Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 55786 on Public Sector: Digital Technology, whether his Department’s digital transformation strategy will include the (a) financial impact of software assets on departmental budgets and (b) impact of identified dependencies on those assets on cost efficiencies.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The State of Digital Government review, A blueprint for modern digital government and the Performance Review of Digital Spend, all published this year, have highlighted the need to reform digital purchasing.
The Government has launched a Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence, containing experts from the Digital and Commercial Functions, within the Government Digital Service (GDS) in my department. It is pursuing multiple strategies to improve value for money and outcomes including central buying of commodity services, development of a digital sourcing strategy, creation of technical enablers and joined-up management of strategic digital suppliers.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 55785 on Public Sector: Digital Technology, what discussions his Department has had with the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence on the impact of software licensing for Government software procurement on the digital transformation strategy.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The State of Digital Government review, A blueprint for modern digital government and the Performance Review of Digital Spend, all published this year, have highlighted the need to reform digital purchasing.
The Government has launched a Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence, containing experts from the Digital and Commercial Functions, within the Government Digital Service (GDS) in my department. It is pursuing multiple strategies to improve value for money and outcomes including central buying of commodity services, development of a digital sourcing strategy, creation of technical enablers and joined-up management of strategic digital suppliers.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
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 to support (a) the Health Innovation Network and (b) other regional networks to help (i) support health technology SMEs and (ii) increase economic growth.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government continues to fund the Health Innovation Network to support health and social care teams to identify, test, and scale new solutions – including new health technologies – to major NHS challenges. Since 2018, HIN programmes have created or secured over 10,000 jobs and provided bespoke support to thousands of SME innovators, contributing >£2.6bn to UK economy with a 3:1 return on investment.
Other Government-funded regional networks include the NIHR Research Delivery Network, which enables the health and care system to attract, optimise and deliver research across England. This includes supporting the delivery of research funded by health technology SMEs.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
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 (a) usage, (b) year-over-year spend and (c) potential dependencies of the Government's current software assets on cost efficiencies.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
His Majesty's Government monitors the usage of individual and enterprise licenses across a wide variety of products
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of restrictive software licensing on the ability to achieve the digital transformation of public services.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Government procures software via a number of agreed frameworks which are tendered via the Crown Commercial Service and are awarded under the relevant procurement regulations. The introduction of the new procurement act 2023 will provide government with an ability to consider how such services are contracted in the future.
The creation of the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence is overseeing the development of sourcing/category strategies to co-ordinate how we shape demand, drive down usage and optmise the way such assets are used. This work is currently underway.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
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 technology industry in adopting data-led practices to improve diversity in the sector; and whether the Department plans to support an industry diversity accreditation scheme.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to promoting diversity in the tech sector and is doing so in a number of ways. DSIT is supporting the Tech Future Taskforce on Social Mobility, which includes helping companies to collect and act upon data to promote tech workforce diversity. As committed in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, DfE and DSIT will collaborate with industry to publish a plan to improve the diversity of the AI talent pool.
More widely, the Employment Rights Bill and Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will strengthen reporting and action on gender, race and disability by large companies, which includes tech companies.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on support for female-led spin-out tech start-ups at UK Universities.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Innovate UK are currently running an all-women cohort of their Innovation to commercialisation of university research (ICURe) programme, which will identify and support women researchers to explore commercialisation pathways that can lead to spinouts.
Supporting female tech founders and spin-out companies from our universities are important issues that I and colleagues across government are working on.
I am pleased that over time there are more female-led spin-outs, with 32% of spin-outs in 2022 having a female founder, up from 25% in 2017. However, with 68% still having all-male founders, there is still room for improvement.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has plans to (a) identify and (b) support female-led spin-out tech start-ups in UK Universities.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Innovate UK are currently running an all-women cohort of their Innovation to commercialisation of university research (ICURe) programme, which will identify and support women researchers to explore commercialisation pathways that can lead to spinouts.
Supporting female tech founders and spin-out companies from our universities are important issues that I and colleagues across government are working on.
I am pleased that over time there are more female-led spin-outs, with 32% of spin-outs in 2022 having a female founder, up from 25% in 2017. However, with 68% still having all-male founders, there is still room for improvement.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of supporting Ukraine through the use of joint (a) technology, (b) funding and (c) research initiatives.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government recognises the key role that science, technology, and innovation will play in Ukraine’s recovery, reconstruction and future economy. The department fosters collaboration between researchers and innovators in both countries to our mutual benefit, working closely with other departments, such as Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Department for Business and Trade. For example, providing financial support to the UK-Ukraine Techbridge and supporting Ukrainian researchers through the Researchers at Risk Programme. We are continuing to work with partners to identify areas for future collaboration and support.
Asked by: Samantha Niblett (Labour - South Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness of (a) artificial intelligence and (b) other digital innovation for tackling violence against women and girls.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Innovative technology solutions are key to improving online safety outcomes and delivering the government’s commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade. The Online Safety Act and Ofcom’s codes of practice are designed to keep pace with emerging technologies, with Ofcom continuing to research, review and, if necessary, iterate their codes of practice to adapt to technological developments.
On 20th November the government published a draft Statement of Strategic Priorities for online safety. This sets out five priorities, including the expectation that services are safe by design to improve the safety of all users and tackle violence against women and girls, as well as the importance of innovation in online safety technologies.