Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of large-scale AI data centre developments on regional economic growth.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Data centres are foundational to a competitive UK economy, underpinning the digital services that drive productivity across sectors—from finance and advanced manufacturing to public services and the creative industries. By enabling AI, cloud computing and data‑intensive services, they deliver economy‑wide productivity gains nationally and regionally, as well as strengthen the UK’s attractiveness as an investment destination.
TechUK has estimated that UK data centres contribute £4.7 billion pounds in gross value added each year and support-tens of thousands of high-quality jobs across construction, operations and specialist supply chains. Operational employment is generally highly skilled and well paid, with wider employment supported through demand for electrical engineering, cooling, digital infrastructure and maintenance services. More widely, TechUK estimates that each job funded by data centre operations supports between 1.4–2.5 jobs in the wider economy.
HMG’s AI Growth Zone programme unlocks significant private investment and secures compute to drive AI growth, supporting high‑value local jobs and skills. HMG is investing up to £5 million per AI Growth Zone, in the North-East of England, Oxfordshire, North and South Wales, and Lanarkshire in Scotland, working with local areas to design tailored schemes to realise local economic benefits and boost AI adoption in local communities.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure The Renewed Women's Health Strategy for England, published April 2026, improves gynaecology care in regions with local shortages of gynaecologists.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy was published on 15 April 2026 and sets out a bold, long‑term plan to transform how the health and care system listens to, supports, and delivers for women and girls across all regions in England.
It puts women’s voices and choices at the centre of care, drives faster improvements in services and outcomes that matter most to women, and tackles long‑standing health inequalities across the life course. The strategy aligns with the 10-Year Health Plan to shift care into the community, harness digital innovation, and strengthen prevention so women can live healthier, more fulfilled lives.
The Government is committed to publishing a 10 Year Workforce Plan to set out action to create a workforce ready to deliver the transformed service set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. The plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients, when they need it.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings by The Health Foundation in its analysis, Electronic patient record systems in England: what do NHS staff think?, published on 24 March, that less than 50 per cent of NHS staff who participated in the survey had received training on how to use the electronic patient record system for their role, and less than 28 per cent had received training on how to fix or troubleshoot problems.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To help ensure every National Health Service hospital in England can benefit from digital transformation, the Government has invested £1.9 billion in either new or existing electronic patient record (EPR) systems. This has resulted in almost all trusts now having an EPR in place, or in delivery. Evidence from secondary care shows that EPRs are contributing to a 4.5% reduction in length of stay and a 13% lower cost in admitted patient spells.
Whilst this represents significant progress, we are continuing to fully realise the benefits of EPRs by building skills and changing management capacity. This includes sharing best practice, improving usability, training users more effectively, and ensuring systems are tailored to local context rather than adopting a one size fits all approach.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the analysis from The Health Foundation, Electronic patient record systems in England: what do NHS staff think?, published on 24 March, particularly the finding that 37 per cent of staff felt that electronic patient records were not currently working well in their organisation.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
To help ensure every National Health Service hospital in England can benefit from digital transformation, the Government has invested £1.9 billion in either new or existing electronic patient record (EPR) systems. This has resulted in almost all trusts now having an EPR in place, or in delivery. Evidence from secondary care shows that EPRs are contributing to a 4.5% reduction in length of stay and a 13% lower cost in admitted patient spells.
Whilst this represents significant progress, we are continuing to fully realise the benefits of EPRs by building skills and changing management capacity. This includes sharing best practice, improving usability, training users more effectively, and ensuring systems are tailored to local context rather than adopting a one size fits all approach.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that jobseekers with professional experience are supported to secure employment reflecting their skills and experience.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is committed to delivering an employment support system that is personalised to individual needs. All jobseekers are entitled to tailored and flexible support through Jobcentre Plus. Work Coaches offer personalised advice to help individuals secure roles which reflect their skills, qualifications and prior experience, alongside targeted job‑search support. The Department for Work and Pensions provides job‑seeking support through a range of channels that can benefit those already with professional experience, including the Find a Job website and financial assistance, for interviews or starting work, through the Flexible Support Fund. Furthermore, the reformed Jobs and Careers Service will place greater focus on career advice and progression and better matching of people’s experience with employer’s needs.
