Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to support industrial competitiveness and manage price pressures.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Through our modern Industrial Strategy we are making it easier and simpler for companies to do business, giving them the stability to make long-term investments. We are proactively dealing with the challenges businesses face, expanding access to finance, supporting skills and access to talent, and transitioning to cheaper energy through our clean power mission.
We are reducing the administrative costs of regulation on businesses by 25% this Parliament, and we have already identified £1.5bn of administrative burden savings. To crowd in the private investment crucial for firms starting and scaling, we are providing the British Business Bank with £4bn additional capital to support investment into the Industrial Strategy’s eight growth-driving sectors. The new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme (BICS) aims to reduce electricity costs by c.£35/MWh for over 7,000 manufacturing businesses, bringing prices closer to those in other major European economies. The consultation on BICS closed on 19 January and the Government will confirm details of scheme design and eligibility in due course, ahead of an April 2027 launch date.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support digital skills and technology investment to enable productivity improvements from AI.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Secretary of State vowed this week to make Britain the fastest adopting AI country in the G7 and build a workforce that excels in developing, adopting and benefiting from AI.
We have committed £27m for the Government’s TechLocal scheme to connect at least 1,000 skilled people to tech jobs in local communities, create new academic courses integrating practical AI skills, and graduate traineeships and work experience.
Alongside this, thirteen additional private and public sector partners have signed on to join the AI Skills Boost, committing to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030, with over 1 million AI upskilling courses having been delivered since last summer. We are also expanding Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme which will provide targeted support to businesses across the Industrial Strategy sectors, including through funding for tech investment.
These initiatives ensure we are facilitating the diffusion of AI across the whole of the UK by addressing the barriers to adoption faced by businesses and workers.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to protect jobseekers' personal data from being harvested by AI-led interview tools.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK’s data protection legislation applies to any processing of personal data regardless of the technology being used. As such, organisations that process personal data through the deployment of AI interview tools are required to ensure that the data is processed fairly, lawfully and transparently. Personal data should also be kept secure, its accuracy should be maintained, and it should not be processed for longer than is necessary.
Where individuals have been subject to decisions based solely on automated processing with legal or significant effects on them, including AI-driven decisions in recruitment processes, the legislation also requires organisations to provide the individual with information about the decision that has been taken, and the right for them to contest that decision and to obtain human intervention for it if they believe the decision is incorrect or unfair.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for monitoring and enforcing data protection laws and has published a range of guidance on how these laws apply to AI systems that process personal data: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/artificial-intelligence/. The ICO also has the power to investigate and impose penalties for non-compliance.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to balance AI innovation with copyright protection for UK creators when reviewing copyright rules.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Our copyright regime must deliver for British people and businesses. This means helping creative industries to thrive while unlocking the extraordinary potential of AI.
We have consulted on a set of options and continue to seek views on how best to meet our objectives on AI and copyright from stakeholders and experts, including through the technical working groups and Parliamentary working groups.
The Government will publish a report on copyright and artificial intelligence by 18 March. This report will set out the evidence and views we have gathered and our next steps.
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 HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to work with financial regulators to develop the use of AI-specific stress testing in financial services.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government’s ambition is to make the UK a global leader in AI, leveraging our dual strength in financial services and AI to drive growth, productivity, and consumer benefits. Encouraging safe adoption is an essential part of realising that ambition.
HM Treasury works closely with the UK financial regulators to monitor evolving risks from new technologies, and ensure that the opportunities AI presents can be realised in a safe and responsible way.
Stress testing is a key tool the Bank use to ensure the financial system is sufficiently resilient to a wide range of potential scenarios. The Bank intends to consider the macroeconomic and core financial market consequences of AI adoption under various scenarios. This will enable it to form a view on the range of outcomes that need to be encompassed by future stress tests, in order to capture the potential severe but plausible risks associated with the range of potential AI outcomes.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of UK financial oversight arrangements in the context of the rapid adoption of AI tools by banks and insurers; and what are the implications for consumer protection and financial stability.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government’s ambition is to make the UK a global leader in AI, leveraging our dual strength in financial services and AI to drive growth, productivity, and consumer benefits. Encouraging safe adoption is an essential part of realising that ambition.
HM Treasury works closely with the UK financial regulators to monitor evolving risks from new technologies, and ensure that the opportunities AI presents can be realised in a safe and responsible way.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what impact the increase in foreign direct investment in the UK has on their policy for artificial intelligence innovation, if any.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government welcomes the increase of foreign direct investment into the UK economy. In 2024, the UK AI sector received £15bn worth of FDI across 51 different investment deals, creating over 6,500 jobs. This ensures the sector continues to grow and maintains its place as the largest AI sector in Europe and the third largest in the world.
In the AI Opportunities Action Plan, this Government set out its ambitions to make the UK an AI-maker. We are backing British businesses through our £500 million Sovereign AI Fund and acting as first customers to promising British chip companies in our Advanced Market Commitment. Foreign investment is helping us scale our ambitions, building out large-scale infrastructure as AI Growth Zones, but this has not altered our policy to make the UK a global leader in the development of AI.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the safe, transparent and accountable use of AI in public services under the partnership with Google DeepMind, in particular with regard to (1) the proposed automated materials science laboratory, and (2) collaboration with the AI Security Institute.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Google DeepMind will deepen its work with the UK AI Security Institute (AISI) through enhanced technical information exchange on frontier AI capabilities and their real-world impacts, including indicators of accelerating AI progress, and emerging security risks.
The partnership will advance joint research on AI safety, security and societal resilience, with Google DeepMind providing AISI with priority technical access to its frontier models. Google DeepMind will also collaborate with the UK government to explore AI-enhanced approaches to national cyber resilience, including initiatives to identify and remediate threats at scale.
The automated lab announced alongside the partnership is an independent Google DeepMind initiative and the UK Government is not involved in operation of the lab.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of AI forecasting tools by NHS trusts to manage demand for and waiting times in accident and emergency; and how the use of that AI is informing wider NHS digital transformation policy.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan was published on 3 July 2025 and sets out how the Government will ensure the National Health Service is fit for the future, and that artificial intelligence (AI) will play a fundamental role in this transformation. As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, the Government is supporting the use of AI-enabled appointment and scheduling tools to reduce the administrative burden on clinicians, with early trials showing an increase in productivity and clinician time saved.
An accident and emergency demand forecasting tool is now available to all NHS trusts and is already in use by 50 NHS organisations, helping them plan how many people are likely to need emergency care and treatment on any given day. While this tool does not schedule appointments specifically, it uses AI to predict emergency care demand, enabling trusts to plan staffing and resources more effectively and reduce pressure on services.
The tool forms part of a wider set of Government‑supported innovations in operational AI, which include technologies to streamline scheduling, automate administrative tasks, and enhance clinical workflows. These collectively aim to free up staff time, improve care quality, and reduce waiting times across the system.