Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications for employers and workers of the removal of the mandatory element from their plans for digital identification.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The national digital ID will not be mandatory for individuals to obtain. However, digital right to work checks will be mandatory by the end of the Parliament
Currently, for British and Irish citizens, many right to work checks are paper based. This is vulnerable to fraud and does not create a clear record of when and where checks have been carried out
The digital ID will provide a modern, secure and trusted way for people to prove who they are and access services across the public and private sectors
We will issue the new digital ID, for free, to everybody who wants one and has the right to be in the UK, including the around 10% of UK citizens without traditional forms of ID
We will be consulting imminently - in a range of ways – to ensure the introduction of Digital ID is as effective and inclusive as possible.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that any use of live facial recognition cameras by law enforcement bodies is subject to clear safeguards to protect privacy and human rights.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
When deploying facial recognition technology, police forces must comply with existing legislation including the Human Rights Act 1998, Equality Act 2010, Data Protection Act 2018, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, as well as their own published policies. For live facial recognition, police forces must also follow the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on Live Facial Recognition. Forces must also give due regard to the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice, which is supplemented by published policing policies.
On 4 December the Government launched a 10 week public consultation on law enforcement use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies. We are consulting on a new legal framework to create consistent, durable rules and appropriate safeguards for biometrics and facial recognition. This framework will aim to strike the right balance between public protection and privacy. The consultation will close week commencing 9 Feb 2026.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to exemptions to the proposed ban on ransomware payments for operators of critical national infrastructure.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Protecting the UK from cyber threats is a top priority for this Government. Ransomware measures are being considered as part of a wider all-of-Government approach to reduce cyber threats, alongside the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill by DSIT.
It is long-standing Government advice, and that of the National Cyber Security Centre, to not pay ransoms as there is no guarantee of a return to business-as-usual provision. .
We have consulted on this, and as published in the Government response to ransomware legislative proposals: reducing payments to cyber criminals and increasing incident reporting (accessible) - GOV.UK, there was split feedback regarding whether a targeted ban should have an exceptions(/exemptions) process. 43% of respondents agreed, 40% disagreed, 17% didn’t know. Qualitative responses cited national security and public safety as reasons for the need.
As with all feedback provided in the consultation response, the Government is considering the most appropriate and proportionate course of action and developing the policy in collaboration with industry and the relevant Government departments. No final decision has yet been made, and the Government is looking very carefully at all options.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the remarks concerning the potential risks of autonomous AI made by the Director-General of MI5 on 16 October, and what steps they are taking to mitigate autonomous AI threats to national security.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
As MI5’s Director General has noted, AI strengthens the UK’s national security capabilities, but its misuse or loss of control poses serious risks. The UK Government is actively addressing these concerns.
The Home Office collaborates with the UK intelligence community and technical partners like the AI Safety Institute and Alan Turing Institute to assess threats and shape policy. This includes ensuring AI systems align with human values and operator intent to reduce misalignment risks.
Through the National Security Strategy 2025 and UK AI Opportunities Action Plan, the UK is investing in sovereign, high-assurance AI for defence and critical infrastructure, developing cybersecurity standards, and evaluating advanced AI models to detect harmful capabilities—ensuring AI is deployed safely and in line with national interests.
In September 2025, the UK also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US under the Technology Prosperity Deal, strengthening collaboration on AI and national security to mitigate future risks. Subsequently, the UK has committed to greater collaboration between the US Centre for AI Standards and Innovation and the UK AI Security Institute, and secured multi-billion-pound US tech investments in UK AI infrastructure and Growth Zones to deliver new AI infrastructure in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the proposal to increase the minimum required period to apply for indefinite leave to remain from three to five years, what steps they are taking to ensure that the UK remains globally competitive in attracting tech talent.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Immigration White Paper, published on 12 May 2025, set out that the standard qualifying period for settlement would increase to ten years, although individuals would have the opportunity to reduce this qualifying period based on contributions to the UK economy and society. We will launch a consultation on these changes later this year.
