Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government why His Majesty's Revenue and Customs has not published the business case and data protection impact assessments relating to projects 341 and 476 under the debt and fraud information sharing provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2017.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC has met the Digital Economy Act (2017) Statutory Code of Practice transparency requirement by recording information on data sharing between the two departments (Home Office and HMRC) on the Register of Information sharing agreements under Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017.

HMRC’s Privacy Notice makes clear that it collects information from other Government Departments to fulfil its functions, which include administration of the Child Benefit system.

Publication of the Business Case and Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for the data sharing are not requirements under the statutory code of practice. HMRC’s general policy is not to publish Business Cases or DPIAs because details they contain may jeopardise the outcomes sought when tackling fraud.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to strengthen sovereign capacity in cloud services and cyber resilience.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

DSIT is supporting industry in building more data centres in the UK (including via AI Growth Zones), which helps enable cloud providers in the UK to expand. We are working with other government departments to speed up planning permission and grid connection timings to support this.

The Government believes complex issues such as the security of data and digital governance are best addressed through transparent, inclusive multistakeholder engagement. We remain committed to working with international partners within recognised global mechanisms to promote shared understanding and responsible international behaviours, while ensuring support for UK-based data-driven businesses to innovate and grow.

Cyber security is a key part of the Industrial Strategy. DSIT supports the development of sovereign capability in the £13.2 billion UK cyber security sector through its accelerator programmes, including CyberASAP, which commercialises cyber security research, and Cyber Runway, which supports entrepreneurs and companies. Our £187 million TechFirst programme will improve digital skills across the country, including cyber security skills. We are investing significantly in the National Cyber Security Centre, the Government’s technical authority on cyber security, which continues to work to strengthen UK cyber resilience. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will further strengthen UK cyber defences and boost protections for our essential and digital services, including cloud computing.

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.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase awareness among local and regional authorities of the economic and social benefits of hosting data centre infrastructure.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

This government has engaged with local authorities to increase awareness of the local benefits of data centres. Through the AI Growth Zones programme, we are ensuring the selected sites deliver for working people, by providing £5 million in support for each AI Growth Zone for local AI adoption and skills. To deliver even broader local benefits to communities, local authorities in England will retain 100% of business rate growth in AI Growth Zones for the next twenty-five years. A central AI planning team backed by £4.5 million will also support local councils across the UK with expert planning advice.

The designation of the sector as Critical National Infrastructure last year was a recognition that the sector occupied a similar level of national importance as water, energy, and emergency services. We are actively looking into how we secure the best deal possible for local communities, ensuring they benefit from ongoing direct employment and this Government encourages operators to seek opportunities for the reuse of waste heat, to invest in local technical skills, improvements to local broadband and other beneficial initiatives.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total cost to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) of the Data and Analytics Research Environments UK research programme; how much if any in additional funds that programme has received from non-UKRI sources; and how much of those funds were finally spent, and by which UK universities or organisations, at the end of the institutional funding chain.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Data and Analytics Research Environments UK (DARE UK) programme is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and co-delivered by Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) and Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) who jointly oversee programme delivery.

The Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UKRI, has provided £24.4m since 2021 to the DARE UK research programme. This was allocated from the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure (DRIC) fund. Funding has been awarded to a range of projects led by over 28 research organisations.

Details of recipient organisations are available at GtR.ukri.org.

A list of the DARE UK Early Adopters (projects supporting the testing and integration of capabilities in UK Trusted Research Environments) awarded by the DARE UK team are available at dareuk.org.uk.

Final spend figures for on-going projects will be confirmed in due course via DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) – HDR UK.

Found: I am copying this letter to Lord Davies of Gower and Lord Clement-Jones and placing a copy in the library