Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to support the retention and re-employment of UK scientists alongside plans to recruit scientists from overseas.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to ensuring universities and research institutions remain internationally competitive, with long-term career sustainability. DSIT has allocated £38.6 billion to UKRI over four years, including £14 billion for curiosity-driven research. DSIT supports talent at all career stages to help researchers build and sustain careers here, with over £5 billion of investment to attract and retain talent over four years. This includes government funding to train doctoral and postdoctoral researchers and deliver globally prestigious fellowship and professorship schemes through UKRI and the National Academies. The UK’s new Global Talent Fund has already announced eight leading researchers as successful awardees.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the impact of pharmaceutical and medical device R&D site closures on the trends in the levels of UK’s scientific research capacity since 2010.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has made no formal assessment of the impact of pharmaceutical and medical device R&D site closures on trends in the UK’s scientific research capacity since 2010.
The Government does monitor the health of the UK life sciences sector, including R&D performed by UK businesses. Office for National Statistics data shows £9.3 billion of pharmaceutical R&D was performed by UK businesses in 2024, accounting for almost 17% of all R&D undertaken by UK businesses.
We are actively working with industry to boost the UK’s competitiveness and significantly grow the volume of private sector R&D and manufacturing in the UK over the next decade. For instance, the up to £520 million Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund and the pilot £50m Transformational R&D Investment Fund, which are supporting companies like UCB to invest in innovative early manufacturing in the UK.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the resilience of mobile communications infrastructure during prolonged power outages.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 21 January 2026 to Question UINs 104628, 104629, and 104630.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to request that Ofcom introduces new mandates for telecom resilience requirements, including adequate on-site, built-in resilience measures, particularly backup power via batteries at mobile phone masts and increasing the mandated minimum amount of backup power via batteries.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 21 January 2026 to Question UINs 104628, 104629, and 104630.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of current mechanisms for reporting and removing extremist content from major social media platforms.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users. Since March 2025, services must proactively scan for and remove illegal content such as terrorist material, or that which stirs up racial hatred. In July 2025, additional new child safety duties came into force, placing a legal duty on services to protect children from content that is harmful to them, including that which is hateful or abusive. Services must ensure their algorithms do not promote this content and enable users to easily report where it appears on regulated services.
The Act requires the Secretary of State to review and report to Parliament on the effectiveness of the regime 2-5 years after the Act is fully implemented.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking in response to reports that social media platform algorithms may promote harmful or extremist content to users.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users. Since March 2025, services must proactively scan for and remove illegal content such as terrorist material, or that which stirs up racial hatred. In July 2025, additional new child safety duties came into force, placing a legal duty on services to protect children from content that is harmful to them, including that which is hateful or abusive. Services must ensure their algorithms do not promote this content and enable users to easily report where it appears on regulated services.
The Act requires the Secretary of State to review and report to Parliament on the effectiveness of the regime 2-5 years after the Act is fully implemented.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of recent reports that social media platform algorithms may promote harmful or extremist content to users.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users. Since March 2025, services must proactively scan for and remove illegal content such as terrorist material, or that which stirs up racial hatred. In July 2025, additional new child safety duties came into force, placing a legal duty on services to protect children from content that is harmful to them, including that which is hateful or abusive. Services must ensure their algorithms do not promote this content and enable users to easily report where it appears on regulated services.
The Act requires the Secretary of State to review and report to Parliament on the effectiveness of the regime 2-5 years after the Act is fully implemented.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of recent reports that social media platform algorithms may promote harmful or extremist content to users.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
Social media companies must keep people safe on their platforms and holding them accountable is a departmental priority. Under the Online Safety Act, services must tackle illegal content, including terrorist content and that which stirs up hatred based on religion or race, or incites violence. They must also protect children from additional forms of legal content, including that which is hateful or abusive.
The Act is clear that services should take steps to ensure their algorithms do not promote these kinds of content. Ofcom also has robust information gathering and enforcement powers to ensure that services operate their algorithms safely.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2025 to Question 76225 on Mobile Phones: Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of the number of not-spot areas in (a) Inverness, Skye, and West Ross-shire constituency with (b) the rest of the UK.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The regulator, Ofcom, publishes data that allows for this comparison to be drawn. In Ofcom’s Connected Nations Spring Update, published on 8 May 2025, it is reported that approximately 24% of the constituency of Inverness, Skye and West Ross-Shire has no 4G geographic coverage from any mobile network operator (MNO). This compares to approximately 4% of the UK landmass not having any 4G geographic coverage from any MNO. Similarly, while around 20% of premises in the constituency lack 5G coverage outside from any MNO, approximately 4% of UK premises lack 5G coverage outside from any MNO.
A further update to this data is expected to be published later this year, providing the latest mobile network coverage data, including at a national and Westminster Constituency level.
Asked by: Angus MacDonald (Liberal Democrat - Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure that rural households are offered appropriate mitigation measures before being switched from analogue to digital telephone services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to ensuring that any risks arising from the industry-led migration of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for all customers across the UK.
The Government has published guidance for communication providers on providing vulnerable customers with supported journeys where necessary. This includes customers who are landline dependent, perhaps due to living in rural locations with less mobile connectivity. Communication providers have committed in the Non-Voluntary Migrations Checklist that these customers will be provided with a battery back-up unit for use in case of a power cut.