Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure AI tools are safe by design to prevent the creation of child sexual abuse material.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department will take to prevent further withdrawal of planned AI investment from the UK, in the context of OpenAI’s decision to pause its Stargate UK project.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Decisions on investment are a matter for private companies. The Government has been clear that it will encourage and support investments that will enable UK firms and people to benefit. Many of the large-scale AI infrastructure projects in the UK have been publicly announced, with most of these having press releases available on Gov.uk. The Government continues to engage across the board on these investments to ensure that they deliver the best outcomes for the UK.
Our focus is on continuing to create the right conditions for investment in the UK’s AI data centre infrastructure. We are continuing to work with OpenAI and other leading AI companies to strengthen UK compute capacity.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to WPQ 126560, whether Nscale will still be investing in the North East AI growth zone.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government continues to work closely with the Combined Authority and commercial partners regarding the delivery of the North East AI Growth Zone. Discussions with individual companies are commercially sensitive, and we will provide further updates in due course.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to encourage (a) UK and (b) international technology firms to invest in AI and digital innovation clusters in the North East of England.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to driving regional growth by attracting AI and digital investment across the UK, including in the North East of England. The North East AI Growth Zone will provide secure, dedicated compute infrastructure, supporting innovation and productivity and helping to unlock significant long‑term economic growth. The Zone has already attracted substantial private investment, including £10 billion from Blackstone.
Alongside this, we are investing up to £500 million through the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund to grow high‑potential innovation clusters in 17 regions across the UK. This includes £30 million for the North East, empowering local leaders to target R&D investment, attract private funding and create jobs.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the decision by OpenAI to pause its Stargate UK investment on the AI Growth Zone in the North East of England, and what action her Department is taking to maintain confidence among international investors in the region.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Since the announcement of the North East AI Growth Zone, there has been no change to energy pricing or the regulatory environment in the UK. We engage regularly with developers and other stakeholders for the North East AI Growth Zone and are encouraged that Cobalt Park are in discussions with a number of alternative offtake customers. The success of the AI Growth Zones programme is not contingent on any single investor. Five AIGZs have been designated with the potential to deliver £28 billion of investment from a diverse range of developers.
The Government is delivering an ambitious policy package to support build-out of AI infrastructure in the UK. DSIT will set up a dedicated AI Growth Zone Delivery Unit providing a single point of contact for investors, accelerated planning and grid connection support, long-term business rates retention for host local authorities, and targeted energy pricing support.
We are continuing to create the right conditions for investment in the UK’s AI and data centre infrastructure work with leading AI companies to strengthen UK compute capacity.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what role science diplomacy plays in the Government’s strategy for achieving UK technology sovereignty; and whether the UK intends to pursue shared leadership arrangements with international partners where appropriate.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Science diplomacy plays an important role in building UK technology sovereignty through international partnerships with partners which strengthen our shared capabilities, resilience and security.
Our Science & Technology Network, covering 65 locations, is a core pillar of the UK’s science diplomacy toolkit, which aims to develop and strengthen our partnership with international partners.
We have science and technology partnerships with a broad range of countries including the US and EU, Japan, India, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Germany. We are also active members of multilateral fora including OECD, G7 and G20. These partnerships are part of helping us ensure sovereign strengths and strengths through stable collaboration.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 potential impact of science diplomacy in achieving UK technology sovereignty; and whether her Department intends to pursue shared leadership arrangements with international partners where appropriate.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Science diplomacy supports UK technology sovereignty by building international partnerships which strengthen our capabilities, resilience and security. This is underpinned by our Science & Technology Network covering 65 locations which strengthens UK growth, security and global influence.
DSIT regularly assesses the impacts of our international collaboration on our science and technology capability. For example, internationally coauthored UK papers consistently outperform UK only research on citation impact.
We have partnerships with a broad range of countries including the US and EU, Japan, India, South Korea, Switzerland, France and Germany. We are also active members of multilateral fora including OECD, G7 and G20.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the exclusion of UK tech companies from the EU Cloud and AI Development Act.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The PM has been clear that UK-European collaboration in science and technology is extremely important to the UK. We are engaging with European Commission to understand the development of the proposed EU Cloud and AI Development Act and assess its impact on the UK. We will utilise opportunities such as the upcoming UK‑EU Summit to discuss any issues we foresee with the EU Cloud and AI Development Act.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has considered which aspects of (a) AI, (b) quantum, (c) space and (d) bioengineering the UK will seek to lead in.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government made a series of long-term commitments to developing UK leadership on AI, quantum, space and engineering biology through the Industrial Strategy and the AI Opportunities Action Plan.
We have established the £500m Sovereign AI Fund to support UK AI companies at key parts of the AI value chain. Focus areas will continuously evolve but could include compute, novel model architecture, AI for science and AI safety and assurance.
We recently announced the £1 billion commitment to procure a first-of-its-kind, large-scale quantum computer and announced on 4 March that DSIT will prioritise four space subsectors for development - Satellite Communications, Assured Access to Space, In Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing, and Space Domain Awareness.
We are investing £644m into supporting the ecosystem for Engineering Biology including R&D, infrastructure and regulatory reform, to realise the potential of engineering biology across multiple applications.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has held discussions with (a) Microsoft, (b) Amazon Web Services and (c) Palantir regarding the potential implications of the (1) US Cloud Act, (2) Patriot Act and (3) entity‑list controls for UK data sovereignty and access to cloud services.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Secretary of State has not held specific discussions with these companies on these matters.
The Government takes a balanced approach to cloud services, ensuring public sector systems are secure, resilient, and effective, while benefiting from global innovation. This is underpinned by data protection law, UK security standards, and established commercial rules.
Supplier risks are managed through established security and resilience processes, with procurement decisions based on value for money, security, and the effective delivery of public services, including for critical infrastructure.