Digital ID

Debate between Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway and Lord Vallance of Balham

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his comments on migration. I agree that this is one way in which one can detect whether illegal employment is going on. It will be a deterrent, because the ease with which people can be employed here is part of the reason why it is an attractive place to come. On the way we go about doing this, in addition to the points he has raised, it is worth looking at what has happened in other countries, where businesses became very involved, saying, “Once this has been set up, how do we also start being a part of creating services that allow people to do things more easily?” I expect that to be a major part of this. We already have business sectors beginning to think about how they can use this approach to provide better services, better link-up and better access. That private sector involvement will be important for the uses that people want. They are not mandatory uses but ones that make life easier for people.

[Baroness O’Grady of Upper Holloway (Lab)]

My Lords, I have just been at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, so it is reassuring to hear that there will be close co-ordination and co-operation on this issue. I also welcome the response on social exclusion and those issues, although, in my experience, increasingly low-paid workers need to have a mobile phone because that is the way you get the job and carry out the work. I have heard about the benefits to business of the mandatory requirement in respect of digital ID and the right to work, but I would be very grateful if my noble friend the Minister could say, in lay person’s language, what the benefit is to the average worker.

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The benefit to the average worker is that they are being employed by an honest company, in the right way, and they are not having their jobs taken by people who should not be working. This should be a very easy, quick thing to do. It should be very easy for the person wanting a job and for the company, and it will exclude people who do not have a right to work.

Artificial Intelligence: Regulation

Debate between Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway and Lord Vallance of Balham

Monday 10th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

That is precisely the point that I was trying to get to in the last few questions. There is regulation by the existing regulators, all of whom will need to deal with AI, and there is regulation which is covered in the Data (Use and Access) Bill, leaving frontier model control as the unregulated area. That is the area in which we seek to bring in some form of legislation in due course. We want to consult on it; it is a very complicated, fast-moving area, and an important one, and it is why the AI Safety Institute is such an important body in the UK.

[Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (Lab)]

My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that AI has the potential to be a liberating force for workers in terms of repetitive work and so on if workers have strong rights and the gains are shared fairly? Is he aware of the TUC manifesto on AI, and does he agree that workers should have the right to a human review when it comes to recruitment and indeed sackings?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I completely agree with my noble friend that the aim of AI should be to increase the opportunity for those things that humans can do, and that includes, of course, human-to-human interaction. It is a very important point to consider as this is rolled out, including across the NHS. On automated decision-making, we have been clear that there needs to be human involvement in terms of somebody who knows what they are doing having the opportunity to review a decision and to alter it if necessary.