Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, how many unique individuals have completed at least one course through the AI Skills Hub; how many courses have been completed in total; and what is the definition of completion.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The AI Skills Boost programme is delivered through the AI Skills Hub and 32 industry and public sector partners. As of the end of July 2026, more than 2.2 million AI training courses had been completed. This is defined as the successful completion of a training course, workshop or equivalent learning activity aligned to the Skills England AI Foundations for Work Benchmark.
As learners may complete courses across multiple providers, and data protection requirements prevent cross-tracking of individuals, the Department cannot provide a verified figure for the number of unique individuals who have completed a course.
The Department is working with industry partners and developing approaches to better estimate the number of workers benefiting from the programme.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil servants use two factor authentication on a) official government devices and b) personal communication devices used to engage with Government business.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
At the Cabinet Office, all Civil Servants must use an approved MFA mechanism to access systems on an official government device. Personal communication devices used to engage with Government business are not managed by the Cabinet Office and as such we do not hold any data relating to them.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the timetable is for compiling a cryptographic inventory of central government systems; and whether a summary of that inventory will be published.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the importance of understanding the cryptographic assets that support central government systems as part of preparations for migration to post-quantum cryptography. Guidance is being developed to support departments in identifying and documenting their cryptographic assets. The timetable will follow the National Cyber Security Centre’s guidelines be embedded in a shared strategic migration approach. The Government will decide what information to publish once timetables and security considerations are clear.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of potential levels of the exposure of NHS systems holding patient data to the harvest-now-decrypt-later risk; and what the confidentiality lifetime of that data is assumed to be.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and NHS England have established processes for assessing, identifying, and mitigating emerging threats, and use mechanisms such as the Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT) to ensure that standards are being met by health and care organisations.
Since September 2024, the Cyber Assessment Framework has been integrated into the DSPT for large National Health Service organisations, helping them identify, manage, and reduce cyber and information governance risks while protecting patient data and services, for example adopting the National Cyber Security Centre's timeline to support the transition of the health and care sectors to quantum resistant cryptographic protections.
The long-term sensitivity of patient information and the ongoing duty of confidentiality after death requires health records to be protected throughout their entire lifecycle.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether any BIST Civil Service staff assisting the Minister for AI have been appointed without open competition, through Civil Service recruitment principle exceptions.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
None of the staff assisting the Minister for AI have been appointed into the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade through Civil Service recruitment principle exceptions, without open competition.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what the evidential basis is for the statement in the AI Opportunities Action Plan that AI adoption could add £400 billion to the economy by 2030; and if he will publish the underlying analysis.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The £400 billion figure was drawn from a publicly available 2023 report commissioned by Google and produced by Public First, which estimated that generative AI tools could create over £400 billion in value for the UK economy by 2030. The underlying analysis is already publicly available. The Government has since made a more recent assessment. AI adoption and data investment could add 0.4 to 1.3 percentage points to the UK’s productivity growth. These estimates are hugely uncertain, but this would be the equivalent of adding £55-140 billion to UK GVA in 2030. The central adoption estimate is £120 billion.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether he intends to (a) statically or (b) dynamically align with the EU AI Act.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which Minister is responsible for the migration of government systems to post-quantum cryptography.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The responsibility for Government cyber security was moved to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in July 2026. Within DCMS and under Baroness Lloyd of Efra, Minister for Cyber, Space and Regulatory Reform the Government Cyber Unit is developing a suite of guidance to support departments in planning migration to post-quantum cryptography. The Government Cyber Unit will be monitoring departmental progress.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what the division of responsibilities is between the Alan Turing Institute's defence and security centres, the AI Security Institute and the Laboratory for AI Security Research; and what steps are being taken to avoid duplication.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
In the context of recommendation 30, our ‘AI Landscape’ refers to the diverse ecosystem of publicly funded organisations that deliver research and expertise on AI. The Centre for AI Measurement focusses on the technical and scientific foundations of AI assurance to enable responsible AI adoption and drive growth. The AI Security Institute exists to build a scientific understanding of the risks posed by the most advanced AI systems and develop technical mitigations against them. The Regulatory Innovation Office has funded regulator-led projects to strengthen our capability to regulate and use AI and launched a sandbox with the MHRA to address regulatory barriers to innovation. Whilst the Ada Lovelace Institute is an important voice, it is an independent organisation and has not received significant government funding.
The Alan Turing Institute is currently undertaking a strategic shift to focus its efforts on strengthening the UK’s national resilience. Government supports that transition and has been working closely with UKRI and the Turing to ensure the Institute plays a unique and impactful role in our AI ecosystem. Within that role, the Turing is already an active partner in the Laboratory for AI Security Research.
Asked by: Ben Spencer (Conservative - Runnymede and Weybridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, which bodies constitute the UK's AI institutional landscape for the purposes of recommendation 30 of the AI Opportunities Action Plan; and whether he has reviewed overlaps between the AI Security Institute, the Alan Turing Institute, the Regulatory Innovation Office, the Centre for AI Measurement and the Ada Lovelace Institute.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
In the context of recommendation 30, our ‘AI Landscape’ refers to the diverse ecosystem of publicly funded organisations that deliver research and expertise on AI. The Centre for AI Measurement focusses on the technical and scientific foundations of AI assurance to enable responsible AI adoption and drive growth. The AI Security Institute exists to build a scientific understanding of the risks posed by the most advanced AI systems and develop technical mitigations against them. The Regulatory Innovation Office has funded regulator-led projects to strengthen our capability to regulate and use AI and launched a sandbox with the MHRA to address regulatory barriers to innovation. Whilst the Ada Lovelace Institute is an important voice, it is an independent organisation and has not received significant government funding.
The Alan Turing Institute is currently undertaking a strategic shift to focus its efforts on strengthening the UK’s national resilience. Government supports that transition and has been working closely with UKRI and the Turing to ensure the Institute plays a unique and impactful role in our AI ecosystem. Within that role, the Turing is already an active partner in the Laboratory for AI Security Research.