Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the partnership between the University of the West of England Bristol and the Chinese company NeuSoft, given the latter’s work on a facial recognition surveillance system.

As autonomous bodies, decisions regarding partnerships lie with individual higher education providers. We encourage the sector to collaborate with international partners and universities must be security minded in their approach in order to safeguard our core values. University due diligence processes should consider reputational, ethical and security risks.

At the request of my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Higher and Further Education, Universities UK, on behalf of the sector and with government support, published guidelines in October 2020 to help universities tackle security risks related to international collaboration.

We continuously strengthen protective measures and expect universities to do the same.