Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential implications for national security of the proportion of funding for universities from China.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Integrated Review Refresh, which this government published in March 2023, sets out in clear terms the UK’s policy towards China.
The UK is a world-leading destination for foreign students, including from China, where they add to the academic richness of UK universities. However, a key part of the International Education Strategy is diversification. Universities must ensure they have appropriate processes in place to manage the risks associated with dependence on a single source of funding, whether that is from a single organisation or a single country. The Office for Students (OfS), the regulator of higher education in England, monitors the risk of over-reliance on overseas income at a sector level.
The department recognises concerns about overseas interference in the higher education sector and regularly assess the risks facing academia. The department has acted to remove government funding from Confucius Institutes in the UK. The department will continue to take steps to significantly strengthen the UK’s protections from overseas interference in our higher education sector, helping to safeguard intellectual property and sensitive research.
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will introduce increased transparency and the monitoring of certain overseas funding received by higher education providers in England. The protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK is taken very seriously. Attempts by foreign powers to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated.
The department has committed, in the Integrated Review Refresh, to review the full set of legislative and other provisions designed to protect the academic sector, in order to identify what more can be or should be done.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has had discussions with representatives of the art sector on the potential impact of AI on that sector.
Answered by John Whittingdale
HM Government recognises the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence to a range of sectors, including the arts. As set out in the Government’s recent AI White Paper, our goal is to ensure that the UK becomes an AI superpower. It is important, however, that while we harness the benefits of AI, we also manage the risks. This includes risks to the creative and cultural sectors and to copyright-holders.
The Secretary of State and Ministers have held a number of meetings with people and organisations from across the creative and cultural sectors on this issue and on AI more broadly. This includes a meeting in which the Minister for Arts & Heritage, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay participated, hosted by What Next? in November, during which representatives from small and large arts organisations, freelance creative professionals, academics and other participants from across the country discussed the potential impact of AI on the arts and creative sectors.
DCMS has engaged with the arts and creative sectors to identify areas where AI is being applied through innovation and to understand the sectors’ views – for instance, through a recent meeting held jointly with the Intellectual Property Office and a group of leading sector chief executives.
Last month, the UK also hosted the world's first major summit on AI safety. This summit focused on the risks created or significantly exacerbated by the most powerful frontier AI systems, and looked to ensure that this technology is developed and adopted safely and responsibly. The summit brought together the governments of leading AI nations, technology companies, researchers, and civil society groups. DCMS Ministers and officials also attended the industry-led AI Fringe, which ran alongside the AI Safety Summit, and engaged with representatives from across the creative industries on issues such as research and development for AI in the arts and intellectual property.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will commission an independent assessment into the compatibility of membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership with membership of the (a) European Patent Office and (b) European Patent Convention.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has ensured that accession negotiations with CPTPP are consistent with the UK’s interests, the Government’s policies and priorities on intellectual property, and with the UK’s existing international obligations, including the non-EU European Patent Convention (EPC) which establishes the European Patent Office.
The UK has not agreed to any provisions that would require us to diverge from the EPC and therefore an independent assessment is not required. With respect to Article 18.38 of the agreement (Grace Period), the UK has agreed with the CPTPP Parties that we will only comply with that article once necessary amendments to the EPC have been made in line with Article 18.38, and not before.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who will own the intellectual property for the Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The supplier will continue to own the intellectual property right to its core Software as a Service (SaaS) and will grant NHS England and National Health Service organisations the right to use the software for the contract term. This will also include updates and amendments to the SaaS product or any additional third-party software that forms part of the contracted SaaS product.
Any products commissioned by NHS England or other NHS organisations delivered by the supplier outside of their standard SaaS product offering will be owned by NHS England. NHS England may grant the supplier the right to use the component for the contract term as necessary for service provision.