Where appropriate, Work Coaches also identify any skills gaps and signpost jobseekers to relevant training and provision, including Skills Bootcamps, apprenticeships, sector‑based work academy programmes (SWAPs), and free courses for jobs, as well as essential English, maths and digital skills. This flexible offer allows experienced jobseekers to update, adapt or build on existing skills to meet current labour market demand. Programmes such as SWAPs can be set up for any sector, allowing them to be responsive to local labour market needs and tailored to priority and emerging sectors across Districts in England and Scotland.
The Restart Scheme provides 12 months of personalised and tailored support targeted at those who have been on Universal Credit for 6 months or more and in the Intensive Work Search regime. Providers support participants to break down their employment barriers by developing a bespoke action plan built on understanding their employment history, skills and needs.
Additionally, many providers offer a dedicated pathway, providing participants with professional or executive experience access to specialist advisors and tailored support.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support British legacy industries.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Industrial Strategy is backing eight growth-driving sectors, and the foundational industries that underpin them, to drive growth and create high quality jobs. This includes action to reduce electricity bills through the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme that will benefit 10,000 manufacturing businesses.
We are investing in skills including through a £182m engineering skills package, have recently launched the first Apprenticeship Units funded through the Growth and Skills Levy, and announced 19 new Technical Excellence Colleges in advanced manufacturing, clean energy and defence, as well as digital and technologies. And we are taking action in our critical foundational industries: the government is providing up to £2.5 billion to the steel sector and the steel strategy aims to return domestic production to around 40-50% of domestic steel demand (up from 30% in 2024).
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department supports schools in implementing programs teaching children about civic responsibility in a digital age.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only. All schools are expected to actively promote fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs.
The government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review committed to making citizenship statutory at primary and strengthening primary and secondary content, including on democracy and the rule of law. Applied knowledge and skills in media and digital literacy and subject-specific disciplinary skills, including critical thinking and problem solving, will be embedded in the refreshed programmes of study. Pupils will also have opportunities to develop social and emotional attributes such as resilience.
Working closely with the sector, we are working towards a first teaching of the new curriculum from September 2028.
Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what processes are in place to assess the performance of external providers commissioned to deliver Government-funded AI training courses.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to building a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity. As part of this ambition, DSIT has launched the AI Skills Boost campaign to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030, and our industry partners deliver these courses at no cost to government. Since June 2025, this initiative has delivered more than 1 million free AI training courses to workers across the UK, and the Government continues to track delivery.
The government runs monitoring & evaluation for all government-funded AI training courses to track participation and assess the delivery and impact of funded programmes. This includes the AI and Data Science Conversion Courses, the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund pilot, and several digital apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps that offer AI-related training courses. Given the nascency of the sector, monitoring and evaluation of most of these programmes is currently ongoing. Data on participation and completion rates for these apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps can be found on the Explore Education Statistics GOV.UK Service.
Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what data her Department holds on participation and completion rates for Government-funded AI training courses.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to building a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity. As part of this ambition, DSIT has launched the AI Skills Boost campaign to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030, and our industry partners deliver these courses at no cost to government. Since June 2025, this initiative has delivered more than 1 million free AI training courses to workers across the UK, and the Government continues to track delivery.
The government runs monitoring & evaluation for all government-funded AI training courses to track participation and assess the delivery and impact of funded programmes. This includes the AI and Data Science Conversion Courses, the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund pilot, and several digital apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps that offer AI-related training courses. Given the nascency of the sector, monitoring and evaluation of most of these programmes is currently ongoing. Data on participation and completion rates for these apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps can be found on the Explore Education Statistics GOV.UK Service.
Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
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 value for money of Government-funded AI training courses.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to building a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity. As part of this ambition, DSIT has launched the AI Skills Boost campaign to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030, and our industry partners deliver these courses at no cost to government. Since June 2025, this initiative has delivered more than 1 million free AI training courses to workers across the UK, and the Government continues to track delivery.
The government runs monitoring & evaluation for all government-funded AI training courses to track participation and assess the delivery and impact of funded programmes. This includes the AI and Data Science Conversion Courses, the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund pilot, and several digital apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps that offer AI-related training courses. Given the nascency of the sector, monitoring and evaluation of most of these programmes is currently ongoing. Data on participation and completion rates for these apprenticeships and Skills Bootcamps can be found on the Explore Education Statistics GOV.UK Service.