Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the timeline for introducing the codes of practice under the Online Safety Act 2023 to combat fraudulent advertising.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

DSIT regularly engages with Ofcom on the implementation of the Online Safety Act. The Act will help tackle online fraud, including fraudulent advertising. Since 17 March 2025, all services are required to take measures to tackle illegal fraud.

Further fraudulent advertising duties on Category 1 and 2A services will come into effect once the register of categorised services and the relevant codes are in place. Ofcom plans to publish the register this summer and then consult on the draft codes of practice for the remaining duties by early 2026. We anticipate the duties will come into force around a year later.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Ofcom regarding the implementation of measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 to combat fraud.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

DSIT regularly engages with Ofcom on the implementation of the Online Safety Act. The Act will help tackle online fraud, including fraudulent advertising. Since 17 March 2025, all services are required to take measures to tackle illegal fraud.

Further fraudulent advertising duties on Category 1 and 2A services will come into effect once the register of categorised services and the relevant codes are in place. Ofcom plans to publish the register this summer and then consult on the draft codes of practice for the remaining duties by early 2026. We anticipate the duties will come into force around a year later.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Vallance of Balham on 25 March (HL5666), what further details they will provide on meetings Ministers from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology have held with external stakeholders abroad, including the names of the companies and individuals involved.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Ministers and officials have regular meetings with a range of external stakeholders abroad.

Ministerial meetings and engagements are published through quarterly transparency reports on GOV.UK.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will publish the levels of funding allocated from UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council budget to the (a) British Antarctic Survey and (b) National Oceanography Centre in each of the last five years.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

DSIT has allocated £13.9 billion to the R&D budget for the 2025/26 financial year. Below are UK Research and Innovation's Natural Environment Research Council budget allocations over the past five financial years for the British Antarctic Survey (including the Antarctic Logistics and Infrastructure (ALI) Partition, which is a ringfenced slice of the science budget to support the UK presence in Antarctica); and the National Oceanography Centre:

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much funding has been allocated from UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council budget to the European Marine Energy Centre to date.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The European Marine Energy Centre has not been allocated any funding from UK Research and Innovation’s Natural Environment Research Council to date.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will publish the total allocation of UK Research and Innovation funding to the Natural Environment Research Council since 2021-22.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The allocation of UKRI funding to the Natural Environment Research Council was published in the following reports:

• BEIS Research and Development (R&D) Budget Allocations 2021 to 2022
• BEIS Research and Development (R&D): UK Research and Innovation Allocation 2022-2023 to 2024-2025 and
• DSIT Research and Development (R&D) Allocations for 2025/2026

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2025 to Question 39835 on Social Media: Regulation, whether (a) his Department and (b) Ofcom has made an assessment of the impact of designating end-to-end encryption as a risk factor in the (i) Illegal Harms Codes of Practice and (ii) illegal content risk assessment guidance on regulated businesses' willingness to offer end-to-end encryption to users in the UK.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Ofcom is responsible for assessing the possible implications of its codes of practice and guidance under the Online Safety Act (OSA).

As previously noted, the OSA does not ban any service design and the European Conventions of Human Rights (ECHR) requires all UK public bodies, including Ofcom, to act in a way that complies with ECHR rights. Companies are legal persons having rights afforded by the ECHR.

DSIT will carry out a Post Implementation Review to assess the effectiveness of the legislation, including how the OSA has addressed harmful online content while protecting UK users’ rights.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to ban the game entitled No Mercy.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government welcomes steps taken to remove this game from gaming platforms. The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls, including where it occurs online, in a decade. We expect all platforms, including gaming sites in scope of the Online Safety Act, to comply with the law. This currently requires all user-to-user and search services to have systems and processes in place to remove illegal content, and in the coming months, to protect children from harmful content.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the section entitled Gender or sex in the Gov.uk Design System, if he will make it his policy to require the Government Digital Service to use sex rather than gender when requesting information on sex.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The GOV.UK Design System provides guidance and components to departments, so that there is a consistent style and experience for users interacting with government information and services online. This guidance is continually iterated with input from external experts and specialists across government, to help ensure that digital services are inclusive, easy to use and comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty. Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, we will review the Design System’s guidance in line with any changes to the Codes of Practice issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, for what reason the Gov.uk Design System section entitled Ask Users for Equality Information refers to gender identity rather than gender reassignment.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The GOV.UK Design System provides guidance and components to departments, so that there is a consistent style and experience for users interacting with government information and services online. This guidance is continually iterated with input from external experts and specialists across government, to help ensure that digital services are inclusive, easy to use and comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty. Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, we will review the Design System’s guidance in line with any changes to the Codes of Practice issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much the Government spends on countering disinformation; and in which Departments this money is spent.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

A number of departments, including DSIT, Home Office and the FCDO, work together to address risks to the UK from disinformation. Activities include analysis and policy work to reduce the spread and impact of disinformation online.

