Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to paragraph 5.148 of the Autumn Statement 2023, what recent progress her Department has made on establishing a taskforce with industry to help support SMEs to adopt digital technology.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade is currently setting up an industry-led taskforce to rapidly explore how best to support SMEs to adopt digital technology. Progress is being made on the remit, Chair and membership of the taskforce and we will be launching the taskforce shortly
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many staff does the Responsible Technology Adoption Unit have.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Responsible Technology Adoption Unit has 31 staff members currently in post with 8 positions in active recruitment.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the tools available to verify election-related content.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We have a tradition of robust political debate and freedom of speech in our democracy. Policy or political arguments - both online and offline - which can be rebutted by rival campaigners or the press as part of the normal course of political debate should not be regulated. It is a matter for voters to decide whether they consider such arguments/claims to be accurate.
The new digital imprints regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, will increase the transparency of digital political advertising, by requiring those promoting eligible digital campaigning material targeted at the UK electorate to include an imprint with their name and address.
We are working to ensure we are ready to respond to the full range of threats to our democratic processes, including through the Defending Democracy Taskforce, and the Government regularly meets with social media companies to understand the policies and processes they have in place.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to appoint an advisory board to the Responsible Technology Adoption Unit.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Responsible Technology Adoption Unit (RTA) is a directorate within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. As such, RTA works with experts and stakeholders across the AI and data ecosystem. This ensures that a diverse range of opinion and insight, including from former board members, can continue to inform its work and support the government's AI and innovation priorities. An advisory board will not be appointed for the unit.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to complete algorithmic transparency reports for the ten pilot programs being developed by the Incubator for AI.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government has made transparency around automated decision-making a priority through the publication of the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS). The ATRS was endorsed by the Data Standards Authority (DSA), and the first approved version was published in January 2023. Any standards that have been designated by the DSA have an expectation that they will be adopted where there is a use case.
The i.AI team are committed to the development of safe, secure and transparent government AI. The pilot programmes are at various stages of development, and each will be subject to robust testing and evaluation in collaboration with other government expert teams including CDDO, DSIT and the AISI. This will include the completion of Algorithmic Transparency Standards for projects that move past Alpha stages, informed by user testing and pilot programmes.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what action his Department is taking to tackle potential discrepancies between UK Visas and Immigration requirements to provide a Border Force passport stamp as proof of entry to the UK for Ukrainians applying for a biometric residence permit card and Border Force practice in stamping passports.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We are aware of occasions where Ukrainians did not have their passport endorsed by an immigration official on arrival. Measures have been taken to prevent this from occurring in the future, and steps are being taken to progress those applications affected as soon as possible.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Defending Democracy Taskforce is taking to reduce the potential threat of artificial intelligence generated deepfakes being used in elections.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
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.
DSIT is the lead department on artificial intelligence and is part of 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.
Furthermore, 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 Act also updates Ofcom’s statutory media literacy duty to require it to take tangible steps to prioritise the public's awareness of and resilience to misinformation and disinformation online. This includes enabling users to establish the reliability, accuracy, and authenticity of content.
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).
Finally, 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.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer on 18 January 2024 to Question 9578 on Artificial Intelligence, in which private offices the Red Box Copilot is being tested.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Red Box Copilot has been made available to the Private Offices of Minister Burghart, of the Cabinet Secretary, and of the Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service, in which it is either currently or will shortly be going through more formal testing.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to complete an algorithmic transparency report using the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard for uses of AI in the Lighthouse programme.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is already working with the Centre for Data, Ethics and Innovation to ensure the Department uses AI in a safe, ethical, and transparent way. This will include leveraging the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) to identify and apply governance where appropriate.
The Department has completed elements of the ATRS for AI use cases in the Department and we are working to complete the full standard. This includes those cases under the Lighthouse programme.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the (a) effectiveness of and (b) adequacy of the levels of industry co-funding for the AI and data science postgraduate conversion course scholarship programme.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The £30 million AI and Data Science Conversion Course programme was established in 2020 to broaden the supply of talent in the UK AI labour market. It funded universities to develop masters level AI or data science courses suitable for non-STEM students and 2,600 scholarships for students from backgrounds underrepresented in the tech industry.
We are already seeing the positive impact the programme is having in addressing the AI skills gap. As of March 2023 6,300 students have enrolled on the programme, almost three times our targets. 73% of scholarships awarded to women, 35% awarded to Black students, and 26% awarded to disabled students. The courses are successfully converting non-STEM students to enter the AI labour market: 88% of employed graduates were in employment directly related to AI or data science, either in the public or private sector.
In 2023 an industry co-funding element was added, whereby industry could support the programme through in-kind support or scholarship funding. As of November 2023, this amounted to over £6.5 million in in-kind support and scholarship funding. The in-kind contributions directly support student employability and includes co-design and delivery of course content to ensure students gain skills to meet sector need; providing access to software and applications to support learning and skills development; and opportunities to engage with industry through employer-led talks and workshops, industry mentoring support, and provision of work-based projects and placements.