Every parliamentary written question tabled by Iqbal Mohamed this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 1–20 of 51 · Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Innovation and Technology, whether the Sovereign AI fund will invest in companies that train AI models on copyrighted work without a license.
The Government has been clear that copyright rules should be respected. Use of copyright works to train AI in the UK requires a licence unless an exception applies. Companies supported by the Sovereign AI Fund are expected to comply with applicable UK law.
Innovation and Technology, what steps she has taken to implement the Replacing animals in science strategy.
The strategy sets out a long‑term, cross‑government programme to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, with clear delivery responsibilities assigned across government and partner organisations. Those responsible have begun delivery and the inaugural meeting of the cross‑government ministerial group established to oversee implementation has taken place. Several commitments, including the establishment of a preclinical translational models hub, are already well advanced. The Government plans to publish a delivery update, including key performance indicators, later in 2026.
Innovation and Technology, when she plans to establish the Committee on Alternative Methods; and whether her Department plans to have a call for membership that enables participation from animal protection organisations alongside other relevant stakeholders.
The strategy commits to establishing a committee on alternative methods in 2026 and we have already commissioned the Animals in Science Committee for advice on the scope, governance and composition of such a committee.The Government already engages with stakeholders, including animal protection organisations, through a range of established forums to ensure the strategy remains science‑led, up to date, and focused on driving the development, validation and uptake of advanced non‑animal methods. This engagement will continue throughout strategy implementation.
Innovation and Technology, what progress officials in UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has made on developing target areas of research for alternative methods for animal testing; and whether UKRI has any plans to consult with civil society organisations who have expertise in this area as part of this process.
On 11 November 2025 the Government published Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, which outlines the steps we will take to achieve this. The Labour Manifesto commits to partnering with scientists, industry and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing. The Government consulted civil society, industry and academia during development of the strategy and continues to do so during delivery, including through regular Home Office meetings. We also intend to publish areas of research interest later this year. UKRI has an important role in this but is not the only delivery partner
Innovation and Technology, what discussions she has had with social media companies on measures to support users, including young people, to identify false and misleading political information, in the context of proposals to extend the voting age to 16.
The Government recognises the importance of supporting people, including young people, to identify false and misleading information online.Media literacy is an important part of our approach. DSIT is improving it through a cross-government approach outlined in the Media Literacy Action Plan published 16 March. In February we launched a pilot campaign and the Kids Online Safety Hub to help parents support children’s resilience to misinformation.
Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill's incident reporting criteria for capturing novel failure modes arising from autonomous or adaptive machine learning systems in critical national infrastructure.
The Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill makes vital updates to the Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations 2018 to ensure that providers of the UK’s essential services are reporting more forms of harmful cyber incident to their regulators. Where these incidents meet the threshold of a reportable incident, they will need to be reported to the relevant regulator regardless of the cause. This will include incidents caused by the failure of autonomous or adaptive machine learning systems within a regulated entity’s network and information systems.
Innovation and Technology, what mechanisms exist for the AI Security Institute to receive systematic information about incidents involving autonomous or adaptive machine learning systems in critical national infrastructure as part of its intelligence capacity to research the development of AI capabilities that could contribute towards AI's ability to evade human control, as well the propensity of models to engage in misaligned actions.
The AI Security Institute (AISI) collaborates with leading AI developers to measure the capabilities of advanced AI and recommend risk mitigations, to ensure we stay ahead of AI impacts.This close collaboration with industry enables information-sharing to mitigate risks. AISI’s testing has identified a large number of AI model vulnerabilities that labs (such as OpenAI and Anthropic) have addressed prior to release.AISI is researching the development of AI capabilities that could contribute towards AI’s ability to evade human control, as well the propensity of models to engage in misaligned actions. AISI shares its insights with government departments to help manage the risks AI could pose to critical national infrastructure.Through the Alignment Project – a funding consortium distributing up to £27m for research projects – AISI is supporting further foundational research into methods to develop AI systems that operate according to our goals, without unintended or harmful behaviours.
Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential risks posed by AI-generated and manipulated content on young voters’ ability to assess political information during election campaigns.