Individuals working within tech can access a number of routes, including the UK’s main work visa Skilled Worker for the majority of individuals, and via the Global Talent route for leaders and future leaders in key fields; those at an early career stage who have the potential to benefit the UK economy can apply through the High Potential Individual route; and those setting up the next generation of tech companies can access both the Innovator Founder and Scale-up routes.
The Immigration White Paper noted that we will go further in ensuring that the very highly skilled have opportunities to come to the UK by, amongst other measures, reviewing our Innovator Founder visa to ensure that it supports entrepreneurial talent currently studying at UK universities to move into the visa so that they can build their business and career in the UK, and streamlining the process for employers and skilled workers to get visas, reducing bureaucracy and supporting growth.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to invest in law enforcement and intelligence agencies to help defend against increasing cyberattacks.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling cyber crime and improving the UK’s cyber resilience is fundamental to our national security and prosperity.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Programme has boosted investment and expanded training to improve the law enforcement response to cyber attacks. We provide law enforcement with the necessary cyber skills and training at the national, regional, and local levels to ensure they have the capacity and expertise to deal with the perpetrators and victims of cyber crime. The National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), part of the National Crime Agency, continues to bring together law enforcement experts into a single elite unit and, together with the network of Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs), provides access to specialist capabilities at a regional level.
We do not comment on United Kingdom intelligence community spending, but their work is a crucial part of our wider cyber resilience capacity.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the use of artificial intelligence in road cameras will make roads safer; and whether they plan to encourage its use.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions on enforcement cameras, including artificial intelligence cameras, used to enforce road traffic legislation is an operational matter for Police and Crime Commissioners in conjunction with Chief Constables and local policing plans.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of investigatory powers to access encrypted data on an individual's freedom and privacy.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK has a longstanding position of protecting people’s privacy while ensuring action can be taken against child abusers and terrorists.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of asylum seeker hotels; and whether there is a need to review the funding behind the scheme.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government inherited an asylum system under exceptional strain, with tens of thousands of people stuck in limbo without any prospect of having their claims processed. At their peak use under the previous government, in the autumn of 2023, more than 400 asylum hotels were being leased by the Home Office, at a cost of almost £9 million a day.
We took immediate action to resolve that exceptional strain by restarting asylum processing, establishing the new Border Security Command to tackle the people-smuggling gangs, cracking down on illegal working across the country, and increasing the return and removal of people with no right to be here. Inevitably, due to the size of the backlog we inherited, the Home Office has been forced to continue with the use of hotels for the time being.
It remains our absolute commitment to end the use of hotels over time, as part of our reduction in overall asylum accommodation costs. In the interim, we are also continuing to increase our operational activity against smuggling gangs and illegal working, and we have increased returns to their highest level since 2018, with almost 17,00 people removed between 5 July and 31 January 2025.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of artificial intelligence technology in assisting the police, particularly regarding knife crime.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
AI, and other technologies, can provide a wide range of benefits such as efficiency and increased productivity as well as improving public confidence in policing through improving the prevention, detection and investigation of crime.
The Home Office is investing in AI across a number of areas which will benefit the response to all crime types, including automating back-office tasks like redaction to free officers up to be on the frontline.
We have also supported a number of bespoke investments in AI to help fight knife crime including knife recognition AI tools, and tools which facilitate mark retrieval from knives creating a semi-automated method for examining a knife’s surface that can be operated by non-specialists. This is being done, in part, alongside the Office of Police Chief Scientific Advisor, and will speed up investigations.
It is also important that any adoption of AI is done so responsibly, and the Home Office has provided funding to support the National Police Chiefs Council AI Portfolio to drive consistency and create guidance for forces to develop and deploy AI tools.
The Home Office has commissioned research into public attitudes towards police use of AI which is underway. The results will contribute to policy development considerations for police use of AI.