Written questions by Barker.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of making UK AISI / Thorn's guidance, Recommended Practice for AI-G CSEA Prevention, published in December 2025, mandatory for all AI developers to prevent the creation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

The Government recognises the importance of tackling AI-generated CSAM. Creating, possessing, or distributing CSAM, including AI Generated CSAM, is illegal. The Online Safety Act requires services to proactively identify and remove this content. We are taking further action in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise CSAM image generators, and to ensure AI developers can directly test for and address vulnerabilities in their models which enable the production of CSAM.The AISI / Thorn joint publication guidance (Recommended Practice for AI-G CSEA Prevention) sets out practical steps that AI developers, model hosting services and others in the AI ecosystem can take to reduce the risk that their systems are misused to generate CSAM. This guidance is informed by input from industry and child protection organisations, and many of the world’s leading AI developers (including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta) have signed up to the principles of earlier forms of this guidance.The Government is clear: no option is off the table when it comes to protecting the online safety of users in the UK, and we will not hesitate to act where evidence suggests that further action is necessary.

Innovation and Technology, what discussions he has had with the UKRI on its funded research projects on solar radiation modification.

The Department engages regularly with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and its constituent Councils, on a range of research and innovation priorities.In April 2025, UKRI’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) invested £10 million in four research projects on solar radiation modification (SRM). These projects cover stratospheric aerosol intervention; marine cloud brightening; the environment’s response to SRM; and the cooling potential of lesser-known SRM approaches. These projects will not involve outdoor experiments.

Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the growth of AI on individual employment sectors.

We are already witnessing AI’s impact within the labour market: transforming the workplace, demanding new skills and displacing old ones. The Government will work to harness the benefits that AI can bring – such as productivity gains, rising living standards, and improved worker wellbeing – while managing potential risks.The Get Britain Working White Paper from DWP, HMT and DfE sets out how we will address key labour market challenges. We continue to work closely with these and other government departments through the AI Opportunities Action Plan.

Innovation and Technology, whether funding made available for the AstraZeneca vaccine project in Liverpool will remain available for other life science projects in the Liverpool City region.

The Government supports the vibrant life sciences sector, which contributes £108 billion to the economy and 300,000 jobs nationwide. A new Life Sciences Sector Plan, part of the upcoming Industrial Strategy, is due to be published in late Spring. This will set out a comprehensive plan of how the Government intends to drive growth in the sector. In addition, the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund will allocate up to £520 million to deliver economic growth and build health resilience, and is available UK-wide, including to projects in the Liverpool City region

Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing funding for research into the role of technology in gender based violence.

The government is working with Ofcom, the independent online safety regulator, to implement the Online Safety Act. The Act requires platforms to proactively tackle illegal content and content harmful to children, much of which disproportionately affects women and girls.Ofcom and the government have ongoing online safety research programmes. On 6 February, DSIT published research entitled ‘Platform design and the risk of online violence against women and girls’ which can found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67a39e2cad556423b636cadd/Platform_design_risk_of_online_violence_against_women_girls_A.pdf

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help protect (a) women and (b) girls from deepfake pornography.

Online safety is a priority for government. Services in scope of the Online Safety Act must remove illegal content and protect children from harmful content - including when this content is AI-generated. Services providing pornographic content must use highly effective age assurance to ensure that children cannot access it.We are committed to tackling the atrocious harm posed by the creation of non-consensual intimate images and are bringing in legislation to criminalise this behaviour in the Data (Use and Access) Bill.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of AI on structural unemployment.

We are already witnessing AI’s impact within the labour market: transforming the workplace, demanding new skills and displacing old ones. The Government will work to harness the benefits that AI can bring – such as productivity gains, rising living standards, and improved worker wellbeing – while managing potential risks.The Get Britain Working White Paper from DWP, HMT and DfE sets out how we will address key labour market challenges. We continue to work closely with these and other government departments through the AI Opportunities Action Plan.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of social media algorithms on recent trends in the level of misogynistic content targeted at (a) boys and (b) young men.

The Online Safety Act (OSA) places safety duties on in-scope user-to-user and search services. Services must employ age-appropriate measures to protect children from legal abusive and hateful misogynistic content. Additionally, the largest services (category 1) will need to remove misogynistic content where it is prohibited in their terms of service.Ofcom is the independent regulator for online safety and its draft codes include steps regarding algorithm design and operation. Ofcom will keep its codes under review.

Innovation and Technology, whether artificial intelligence is being used to make decisions on individual caseworks (a) across government departments, (b) in the Home Office and (c) in the Department for Work and Pensions.

Individual departments have responsibility for their specific adoption of Artificial Intelligence. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) supports their adoption by providing frameworks, guidance and a community of practice. DSIT is currently implementing the mandatory rollout of the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) which establishes a standardised way for public sector organisations to publish information about how and why they are using algorithmic tools.Artificial Intelligence is not being used within the Home Office to make caseworking decisions. DWP does not use artificial intelligence to make decisions in relation to fraud and error. All decisions that impact payments involve human intervention.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of potential impact of the cost of energy required to power AI capabilities on the feasibility of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, published on 13 January 2025.

The AI Opportunities Action Plan sets out how we will achieve our AI ambitions by laying the foundations for AI growth, driving adoption and building UK capability at the frontier.We recognise that data centres face sustainability challenges, from energy demands to water use. Through the AI Energy Council, we will be exploring bold, clean energy solutions — from next-generation renewables to small modular reactors — to ensure our AI ambitions align with the UK’s net zero goals.This builds on DSIT’s contribution to make Britain a clean energy superpower by investing in relevant research on clean energy and climate change.

Innovation and Technology, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of banning social media for under-16s.

We continue to consider all options in the pursuit of online safety for children. We live in a digital age and it is important we strike the right balance. Our priority is the effective implementation of the Online Safety Act so children can benefit from its wide-reaching protections as quickly as possible. We are building the evidence base to inform any future action and have launched a research project looking at the links between social media and children’s wellbeing.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help protect young people from (a) misogynistic behaviour and (b) unrealistic expectations of young women on social media platforms.

The Online Safety Act requires in-scope services to protect users from harmful illegal content, much of which disproportionately affects women and girls. Services must also employ age-appropriate measures to protect children from legal abusive and hateful misogynistic content. User-to-user services and publishers of pornography must also prevent children from encountering online pornography. Services over the designated threshold will need to remove misogynistic content where it is prohibited in their terms of service. Companies will need to have effective, accessible mechanisms in place for users to be able to report abuse and receive an appropriate response from the platform. Media literacy helps address online safety issues by raising awareness that online actions have offline consequences, encouraging critical engagement with content and fostering a respectful online environment. Since 2022, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology has provided almost £3 million in grant funding for a range of media literacy projects. This covered funding for the National Literacy Trust’s ‘Empower’ programme which includes delivering media literacy education with a focus on women and girls’ online experiences to students aged 11-16.