Digital and Technology Policy: National Sovereignty

Baroness Verma Excerpts

Thursday 23rd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma (Con)]

My Lords, I refer to my membership of a number of APPGs on digital inclusion. I also congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, on securing this debate today. Like her, I am not against technology, AI or any of the platforms that exist. However, I worry about the numbers of people who remain excluded from being able to utilise it for their own knowledge and protection. That is why I wanted to speak in this debate.

A few days ago, I was watching a television programme about two types of intelligence: artificial intelligence and latent or civilizational intelligence, which we as human beings have had over centuries in our capacity to learn, to retain and to pass on. It made me think about this debate today. While we can talk about the wider implications of a few companies having such an impact on us in the UK and more widely, it made me think about it being a new form of colonisation across the world, one in which there is very little power in the hands of leaders who do not have access to the complex technologies that exist in only a very few countries on the planet. While we are very keen to cut down the time it takes to get answers, it also removes the ability for a large majority of people to be part of a debate in which they can fully question what is happening to them.

The role of government and Houses such as this is to scrutinise what we are going to deliver and lay out for the majority of the population of the country we serve. I felt quite helpless when I thought about the large part of our country that still has very little access to even basic technology—let alone trying to understand the complexities of artificial intelligence—all the companies that are going to utilise their platforms and our data, and the defence mechanisms that we hold individually but lose because suddenly we have abdicated our power to someone else.

If I step back a little and look at the wider context of why we are having this debate on policy for the digital and technological world, one of the things we should be mindful of is that while a small number of countries are in a mass race to be the most powerful, a large part of the planet remains in the slow lane. I call it colonisation because I could not think of another word for it, but I want us to look at history and what happens when power falls into the hands of the few. The majority’s ability to challenge that without the tools, knowledge or platform to voice their concerns suddenly becomes a difficult issue for me as a public servant in your Lordships’ House.

When I was listening to the opening remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, I was trying to think of where I can navigate some of my fears about what is unfolding rapidly in front of us. While this technology fast lane has been going for some time, our resilience to stop and challenge it has developed very slowly. As I said up front, I have no problem with utilising technology, but I do not want technology to utilise me, and I have feeling that that is the path we are going down. It is frightening, because I work with communities that are so behind the curve on access to even the basics. Can the Minister say how we will secure our sovereignty when our duty is not only to the more than 60 million people in this country but to our place on the global platform? I do not think we have been vocal enough about making sure that, when we disagree with some of the actions taken on our behalf and of the many billions on the planet, we do not remove ourselves from the position of power we have always held, which is the convening power of being a voice for the majority.