Written questions by MacDonald.

Innovation and Technology, whether his department has considered working with Ofcom to help ensure that mobile network operators share masts and/or sites where possible.

The Department works closely with Ofcom on a range of issues including those related to the deployment of mobile networks and infrastructure and continues to engage on how sharing of masts and sites can be encouraged where appropriate.Duties and obligations relating to telecommunications installations are included in the Electronic Communications Code (Conditions and Restrictions) Regulations 2003, which include requirements to share apparatus where practicable.The Code of Practice for Wireless Network Development also sets out best practice guidance for mobile network operators and local authorities on deploying wireless infrastructure, including considerations for siting equipment. It complements existing legislation and provides clear, practical advice to support all stakeholders involved in the deployment process.The Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016 further gives operators the right to request access to another operator’s infrastructure.

Innovation and Technology, whether he has held discussions with its counterpart in the Faroe Islands on the rollout of 5G coverage.

There have been no specific conversations with this Secretary of State and the Faroese authorities on the topic of 5G rollout. As part of the policy development process, we do consider approaches in other countries, particularly approaches that have addressed specific challenges.

Innovation and Technology, what measures her Department is implementing to help ensure big tech companies do not profit from fraudulent activity on their platforms.

The Online Safety Act lists fraud as priority illegal content, meaning in-scope services including social media and search providers must prevent and minimise fraudulent user-generated content from appearing on their services and swiftly remove it if it does. In-scope user-to-user services must also manage the risk that their service may be used to facilitate fraud offences.Category 1 and 2A services (including large social media and search providers respectively) will have additional duties to tackle paid-for fraudulent advertising. Ofcom is responsible for designating categorised services and aims to publish the categorisation register in July.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the provisions of the Online Safety Act 2023 for tackling online scam advertisements.

The Online Safety Act lists fraud as priority illegal content, meaning in-scope services including social media and search providers must prevent and minimise fraudulent user-generated content from appearing on their services and swiftly remove it if it does. In-scope user-to-user services must also manage the risk that their service may be used to facilitate fraud offences.Category 1 and 2A services (including large social media and search providers respectively) will have additional duties to tackle paid-for fraudulent advertising. Ofcom is responsible for designating categorised services and aims to publish the categorisation register in July.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the impact of pharmaceutical and medical device R&D site closures on the trends in the levels of UK’s scientific research capacity since 2010.

The Government has made no formal assessment of the impact of pharmaceutical and medical device R&D site closures on trends in the UK’s scientific research capacity since 2010.The Government does monitor the health of the UK life sciences sector, including R&D performed by UK businesses. Office for National Statistics data shows £9.3 billion of pharmaceutical R&D was performed by UK businesses in 2024, accounting for almost 17% of all R&D undertaken by UK businesses.We are actively working with industry to boost the UK’s competitiveness and significantly grow the volume of private sector R&D and manufacturing in the UK over the next decade. For instance, the up to £520 million Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund and the pilot £50m Transformational R&D Investment Fund, which are supporting companies like UCB to invest in innovative early manufacturing in the UK.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to support the retention and re-employment of UK scientists alongside plans to recruit scientists from overseas.

The government is committed to ensuring universities and research institutions remain internationally competitive, with long-term career sustainability. DSIT has allocated £38.6 billion to UKRI over four years, including £14 billion for curiosity-driven research. DSIT supports talent at all career stages to help researchers build and sustain careers here, with over £5 billion of investment to attract and retain talent over four years. This includes government funding to train doctoral and postdoctoral researchers and deliver globally prestigious fellowship and professorship schemes through UKRI and the National Academies. The UK’s new Global Talent Fund has already announced eight leading researchers as successful awardees.

Innovation and Technology, what estimate he has made of the number of UK-trained scientists who have left the UK workforce following redundancies in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors over the past 15 years.

Government has not made an estimate of the number of UK-trained scientists who have left the workforce following redundancies in these sectors over the past 15-years. Over that period there have been both redundancies and the start of many new companies.Life Sciences is a vibrant and growing sector supported by the recently published Life Sciences Sector Plan and over £2 billion of government investment. Skills England estimate that employment could increase by up to 100,000 by 2030 if past growth trends continue.The Office for Life Sciences is working with Government colleagues and sector stakeholders to ensure access to a domestic pipeline of skilled workers. This includes support for RESILIENCE, the UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence.

Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to request that Ofcom introduces new mandates for telecom resilience requirements, including adequate on-site, built-in resilience measures, particularly backup power via batteries at mobile phone masts and increasing the mandated minimum amount of backup power via batteries.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 21 January 2026 to Question UINs 104628, 104629, and 104630.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the resilience of mobile communications infrastructure during prolonged power outages.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 21 January 2026 to Question UINs 104628, 104629, and 104630.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking in response to reports that social media platform algorithms may promote harmful or extremist content to users.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users. Since March 2025, services must proactively scan for and remove illegal content such as terrorist material, or that which stirs up racial hatred. In July 2025, additional new child safety duties came into force, placing a legal duty on services to protect children from content that is harmful to them, including that which is hateful or abusive. Services must ensure their algorithms do not promote this content and enable users to easily report where it appears on regulated services. The Act requires the Secretary of State to review and report to Parliament on the effectiveness of the regime 2-5 years after the Act is fully implemented.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of current mechanisms for reporting and removing extremist content from major social media platforms.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users. Since March 2025, services must proactively scan for and remove illegal content such as terrorist material, or that which stirs up racial hatred. In July 2025, additional new child safety duties came into force, placing a legal duty on services to protect children from content that is harmful to them, including that which is hateful or abusive. Services must ensure their algorithms do not promote this content and enable users to easily report where it appears on regulated services. The Act requires the Secretary of State to review and report to Parliament on the effectiveness of the regime 2-5 years after the Act is fully implemented.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of recent reports that social media platform algorithms may promote harmful or extremist content to users.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users. Since March 2025, services must proactively scan for and remove illegal content such as terrorist material, or that which stirs up racial hatred. In July 2025, additional new child safety duties came into force, placing a legal duty on services to protect children from content that is harmful to them, including that which is hateful or abusive. Services must ensure their algorithms do not promote this content and enable users to easily report where it appears on regulated services. The Act requires the Secretary of State to review and report to Parliament on the effectiveness of the regime 2-5 years after the Act is fully implemented.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of recent reports that social media platform algorithms may promote harmful or extremist content to users.

