Employment: Artificial Intelligence

Lord Hintze Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Hintze (Con)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, it is the turn of the Cross Benches, then the Conservative Benches.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Baroness raises an important point. The development of technology and what can be augmented leaves the human aspect very much to the fore, which can include issues around discernment and judgment. The Government have a number of courses and training opportunities—for example, to support businesses in management. I know that the Office for Students is looking carefully at what all this means for higher education, for example, and the Department for Education has provided a range of advice to schools about this. The noble Baroness’s point is well made and is something that the future of work unit will look at, among its other considerations.

[Lord Hintze (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister has been very clear on how much it will cost. But it is not clear to me, and not for the first time, how effective the Government’s money—taxpayers’ money—will be when it is spent in this way.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

Some of the programmes that I have mentioned, including the TechFirst programme, have been running for some time. TechFirst has been successfully run and we learn from what is effective. We work carefully with partners to deliver these programmes. They are seeing good outcomes in the alumni who then go into the industry.

Horizon Europe

Lord Hintze Excerpts

Wednesday 13th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his remarks overall concerning the Horizon programme. The reason the Government chose not to join Euratom and did not include it in our overall deal here was that the fusion nuclear sector very strongly advised us not to do so. That frees up approximately £650 million, which will be distributed in ways to be announced. I am afraid I do not have a date for that—these events have been very recent—but it will be announced as soon as practicably possible.

[Lord Hintze (Con)]

My Lords, let me first draw attention to my entry in the register of interests and congratulate the Government on a very effective way of putting ourselves back in play here. I also congratulate the noble Viscount, Lord Stansgate, on his tenacity. How does this fit with the AUKUS initiative on innovation and technology?

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for his comments but his specific question with respect to AUKUS has rather stumped me, so I will have to write to him.

Advanced Research and Innovation Agency

Lord Hintze Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his vote of confidence. It is a new kind of organisation that will invest with a high-risk appetite to shoot for outcomes that are bold, substantive and deeply impactful.

[Lord Hintze (Con)]

My Lords, I draw attention to my philanthropic interests in this area. Specifically, what I would like to ask the Minister is again to echo the points on timing and the amount of effect we will have through this effort.

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

Indeed. As far as the timing goes, ARIA was legally established on 25 January. The focus has been on recruiting the right people. It is a small organisation, designed to be lean and agile. That means it is absolutely dependent on the quality of the small team it has working for it. That is the focus for now. We look forward to the first announcements of programme directors. I hope that will be in the autumn.