Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 monitor the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by UK businesses; and whether she plans to take steps to monitor the potential impact of AI use by businesses on the number of jobs created in each of the next five years.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology draws on regularly updated evidence from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS run the regular Business and Insights Conditions Survey (BICS) survey, which is refreshed every two weeks and now contains questions on AI uptake in UK businesses.
The ONS estimated that in September 2023, only 16% of UK businesses were using AI, with 19% planning to adopt solutions in the future (ONS, BICS survey). A separate global study by KPMG finds a similar level of uptake in the use of AI in business settings of 20% in the UK (KMPG, Trust in Artificial Intelligence 2023).
Our understanding of AI diffusion in the economy can also be informed by consumer use, which is reported at much higher levels. 50% of adults reported to the ONS that they used AI in their day-to-day life (ONS, OPN survey). It is possible that while businesses do not report formal use of AI, workers in these companies use tools such as ChatGPT or other Large Language Models for daily work tasks.
On the potential impact of AI use by businesses on the number of jobs created, in each of the next five years, AI has the potential to be a net creator of jobs and have a positive impact on economic growth - the World Economic Forum concluded in October 2020 that while AI may take away 85 million jobs globally by 2025, it is also likely to generate
97 million new jobs in areas such as data, machine learning and digital marketing.
DSIT will continue to monitor the take-up of AI in businesses and the impact this has on job creation closely.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 prevent children from accessing potentially harmful content online.
Answered by Paul Scully
Protecting children is at the heart of the Government’s Online Safety Bill. All companies in scope will need to take robust steps to protect children from illegal content and criminal behaviour on their services. In addition, services which are likely to be accessed by children, which will include social media platforms, will be required to provide safety measures for child users to protect them from inappropriate and harmful content or activity, such as pornography, bullying and content that promotes or glorifies self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. If they fail to do so, they will be subject to tough enforcement action by the regulator, Ofcom.
Ahead of the Online Safety Bill, video-sharing platform (VSP) providers currently regulated by the VSP regime are required to take ‘appropriate measures’ to protect under-18s from potentially harmful material. Appropriate measures could include, but are not limited to, age assurance, parental controls, and comprehensive terms and conditions.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 help prevent children accessing inappropriate material on social media.
Answered by Paul Scully
Protecting children is at the heart of the Government’s Online Safety Bill. All companies in scope will need to take robust steps to protect children from illegal content and criminal behaviour on their services. In addition, services which are likely to be accessed by children, which will include social media platforms, will be required to provide safety measures for child users to protect them from inappropriate and harmful content or activity, such as pornography, bullying and content that promotes or glorifies self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. If they fail to do so, they will be subject to tough enforcement action by the regulator, Ofcom.
Ahead of the Online Safety Bill, video-sharing platform (VSP) providers currently regulated by the VSP regime are required to take ‘appropriate measures’ to protect under-18s from potentially harmful material. Appropriate measures could include, but are not limited to, age assurance, parental controls, and comprehensive terms and conditions.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
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 help improve access to full-fibre broadband for households.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to delivering nationwide gigabit connectivity as soon as possible. Today, 74% of premises can access gigabit-capable networks, up from just 6% in February 2019. By 2025, the Government is targeting a minimum of 85% gigabit-capable coverage, and we are investing £5 billion as part of Project Gigabit to ensure the hardest-to-reach areas in the UK receive coverage.
Through Project Gigabit, we have issued procurements with a value of over £700 million to deliver gigabit connections to hard-to-reach homes and businesses across the UK, including a £6.6 million contract covering over 4,000 premises in Teesdale in Durham.
Alongside this, the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme allows eligible individuals and businesses to apply for vouchers to help incentivise broadband providers to build in certain areas. The scheme and its previous iterations have already issued more than 111,000 vouchers, and are enhancing the scheme further by boosting the value of vouchers so individual applicants can access as much as £4,500 worth of support.
We have also made it as easy and attractive as possible for firms to build their networks, having instructed Ofcom to increase competition and investment in the market. These measures include reducing barriers to entry by requiring Openreach to offer competitors access to their existing duct and pole network via Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) where possible, rather than deploying new infrastructure.
We also introduced measures in the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 to specifically assist telecoms operators providing broadband services, such as an increased ability to upgrade and share the existing duct and pole network and a procedure to deal with non-responsive landowners. This is in addition to the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Act 2021, which makes it easier for broadband operators to install in multiple dwelling units where the landlord is repeatedly unresponsive to requests for access.
Additionally, it is a priority to ensure that new homes are built with fast, reliable and resilient broadband. On 26 December 2022, new regulations came into force making it mandatory for new homes in England to be future-proofed with gigabit-ready physical infrastructure and - where they can be provided within a cost cap - gigabit-capable connections. This will help ensure that many more new households each year get the connectivity they want and need without costly and disruptive installation work after the home is built.