Committee publication · Correspondence · 1 July 2026
Correspondence from Secretary of State, re: Follow-up letter from Chair on Work of the department for Science, Innovation and technology, 29 June
From: Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
Inquiry: Work of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Summary
Secretary of State Liz Kendall responds to the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee Chair's questions ahead of her 8 July appearance. She addresses online safety measures (under-16 social media ban, AI chatbot regulation), the US-UK pharmaceuticals deal and NICE value set changes, phone theft technology solutions, research funding hedging strategy, the Sovereign AI Fund, data centre planning policy, and progress on regional innovation clusters and R&D infrastructure.
Key findings
- Government will ban social media companies from offering services to under-16s, following the Australian model, with regulations to be laid before Parliament by end of 2026 and full regime in effect by early 2027.
- Ofcom will have fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue and will conduct rapid study on age assurance methods by October 2026; Government committed to further measures including default social media curfews for 16–17-year-olds in July.
- US-UK Pharmaceuticals Deal will see EQ-5D-5L value set come into effect summer 2026; estimated costs around £1 billion over remaining three years of Spending Review; over £1 billion industry investment already secured including AstraZeneca's £300 million R&D investment.
- Met Police and Apple have agreed to share data on stolen phones; early data shows significant number of stolen phones in recent sample have not been successfully reactivated; Government considering legislation for mandatory minimum technical standards if voluntary measures insufficient.
- UKRI hedges approximately 90% of expected subscription payments to manage foreign exchange risk; Research Capital Investment Fund refocused from 2026–27 on sustaining existing facilities rather than new infrastructure; research councils will invest £1.5 billion 2026–27 to 2029–30 on equipment and UKRI institute maintenance.
Tone
ProceduralTopics
Key actors
Liz Kendall, Dame Chi Onwurah, Ofcom, Met Police, Apple, Google, NICE, UKRI
Notable line
“Services should be in no doubt that where they break UK law, they will face the consequences.”
Key Quotes
“At its heart is a ban on social media companies offering their services to those under”
“These measures will be backed by one of the toughest enforcement regimes in the world and Ofcom will be central to delivering it.”
“As I said to the House, this is not the end of the story and I will come back in July with further measures, including in areas where I am strongly minded to act like having default social media curfews for 16 and 17 year-olds.”
“The ultimate test of whether these changes have been effective is whether the number of phones being stolen continues to fall.”
“We are working closely with trade unions to ensure that AI adoption enhances, rather than replaces, existing jobs, and that decisions about workplace adoption are made with workers, not done to them.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