also increase the transparency of digital political advertising (including artificial intelligence-generated material).

The threat to democracy from artificial intelligence was discussed at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to international collaboration on this shared challenge.

Additionally, the Elections Act 2022 strengthened financial transparency and controls against foreign spending at elections. Since its introduction, the Government has restricted foreign campaign spending at elections and introduced a new requirement on political parties to declare their assets and liabilities when registering with the Electoral Commission. Foreign donations (and channelling foreign money) are already illegal.

Government passed the National Security Act in 2023 which creates a range of new tools and powers to tackle evolving state threats. Parts 1-3 of the Act came into force in December 2023. This includes a new foreign interference offence which will give our law enforcement and intelligence agencies significant new powers to detect, deter and prosecute those who seek to interfere in our democracy. Part 4 of the Act, containing the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, will come into force later in 2024. This will require the registration of political influence activity conducted at the direction of foreign powers.