The Government recognises that the huge opportunities offered by AI also come with risks, including potential challenges posed by AI-generated content for the online information environment.The Online Safety Act regulates AI generated mis/disinformation. This includes the Foreign Interference Offence, requiring companies to take action against state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked interference targeted at the UK and our democratic processes.Media literacy is also part of our wider approach, building young people’s resilience to mis- and disinformation, including AI-generated content. The government will ensure that media literacy is embedded into the new primary citizenship curriculum, from September 2028.
Innovation and Technology, what processes her Department uses to verify the value and form of private sector AI investment commitments.
The UK AI sector attracted the third highest levels of AI related private investment in the world. Alongside this, the UK produces the second highest number of AI startups globally. This Governments remains focused on ensuring the UK remains the most attractive place in the world to build AI companies and lead on AI adoption.The £100bn figure referenced refers to the total amount of private investment that firms have pledged to invest into the UK’s AI sector. This pledged investment demonstrates international confidence in the UK’s strong and growing AI ecosystem, supported by the Government’s strategic approach to innovation, world leading research base, and pro investment policy environment - including the UK’s strengths in AI talent, compute, research, and responsible innovation.Whilst decisions on investment is a matter for private companies, Government has been clear that it will encourage investment that will enable UK firms and people to benefit.
Innovation and Technology, what estimate her Department has made of the potential number of jobs that will be created as a result of CoreWeave’s investment.
AI Growth Zones are expected to create more than 15,000 jobs spanning construction activity, permanent operational roles and wider supply‑chain employment. Job creation will ramp up as infrastructure works progress, with full delivery projected by the early 2030s. These figures are based on information provided by project teams and should be treated as projections rather than firm forecasts.Ultimately, hiring decisions sit with individual companies, but AI Growth Zones are designed to create high‑skill, long‑term employment in areas with strong potential for economic growth.The Department does not hold central data that consistently categorises jobs into short‑, medium‑ and long‑term across all AI Growth Zones, nor comprehensive data on jobs created to date, as projects remain at an early stage of delivery.
Innovation and Technology, whether her Department audits private investment commitments included in his Department's press announcements on AI infrastructure.
The UK AI sector attracted the third highest levels of AI related private investment in the world. Alongside this, the UK produces the second highest number of AI startups globally. This Governments remains focused on ensuring the UK remains the most attractive place in the world to build AI companies and lead on AI adoption.The £100bn figure referenced refers to the total amount of private investment that firms have pledged to invest into the UK’s AI sector. This pledged investment demonstrates international confidence in the UK’s strong and growing AI ecosystem, supported by the Government’s strategic approach to innovation, world leading research base, and pro investment policy environment - including the UK’s strengths in AI talent, compute, research, and responsible innovation.Whilst decisions on investment is a matter for private companies, Government has been clear that it will encourage investment that will enable UK firms and people to benefit.
Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to publish a breakdown of the £100 billion in private investment it states has been attracted to the UK AI sector since 2024 and what proportion of that is spent onshore within Britain on British goods and services reverse the proportion of investment spent offshore on foreign companies.
The UK AI sector attracted the third highest levels of AI related private investment in the world. Alongside this, the UK produces the second highest number of AI startups globally. This Governments remains focused on ensuring the UK remains the most attractive place in the world to build AI companies and lead on AI adoption.The £100bn figure referenced refers to the total amount of private investment that firms have pledged to invest into the UK’s AI sector. This pledged investment demonstrates international confidence in the UK’s strong and growing AI ecosystem, supported by the Government’s strategic approach to innovation, world leading research base, and pro investment policy environment - including the UK’s strengths in AI talent, compute, research, and responsible innovation.Whilst decisions on investment is a matter for private companies, Government has been clear that it will encourage investment that will enable UK firms and people to benefit.
Innovation and Technology, how many new datacentres have been constructed as a result of investment by CoreWeave.
CoreWeave's announced investments into the UK total £2.5 billion. CoreWeave has committed £1.5 billion towards the Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone in Scotland, deploying cutting-edge semiconductors at DataVita's data centre campus in Lanarkshire. The earlier £1 billion investment covered the opening of CoreWeave's UK office as its European headquarters, the creation of job opportunities across engineering, operations, and finance, and the deployment of AI computing infrastructure across two data centres in Crawley and London Docklands. Large AI infrastructure investments are complex and take time to deliver; as government, we want to encourage these investments by supporting them as best we can. Where important investment announcements and commitments are made, Government will continue to work closely with those companies to ensure the delivery of those investments.
