Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the resilience of the UK's digital infrastructure following recent outages of online systems and communication services.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring the resilience of digital infrastructure. The Department reviews the most significant risks to the security and resilience of UK digital infrastructure and assesses their likelihood and impact through the National Security Risk Assessment. A summary of these risks is published in the National Risk Register.
Operators of UK digital infrastructure are legally required to take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure their networks are secure and resilient. Ofcom monitors compliance and enforces standards under the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 and the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they were aware that Anthropic downloaded over 7 million pirated books between 2021 and 2023 to train its Claude AI model when selecting Anthropic as the supplier for the GOV.UK chat service; and whether they conducted a risk assessment for the use of a model developed using unlawfully accessed copyright-protected works.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service recognises the importance of ethical, legal, and data protection considerations in the use of large language models.
A range of large language models from multiple suppliers have been considered in developing GOV.UK Chat. GOV.UK Chat is a product in active development that currently accesses Anthropic models through an existing agreement with Amazon Web Services, enabling the Government Digital Service to test a range of models from different suppliers. Risk assessments have been undertaken in accordance with government standards, including consideration of ethical, legal, and data protection risks relevant to the models tested.
GOV.UK Chat is being developed entirely within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants. The Government continues to engage with UK-based AI developers and remains open to collaboration where this supports innovation and the delivery of public services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain 2024, published on 23 October, what steps they are taking to meet their manifesto commitment to phase out animal experimentation.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Labour Manifesto commits to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal.
The government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods later this year which will outline the steps we will take to meet this manifesto commitment.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the environmental and sustainability impact, including energy demands, of the Anthropic Claude AI model used for the Gov.uk chat service.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service recognises the importance of environmental considerations in the use of AI and we are committed to using this technology responsibly. We are working in line with the AI Playbook for the UK Government, which highlights the importance of understanding and managing the environmental impact of AI systems.
Environmental considerations have been reviewed under the Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS), with negligible anticipated impact. EPPS principles have been considered, including resource efficiency and sustainability of digital infrastructure.
Model selection decisions are based on performance, security, data protection, cost, and alignment with government standards. Where possible, we use smaller and more efficient models to improve sustainability, including in our use of the Claude models within GOV.UK Chat.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of ethical and legal considerations regarding Anthropic's use of copyright-protected works in training its Claude AI model before awarding the contract for the GOV.UK chat service to the company.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service recognises the importance of ethical and legal considerations relating to the use of copyright-protected material in the training of large language models.
A range of large language models from multiple suppliers have been considered in developing GOV.UK Chat. Earlier iterations tested OpenAI’s ChatGPT models, while the current phase is evaluating Anthropic’s Claude models. Model selection decisions are based on performance, security, data protection, cost, and alignment with government standards.
GOV.UK Chat is being developed entirely within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants. The Government continues to engage with UK-based AI developers and remains open to collaboration where this supports innovation and the delivery of public services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what alternative suppliers they considered for the GOV.UK chat service before selecting Anthropic's Claude model; and what assessment they have made of contracting United Kingdom based AI developers for this project.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government Digital Service has considered a range of large language models from multiple suppliers in developing GOV.UK Chat. Earlier iterations tested OpenAI’s ChatGPT models, while the current phase is evaluating Anthropic’s Claude models. Model selection decisions are based on performance, security, data protection, cost, and alignment with government standards. GOV.UK Chat is being developed entirely within the Government Digital Service by a multidisciplinary team of civil servants. The Government continues to engage with UK-based AI developers and remains open to collaboration where this supports innovation and the delivery of public services.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support UK-based AI developers through government procurement processes, in the light of the establishment of the Sovereign AI unit.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Sovereign AI Unit was announced in the AI Opportunities Action Plan as a new initiative specifically designed to build homegrown capability in emerging areas of the AI ecosystem. Backed by £500 million at the Spending Review, the programme is focused on unlocking opportunities where targeted public intervention can support UK leadership, scale national champions, and secure long-term strategic advantage.
In relation to procurement specifically, the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence, established earlier this year following the publication of ‘A blueprint for modern digital government’ by DSIT, plays an important role in shaping best practice in relation to technology procurement policy.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of claims that universities are threatening legal action against the Alan Turing Institute over cancelled partnerships.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Alan Turing Institute is currently undertaking a consultation process which will aim to concentrate the institute’s activities on fewer projects in line with its Turing 2.0 strategy. The Alan Turing Institute is an independent legal entity, so these consultations, and any related changes, are being handled internally within the institute.
It is important that the Institute delivers value for money and maximum impact for taxpayers, and we will continue our work to support that ambition.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential closure of the Public Policy Progamme at the Alan Turing Institute, as suggested by the recent departure of both co-directors; and what assessment they have made of the impact of this potential closure on the Institute’s charitable mission.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
In 2024, the Quinquennial Review provided advice on how to strengthen successful delivery of the Turing 2.0 strategy and help shape its future direction in a rapidly changing artificial intelligence (AI) landscape.
Following this review, the Alan Turing Institute has launched a consultation process, which will aim to concentrate the institute’s activities on fewer projects in line with its strategy. The Alan Turing Institute is an independent organisation, and these consultations are being handled internally within the institute.
We note that the CEO of the Institute has recently announced her resignation. We will continue ensuring that the Institute delivers value for money to the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Alan Turing Institute's progress against the terms of its £100 million funding agreement, including delivery plans, annual reviews and current status of key performance indicators.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
While the Alan Turing Institute (ATI) has made progress with its recent reforms, further steps are needed to shift away from a broad portfolio of projects toward a more focused model.
In July, Secretary of State wrote to the ATI Board proposing a set of changes to the organisation that would shift its focus to national security, defence and sovereign capability. These reforms will build on the institute’s existing strengths and increase its capacity to deliver real value for the British public.
Government is working closely with UKRI and the ATI to deliver on SoS’ vision and remains committed to working with both organisations to drive progress at the cutting edge, support the government’s missions and attract international talent.