We do not share our total spend on information threats publicly because of the risks inherent in revealing the scale of our efforts to adversaries. Components of this spend include £3m invested in media literacy by DSIT to drive critical engagement with online content (2022-24) and £25.5m invested by FCDO in building societal resilience to Russian interference in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (FY24-25).

Found: Feryal Clark MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Found: OFFICIAL Sir Chris Bryant MP Minister of State for Data Protection & Telecoms Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Found: We have seen policy move out of the UK Space Agency into DSIT.

Found: Please write to the Committee with the results of your civil servants’ work with (a) DSIT on options

Found: We have seen policy move out of the UK Space Agency into DSIT.

Found: We have seen policy move out of the UK Space Agency into DSIT.

Found: We have seen policy move out of the UK Space Agency into DSIT.

Found: In 2024, at the invitation of DSIT, the Academy created a detailed competitive funding proposal for

Found: It strikes me that we are having quite different conversations with DSIT, DBT, DfE, DESNZ and the Treasury

Found: 3rd Floor, 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ E: Minister.Vallance@dsit.gov.uk www.gov.uk/dsit

Found: OFFICIAL Lord Vallance Minister for Science, Research & Innovation Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Found: DepartmentforScience.Innovationand Technology 100ParliamentStreet DepartmentforLondonSW1A2BQ Science,Innovationwwwgovuk/dsit

Found: How successful do you think DSIT has been?

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for (a) the Home Department and (b) Science, Innovation and Technology on the potential merits of updating the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to enhance national cyber resilience through strengthened legal protections for cybersecurity researchers.

Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government recognises the significant role that UK cybersecurity professionals play in enhancing and protecting the country’s resilience against cyber threats; it is essential that we provide them with the necessary support. The Home Office is currently reviewing the Computer Misuse Act, and as part of this process, officials are considering the issue of strengthened legal protections for legitimate cybersecurity researchers. However, this work is complex and requires careful consideration. Without robust safeguards and oversight, the introduction of legal protections could significantly hinder law enforcement's ability to prosecute cyber criminality.

To address this, the Home Office is collaborating with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the National Cyber Security Centre, law enforcement agencies, and the cybersecurity industry to evaluate the safeguards that would need to accompany any implementation of strengthened legal protections. An update will be provided in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with (a) animal welfare activists and (b) Marshall Bio Resources on the mass rearing of beagles for the purpose of animal testing.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) with the Home Office and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs involvement is leading on a strategy to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternatives to animal testing which is scheduled for publication later this year.

Pharmaceutical legislation requires that, before a medicine can be approved for testing in humans, it is tested in a rodent and non-rodent species under international guidelines. This may include dogs as an appropriate model. The majority of Beagles bred for use in science (85%) are for the purposes of regulatory testing under legislation on pharmaceutical products for human use. The number of Beagles bred is largely determined by the forecast needs of the pharmaceutical industry that require testing of medicines.

The Home Office regulator ensures compliance of all work licensed with the rigorous requirements of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. The number of animals used in scientific research and testing, including Beagles, is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit#statistics.

The Home Office assures that, in every research proposal, animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible, the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought, and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.

Found: Government launched the Office for Quantum in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT

Found: We are aware of the ongoing work of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to

Found: Ministers' Hospitality - March 2025 CSV, 677 Bytes View online Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Found: Days 19 1.0 1.0 Q2 20 Days 15 1.0 1.0 Q3 20 Days 2 1.0 1.0 Q4 20 Days 14 1.0 1.0 Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Found: 100% 100% Q3 20 Days 2 100% 100% Q4 20 Days 14 100% 100% Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

Found: In 2024, DSIT conducted a survey in which public perceptions and attitudes on EngBio were gathered and

Found: DSIT also runs a dedicated Engineering Biology Regulators Network (EBRN) that brings the regulatory

Found: 3rd Floor, 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ E: Minister.Vallance@dsit.gov.uk www.gov.uk/dsit

Found: 3rd Floor, 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ E: Minister.Vallance@dsit.gov.uk www.gov.uk/dsit

Found: Yours sincerely LORD LEONG CBE FROM THE LORD LEONG GOVERNMENT WHIP DBT, DEFRA, DSIT, FCDO 020-