Speeches by Ward.

“It is a pleasure to speak in this debate and to hear Members’ warm recollections of Sir David Amess, including from you, Madam Deputy Speaker. He was obviously widely respected across this Chamber. Last month, we also remembered my dear friend Jo Cox, whom we continue to miss. My thoughts this week are with the friends…”

“Given the threats that our country faces, in March the Secretary of State announced welcome funding for two defence technical excellence colleges, one to be in the east of Scotland. Fife college at Kirkcaldy, in particular, stands ready to absorb new funding and rapidly scale up provision to plug the gap in entry-level…”

“2. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to promote skills development in the defence industry in Fife.”

“Will the shadow Minister give way?”

“I rise to speak in support of a UK ban on trade in goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) for securing the debate and for all her work on the issue. Last month I organised a letter to the Foreign Secretary, which was co-signed by mo…”

“The shadow Minister has been talking about the views of our allies in the region. I wonder when he last met or spoke to our allies across the Arab world, because they have been crying out for many of the actions that our Government have taken. They have been calling on us to act in support of a two-state solution, and …”

“The Minister is talking about the importance of long-term partnership. Last week, I was proud to lead the first British parliamentary delegation to Syria since the fall of the Assad regime. I had a number of conversations with Ministers, who asked for technical support from our Government, particularly on special educa…”

“Madam Deputy Speaker, I hope you will not mind if I take a moment to reflect on the fact that today is the 10th anniversary of the murder of our dear friend Jo Cox. I was lucky to serve alongside Jo on the board of the Labour Women’s Network and we had done similar kinds of work previously. I often sit here in the Cham…”

“The threats that cyber-attacks pose increase every year and the nature of the cyber-threats we face is continually developing. Last year, the UK faced 204 nationally significant cyber-incidents, attacks which threaten large organisations, local and central government or our other essential services. That represents an …”

“The Government must have control over data centres in the UK. The innovation in AI is spectacular, but all too often its developers live in a world of their own, without Government regulation. That is the case particularly in the United States, where they have been given carte blanche to press ahead with AI development…”

“Current NIS regulations are limited to sectors deemed critical in 2016, a year after OpenAI was founded and five years before the foundation of Anthropic. It is high time that our cyber-security regulations caught up with the pace of threats, including those from Russia, who are already seriously targeting our country,…”

“AI will do incredible things while transforming society, and there is no point in anyone denying that or trying to turn back the clock. Indeed it is incumbent upon us to ensure that the UK is a world leader in AI and the good that it can do, and I know the Minister will agree with that. However, the pace at which the t…”

“I will focus my speech on UK data centres and the scope to maintain cyber-defences around them in the Bill. AI has the power to bring enormous benefits to our society and economy, from healthcare to productivity. AI growth will rely on having the right infrastructure to support it. Of course, this means the installatio…”

“Residents in Auchtertool are also right in their concern that Fife council does not, at this stage, appear to be taking full account of the environmental impact of a huge data centre like this, and that is why I have challenged this with the council. Scottish law must be brought up to date, as has already been done in …”

“Powerful models, like Anthropic’s Mythos, are redefining the cyber-security landscape with potentially catastrophic effects for our critical national infrastructure. Mythos has exposed previously undiscovered flaws in every major operating system and every major web browser, putting at risk our social and economic secu…”

“We must be able to switch off those systems if we need to, but currently we cannot. That is clearly unacceptable and must change. That is why I am speaking in support of new clause 12, in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central and Headingley (Alex Sobel). The new clause would provide the Secretary of S…”

“I certainly agree. Misinformation and disinformation are a huge challenge to our democracy and our country. We know that many enemy nations, such as Russia and Iran, are seeking to exploit loopholes, and I believe the Government have to take further action on that, for sure. We should not wait to find out whether AI ha…”

“My constituents in Auchtertool are right to state that the fields beside their village are not an appropriate setting for a large data centre, as is currently proposed. In Scotland, there have been no changes to planning law to take account of the advent of data centres and the resources that they require. I hope that …”

“Similarly, as the race quickens to AI superintelligence, where the capabilities of AI models surpass the capabilities of any human, it is crucial that we have control over our data systems as well as over AI more widely. For all our history, humans have been the most intelligent beings on this planet, yet superintellig…”

“This week, I was proud to see our Labour Government announce a ban on under-16s accessing social media, which many of us have campaigned for since we were elected to this place. Many of my constituents across Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, especially teachers and parents, have told me that they want that to happen, but the…”