Social media companies must keep people safe on their platforms and holding them accountable is a departmental priority. Under the Online Safety Act, services must tackle illegal content, including terrorist content and that which stirs up hatred based on religion or race, or incites violence. They must also protect children from additional forms of legal content, including that which is hateful or abusive.The Act is clear that services should take steps to ensure their algorithms do not promote these kinds of content. Ofcom also has robust information gathering and enforcement powers to ensure that services operate their algorithms safely.

Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with Ofcom on the resilience of mobile masts serving rural communities to prolonged power outages.

Whilst telecommunications services are generally resilient, they can be disrupted, and we recognise the impact that prolonged power cuts can have, especially on rural communities. In December 2023, Ofcom launched a public Call for Input on the power back-up at mobile access sites across the UK. They published an update on their work in February this year, confirming they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures that mobile operators should put in place. The Department has supported this work and looks forward to its conclusions.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure that the vulnerability registers maintained by energy providers are shared with telecommunications providers to prioritise additional support for vulnerable customers during the Public Switched Telephone Network migration.

The Government is committed to ensuring that vulnerable people are identified and appropriately supported during the Public Switched Telephone Network migration. For legal and data protection reasons, data on vulnerable people from energy providers cannot be shared with communication providers. Instead, communication providers committed in the Non-Voluntary Migrations Checklist to sign data sharing agreements with local authorities to identify vulnerable people.In addition, BT and Virgin Media funded, with government support, a national communications campaign to encourage vulnerable people to self-identify. Communication providers have also used data from alarm receiving centres, alongside their individual/standard approaches to identifying vulnerable customers via outreach.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure that rural households are offered appropriate mitigation measures before being switched from analogue to digital telephone services.

The Government is committed to ensuring that any risks arising from the industry-led migration of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for all customers across the UK.The Government has published guidance for communication providers on providing vulnerable customers with supported journeys where necessary. This includes customers who are landline dependent, perhaps due to living in rural locations with less mobile connectivity. Communication providers have committed in the Non-Voluntary Migrations Checklist that these customers will be provided with a battery back-up unit for use in case of a power cut.

Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2025 to Question 76223 on Project Gigabit: Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of the number of premises without access to gigabit-capable broadband in (a) Inverness, Skye, and West Ross-shire constituency with (b) the national average.

According to the independent website ThinkBroadband.com, 68% of premises in Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire constituency and 89% of UK premises can access gigabit-capable broadband.As per the answer to question 76223, the Open Market Review process in Scotland is carried out by the Scottish Government. It will have the most up to date information on the hon. Member’s constituency.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of existing contingency arrangements to ensure access to emergency services during prolonged power outages in areas affected by the Public Switched Telephone Network migration.

The Government is committed to ensuring any risks arising from the industry-led migration of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for all customers. No household should be left without means to contact emergency services in the event of a power cut following the PSTN migration.In December 2023 and November 2024, major communication providers signed and agreed the safeguards in the PSTN Charter and Non-Voluntary Migrations Checklist, including providing vulnerable customers with free battery back-up devices for power cuts. Ofcom General Conditions state that these devices should last for a minimum of one hour, but in practice many providers issue units that provide 4-7 hours of battery life.In December 2023, Ofcom launched a public Call for Input on the power back-up at mobile access sites. Ofcom published an update on this work in February 2025, confirming they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures that mobile operators should put in place.

Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking with telecommunications providers to ensure that battery back-up solutions provided to households during the Public Switched Telephone Network migration are sufficient to cover the average duration of power cuts in rural areas.

The Government is committed to ensuring any risks arising from the industry-led migration of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) are mitigated for all customers. No household should be left without means to contact emergency services in the event of a power cut following the PSTN migration.In December 2023 and November 2024, major communication providers signed and agreed the safeguards in the PSTN Charter and Non-Voluntary Migrations Checklist, including providing vulnerable customers with free battery back-up devices for power cuts. Ofcom General Conditions state that these devices should last for a minimum of one hour, but in practice many providers issue units that provide 4-7 hours of battery life.In December 2023, Ofcom launched a public Call for Input on the power back-up at mobile access sites. Ofcom published an update on this work in February 2025, confirming they are completing further analysis to determine the appropriate and proportionate measures that mobile operators should put in place.

Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2025 to Question 76224 on Broadband: Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, whether his Department has made a comparative assessment of the number of households with copper-based broadband connections in (a) Inverness, Skye, and West Ross-shire constituency with (b) the national average.

As stated in answer to question 76224, we estimate 18,540 households (35%) in the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire constituency are reliant on copper-based broadband. Using data from the same source (Ofcom’s Connected Nations 2025 Spring Update), we estimate 33% of residential properties in Scotland and 26% of residential properties in the UK are reliant on copper-based broadband connections. Most of these premises may also have recourse to connectivity through fixed wireless access.These figures are accurate as of January 2025.Figures for copper-based connections include broadband delivered by mixed technologies such as gigabit capable coaxial cable, fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC), as well as solely copper-based technologies such as ADSL.