Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) increase the number of data centres and (2) expand the availability of green energy to improve the infrastructure that supports artificial intelligence technology.

The Government is taking several steps to increase the number of data centres and expand the availability of green energy to support AI technology infrastructure. Policies such as AI Growth Zones are being implemented to encourage the development of AI data centres. The Government is committed to including data centres as part of its strategic energy plans and the Department is working closely with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in setting up the AI Energy Council. The Council will have senior representatives from both the energy and AI industry to ensure the growth of AI and data centres in the UK is done in a way that supports our clean power mission and longer-term decarbonisation goals.