Innovation and Technology, what progress has been made on the proposed AI datacentre site in Loughton, Essex, announced in January 2025.
Matters regarding specific delivery and commercial plans for any private project are for the lead private sector investor to confirm. The government engages regularly with the sector to support build out.
Innovation and Technology, whether the investment by CoreWeave relates to (a) new construction of datacentres, (b) equipment purchases and (c) leasing space in existing datacentre facilities.
The Government does not publish commercially sensitive details about how individual companies structure their investments. CoreWeave has publicly signalled its intention to scale operations in the UK, supported by the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the AI Growth Zones programme. Decisions on construction, equipment procurement or leasing arrangements are for the company. Government engagement focuses on enabling the right conditions for investment, including access to power, planning support and a clear regulatory framework. Where important investment announcements and commitments are made, Government will continue to work closely with those companies to ensure the delivery of those investments. Government will continue to work with local authorities, regulators, and industry to help unlock barriers to AI infrastructure development across the UK.
Innovation and Technology, how many short-term, medium-term, and long-term jobs are (a) projected to be created and (b) have been created to date in relation to the Government’s proposed AI growth zones.
AI Growth Zones are expected to create more than 15,000 jobs spanning construction activity, permanent operational roles and wider supply‑chain employment. Job creation will ramp up as infrastructure works progress, with full delivery projected by the early 2030s. These figures are based on information provided by project teams and should be treated as projections rather than firm forecasts. Ultimately, hiring decisions sit with individual companies, but AI Growth Zones are designed to create high‑skill, long‑term employment in areas with strong potential for economic growth. The Department does not hold central data that consistently categorises jobs into short‑, medium‑ and long‑term across all AI Growth Zones, nor comprehensive data on jobs created to date, as projects remain at an early stage of delivery.
Innovation and Technology, what due diligence her Department undertook before announcing Nscale’s proposed $2.5 billion investment in UK AI infrastructure in 2025.
Matters regarding specific delivery and commercial plans for any private project are for the lead private sector investor to confirm. The government engages regularly with the sector to support build out.
Innovation and Technology, whether a formal contract has been signed with Nscale for the construction of the proposed AI datacentre in Loughton, Essex.
Matters regarding specific delivery and commercial plans for any private project are for the lead private sector investor to confirm. The government engages regularly with the sector to support build out.
Innovation and Technology, what proportion of the AI-related private investment announced by her Department since 2024 has been contractually committed.
The UK AI sector attracted the third highest levels of AI related private investment in the world. Alongside this, the UK produces the second highest number of AI startups globally. This Governments remains focused on ensuring the UK remains the most attractive place in the world to build AI companies and lead on AI adoption.The £100bn figure referenced refers to the total amount of private investment that firms have pledged to invest into the UK’s AI sector. This pledged investment demonstrates international confidence in the UK’s strong and growing AI ecosystem, supported by the Government’s strategic approach to innovation, world leading research base, and pro investment policy environment - including the UK’s strengths in AI talent, compute, research, and responsible innovation.Whilst decisions on investment is a matter for private companies, Government has been clear that it will encourage investment that will enable UK firms and people to benefit.
Innovation and Technology, what mechanisms are in place to ensure transparency in the reporting of private investment linked to the Government’s AI strategy and the proportion of that investment which is spent onshore within Britain on British goods and services reverse the proportion of investment spent offshore on foreign companies.
The UK AI sector attracted the third highest levels of AI related private investment in the world. Alongside this, the UK produces the second highest number of AI startups globally. This Governments remains focused on ensuring the UK remains the most attractive place in the world to build AI companies and lead on AI adoption.The £100bn figure referenced refers to the total amount of private investment that firms have pledged to invest into the UK’s AI sector. This pledged investment demonstrates international confidence in the UK’s strong and growing AI ecosystem, supported by the Government’s strategic approach to innovation, world leading research base, and pro investment policy environment - including the UK’s strengths in AI talent, compute, research, and responsible innovation.Whilst decisions on investment is a matter for private companies, Government has been clear that it will encourage investment that will enable UK firms and people to benefit.