NHS England or the NHS organisation will retain all ownership and rights to all data contained within the platform and at no time do the rights to use this data transfer to the supplier. The supplier will have no rights to the data whether or not such data is personal data.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many legally-qualified staff working for his Department as of November 2023 (a) have received training in and (b) are qualified specifically in procurement law.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has of 14 November 2023 86 civilians employed as lawyers or intellectual property-qualified professionals and 211 military lawyers - inclusive of 26 Reservists - serving as members of the three Services' legal branches/capbadge who are qualified as lawyers.
The Ministry of Defence does no hold specific records have received training in and/or are qualified specifically in procurement law. This as the majority of our civilian lawyers assigned/on-loan from other government departments, principally the Government Legal Department, and their records are held by their employing department or are employed directly by the Ministry of Defence on the basis of them being intellectual property-qualified professionals.
There are other staff within the Ministry of Defence who hold academic/professional legal qualifications but are not employed in roles where holding such a qualification is a direct requirement of their appointment/duties and are not, therefore, considered members of its Legal function.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many lawyers are employed by his Department as of 14 November 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has of 14 November 2023 86 civilians employed as lawyers or intellectual property-qualified professionals and 211 military lawyers - inclusive of 26 Reservists - serving as members of the three Services' legal branches/capbadge.
The civilian total includes only 24 employees who are directly employed by the Ministry of Defence as either Patent Officers or as prosecutors with the Service Prosecution Authority; the other 62 are assigned/on-load from other Government Departments, principally the Government Legal Department, with whom they remain active employees.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many legally-qualified staff are employed by his Department as of 14 November 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has of 14 November 2023 86 civilians employed as lawyers or intellectual property-qualified professionals and 211 lawyers - inclusive of 26 Reservists - serving as members of the three Services' legal branches/capbadge who are qualified as lawyers.
There are other staff within the Ministry of Defence who hold academic/professional legal qualifications but are not employed in roles where holding such a qualification is a direct requirement of their appointment/duties and are not, therefore, considered members of its Legal function.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the number of defence technology start-ups that have been established in the UK since 2010; and what steps he is taking to support the establishment of defence technology start-up companies.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not hold data on the exact number of defence start-up companies. In 2021-22 MOD spent £5.715 billion with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) directly and indirectly, which represents an increase from £4.488 billion in 2020-21. We continue to work closely with defence SMEs through the multiple initiatives outlined in the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy and SME Action Plan.
Our support to SMEs includes Defence Innovation Loans made available by the Defence and Security Accelerator, DASA, to help SMEs commercialise mature defence solutions; seven loans have been awarded since 2021, totalling £5.3 million. Also, since 2010, MOD’s Ploughshare Innovations Ltd has supported 5 new start-ups spun out from government intellectual property. The Ploughshare Accelerator Fund enables start-ups to secure development funding to bring revolutionary technologies to market. And the Defence science and technology laboratory’s Newcastle site supports defence technology start-up companies in the region through its AI and data science related research.
Asked by: Barbara Keeley (Labour - Worsley and Eccles South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Musician's Union publication entitled 'Musicians' Census', published on 11 September 2023.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Government is committed to maximising the potential of the UK music industry and its musicians.
We continue to regularly engage with industry and organisations, including the Musicians Union, to understand the challenges facing musicians, including those identified in the ‘Musicians’ Census’.
The Government has taken action to address these challenges, by supporting growth in the sector and creating more opportunities for young people from all backgrounds to pursue a career in music.
This includes working with the Department for Business and Trade to support UK musicians to successfully export to international markets through initiatives such as the International Showcase Fund and the Music Export Growth Scheme. Additionally, we are committed to protecting creatives through our world-leading copyright and intellectual property laws, and the Government is also establishing an industry working group to discuss issues around creator remuneration.
We are also taking action to support young talent to pursue a career in music. In June 2021 we published the National Plan for Music Education, setting out ambitions to increase music opportunities for all children and young people, regardless of circumstance and needs. Grassroots venues are also vital to supporting the talent pipeline, which is why we committed to providing an additional £5 million of funding to support grassroots music venues over two years.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how much the Intellectual Property Office spent on equality and diversity training in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Paul Scully
On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service.
The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance.
The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.