Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with individual academics and academic bodies on the potential benefits of distributed ledger technology for public services.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
In the report ‘Distributed Ledger Technology: beyond block chain’ (Jan 2016), Government Office for Science makes the case for how the technology has the potential to transform the delivery of public services. The report includes details of a range of academics consulted in its development.
Following publication of the report, and working alongside the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Sport, officials from BEIS, GO Science and from other Government departments have continued these wide ranging discussions. Officials have met with academics from a number of UK universities, including the Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research; the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies; the Department of Informatics at King's College London; and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
Asked by: Eddie Hughes (Conservative - Walsall North)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent discussions his Department has had with the UK Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology at the University of Birmingham about preparing land and mapping data for future developments in quantum technology.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
BEIS has had no recent discussions with the UK Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology about this issue. BEIS is providing £270 million for the UK National Quantum Technology programme – including support for this and three other research hubs. Quantum technologies is one of the areas highlighted in the Industrial Strategy where we plan to launch a Ministerial-led review.