Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that partnerships with AI companies to develop pilot tools for Gov.uk services deliver benefits for users while protecting data privacy.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
His Majesty’s Government is implementing artificial intelligence partnerships through a phased, test-and-learn approach that embeds data protection from the outset while testing transformational capabilities before committing significant public funds.
Working with the Commercial Innovation Hub, the Government has developed procurement approaches tailored to AI’s unique characteristics, including the National AI Tender for GOV.UK and the Planning Transformation Accelerator for AI-assisted decision-making, ensuring procurement methods are appropriate for evaluating frontier technologies.
All procurement frameworks require GDPR compliance as a mandatory qualification criterion, with partnerships operating under the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and comprehensive privacy-by-design principles. Pilots are deployed in controlled environments with oversight from departmental information security teams and data protection officers, with government retaining intellectual property ownership to prevent vendor lock-in.
Decisions to scale are contingent on pilots demonstrating measurable user benefits and full compliance with data protection standards through defined evaluation criteria and contractual break clauses, ensuring AI capabilities can be advanced while maintaining robust privacy safeguards.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure AI companies embed safety-by-design principles in generative AI products.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act places duties on many AI services to make them more responsible for their users’ safety. The Secretary of State tasked officials to review how the Act covers chatbots and has said government will act to fill any gaps in the Act.
The AI Security Institute works closely with AI developers to understand potential risks from AI and develop mitigations. The Institute’s research is making AI models safer, with findings being used by industry to strengthen AI model safeguards.
Asked by: Lord Cameron of Lochiel (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on communities that previously benefited from funding from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, but which will no longer receive funding following the decision to end that fund and replace it with the Local Growth Fund.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
At the Spending Review in 2025, the Government confirmed that we would protect funding for interventions that drive growth and strengthen communities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the next three years, keeping it at the same overall level in cash terms as under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) in the current year.
As part of this approach MHCLG is working with the Scotland Office to design a new £140m Local Growth Fund for Scotland, delivering a significant step change in UK investment strategy, supporting each nation and region to deliver long-term infrastructure for sustained economic growth.
The Local Growth Fund forms part of a broader suite of interventions and was never designed to replicate UKSPF on a like‑for‑like basis. It sits alongside other investments such as the Growth Mission Fund, the Pride in Place Impact Fund and the Pride in Place Programme which is helping build strong, resilient and integrated communities in areas that experience the most entrenched social and economic challenges.
In addition to this package of funding announced at the Spending Review, Scotland will also benefit from around £700m of other local and regional project funding over the next three years through: the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund, Pride in Place Programme Phase 1, Green Freeports, Investment Zones, Community Regeneration Partnerships, the Local Regeneration Fund and City Region and Growth Deals.
Alongside this, the UK Government has provided the Scottish Government with the largest Block Grant in the history of devolution which can be used flexibly for devolved governments’ priorities.
Asked by: Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat - South Devon)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to improve communication with rural communities about Project Gigabit rollout timelines.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Suppliers are responsible for creating a network design plan and delivery schedule for their Project Gigabit contracts. Therefore, updates on delivery timescales for specific areas are often provided by suppliers through their own websites and fibre checker tools. Building Digital UK (BDUK) also works with suppliers and local councils to support communications about Project Gigabit contracts throughout their delivery.
Additionally, communities can check if their premises is included in BDUK plans using the following link: September 2025 OMR and premises in BDUK plans (England and Wales) - GOV.UK. Delivery progress can also be found via BDUK’s monthly data reporting, which shows the number of premises passed under each Project Gigabit contract. The latest edition of this data is available here: Premises contracted and built, Project Gigabit contracts - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to HCWS1249, what estimate he has made of the number of legacy digital systems in use across government; what timetable exists for decommissioning the highest-risk systems, what resources are available to support “secure by design” requirements; and what assessment has been made of the impact of the government vulnerability scanning service.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The most recent assessment of the scale of legacy systems across the public sector was conducted as part of the State of Digital Government Review, which found that 28% of public sector systems were identified as legacy IT. Individual departments remain responsible for addressing their highest risk systems. While DSIT provides oversight, it does not hold central information on all these plans.
The Secure by Design approach provides delivery and project teams with clear principles and activities to follow to increase the cyber resilience and security of new and emerging systems, services and technology infrastructure. A central DSIT team supports them through a community of champions, nominated by their respective organisation.
Over 700 public sector organisations have now signed up to the vulnerability scanning service, with the service finding and helping fix over 100 critical vulnerabilities a month.
Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what information her Department holds on the extent to which social media platforms collect and monetise behavioural data from users under the age of 16; and what steps she is taking to limit that practice.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
DSIT does not hold information on behavioural data collected by platforms on users under the age of 16.
Where data collected by social media platforms constitutes personal data, under the UK’s data protection and privacy framework, its collection and use must be lawful, fair, transparent and secure.
Children should be given clear information about how their data will be used and they have the same rights as adults to access their data; request rectification; object to its processing or have it erased. Organisations offering online services directly to children must comply with the statutory Age Appropriate Design Code, and must seek parental consent to process the personal data of children under the age of 13.
Organisations that fail to follow these rules are subject to investigation and enforcement by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The ICO is required to have particular regard to the fact that children merit specific protection when their personal data is processed.
Asked by: Gideon Amos (Liberal Democrat - Taunton and Wellington)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what plans her Department has for cross-government working to encourage safety by design of smart and connected technology to help protect victims and survivors of technology-facilitated abuse.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in all its forms, including online, is a priority for this Government. That is why, in December, we published the cross-government VAWG Strategy.
Within the Strategy, we commit to working across departments to explore what more we can do to encourage safety‑by‑design in smart and connected technologies. This work aims to better protect victims and survivors, and to prevent perpetrators from misusing these technologies to facilitate abuse.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the full responsibilities of the Minister for Digital ID are.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Josh Simons MP has been appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, serving as a joint Minister between the Cabinet Office and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
Minister Simons is responsible for supporting and providing assurance to the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Cabinet Office and the Secretary of State for DSIT on the design and cross-government delivery of the digital ID programme. He will work closely with Minister Murray, Minister of State for Digital Government and Data, who retains ownership of related areas including data policy and other Government Digital Products.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the answer of 23 September 2025, to Question 70484, on Government Departments: Training, what role the Director General for Digital Centre Design played in (a) the design and specification of Project 7114, (b) recommending the use of Bloom Procurement Services Ltd as the route to market, and (c) compiling or approving the list of suppliers directly nominated to bid for the contract through Bloom.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The interim Director General for Digital Centre Design, now interim Director General for Digital Transformation, has had no involvement in the design and specification of Project 7114 or in any procurement decisions related to the Cabinet Office Test Learn and Grow Programme.
Asked by: Iqbal Mohamed (Independent - Dewsbury and Batley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to ensure AI tools are safe by design to prevent the creation of child sexual abuse material.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to tackling the creation of this atrocious material. Creating, possessing, or distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including AI Generated CSAM, is illegal. The Online Safety Act requires services to proactively identify and remove this content.
We are taking further action in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise CSAM image generators, and to ensure AI developers can directly test for and address vulnerabilities in their models which enable the production of CSAM.
The Government is clear: no option is off the table when it comes to protecting the online safety of users in the UK, and we will not hesitate to act where evidence suggests that further action is necessary.