Written questions by Arthur.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the potential risks of age verification methods involving facial or biometric data to enforce a social media ban for under-16s.

Awaiting answer.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding to the UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods; what assessment he has made of the role of industry co-investment in s

The Government is supporting the establishment of the UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods through funding secured as part of the Replacing Animals in Science strategy, with costs informed by analysis of validation requirements and comparab...

Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle harmful platform features that put children at risk online.

Protecting children online is a priority for the Secretary of State. Through our recent consultation, which included parents and children's consultations and nationally representative polls, we heard from over 116,000 people. Following this, on 15 June th...

Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to extend proposed restrictions to livestreaming and communication with strangers for child users to other high-risk functionalities including disappearing messages, t

The government recently announced restrictions on social media services offering their services to under-16s and wider services offering livestreaming or stranger communication to under-16s.Combined with requiring more device level protections for childre...

Innovation and Technology, what discussions his Department has had with the Food Standards Agency on the regulatory pathway for novel foods.

Ministers and officials regularly discuss novel food regulatory pathways with FSA. This includes the Engineering Biology Sandbox and Regulatory Innovation Office’s financial support for a new FSA innovation hub.In October 2024, DSIT awarded the Food Stand...

Innovation and Technology, what funding her Department is making in the mathematical sciences to support the UK’s quantum industry.

The Government recognises that advanced mathematics underpins excellence across science, engineering and technology, and can play a vital role in driving innovation and productivity. In 2025-2026, UK Research and Innovation committed £25 million to core m...

Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the cost of technical debt to UK productivity; and what steps her Department is taking to address skills shortages linked to the retirement of personnel

At least 28% of central government systems are classified as legacy. These outdated systems cost around 40% more to maintain than modern alternatives, slow down public services, are harder to join up and increase the risk of disruption, reducing efficienc...

Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to support the development of quantum communications technologies in Scotland.

DSIT has a stated mission to deploy an advanced UK quantum network at scale by 2035, supported through several funding initiatives in Scotland.DSIT funds the academic Integrated Quantum Networks (IQN) Hub led by Herriot-Watt University, and has committed £8m funding to the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics in Glasgow.DSIT funds university Centres for Doctoral Training in Quantum Informatics (Edinburgh) and Applied Quantum Technologies (Strathclyde, Glasgow, and Heriot-Watt).In March 2026, we announced over £1bn investment in UK quantum technology development over the next 4 years, with £125m dedicated for Quantum Networking - including a £20m UKRI funding competition on “Enabling Commercial Quantum Networking” that opened on 14th April.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made with Ofcom of the potential impact of the Online Safety Act 2023 on children’s exposure to harmful content online.

The Online Safety Act requires services to protect children from both illegal and harmful, age-inappropriate content. Protections against illegal content and activity have been in force since March, and protections for children since July of this year.We are working closely with Ofcom to monitor the Act’s impact and effectiveness. This evaluation programme will feed into the government’s statutory post-implementation review.Ofcom will publish data on children's online experiences in the first half of 2026. This will be Ofcom’s most relevant set of data on children’s online experiences since the child safety duties came into force.

Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that companies implementing (a) age-verification and (b) safety requirements use (i) secure and (ii) adequately regulated third-party vendors for data processing.

The Online Safety Act requires providers to give particular regard to the protection of users’ privacy rights when complying with their new safety duties, including when using age assurance measures. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has a range of criminal and civil enforcement tools at its disposal, including prosecution and substantial monetary penalties for serious breaches of data protection legislation.Third party vendors must have appropriate technical and security measures in place to protect personal data. Where Ofcom has concerns that providers have not complied with their obligations under data protection law, it may refer the matter to the ICO.

Innovation and Technology what discussions he has had with Ofcom on ensuring that (a) (i) broadband and (ii) telephone customers who do not move suppliers at the end of their contract are not charged more; and (b) providers automatically apply the best available tariff without requiring customers to renegotiate.

Ordinary people need to feel empowered when interacting with the telecoms market so they can be confident that they are getting a fair deal, and shop around and change provider if they need to. DSIT’s Secretary of State, the Rt Honourable Liz Kendall, wrote to Ofcom’s CEO on 31st October to ask for its assessment of telecoms consumer protections and what further action should be taken.

Innovation and Technology, what discussions he has had with cancer-related charities on taking steps to help support the UK to become the leading life sciences economy in Europe by 2030.

The Life Sciences Sector Plan (LSSP) sets out a ten-year vision for enabling world-class R&D, making the UK an outstanding place for investment in life sciences, and driving healthcare innovation in the NHS. The plan received input from over 250 organisations including clinicians, NHS leadership, industry experts and charities (including cancer-related charities). The Office for Life Sciences Cancer Healthcare Goals Programme established the UK Cancer Research Strategy Forum (UKCRSF) to bring together the UK’s major cancer research funders to ensure coordination of strategic priorities in cancer research. The UKCRSF facilitated discussions relating to the cancer commitments of the LSSP.

Innovation and Technology, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department to ensure the life sciences sector has the visa routes it needs to attract global talent to the UK.

The Government is committed to attracting top global talent to the UK. We are working with the Home Office and the Home Secretary to deliver the Immigration White Paper, ensuring that the very highly skilled can come to the UK. The Life Sciences sector already attracts talent through routes including the Global Talent and High Potential Individual visas and the recently published Life Sciences Sector Plan sets out clear actions HMG will take to attract international Life Sciences talent.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure the National Oceanography Centre is meeting its nationwide remit.

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) plays a key role in delivering oceanographic science and innovation across the UK. It provides access to a wide range of data, infrastructure, and research services to universities, government departments, and other partners nationwide.NOC’s activities are designed to reflect and serve the whole of the UK. It collaborates with regional and national partners, including the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS). SAMS is a key delivery partner in the NOC-led Marine Science National Capability programme, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. This partnership ensures that marine science infrastructure, data, and services are accessible to researchers and stakeholders across Scotland.NOC’s performance and use of public funding are subject to regular review and evaluation and is overseen by an independent board to ensure accountability and alignment with national priorities.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to encourage academic research collaboration between UK and Ukrainian universities.

The UK-Ukraine 100 Year Partnership sets out how the UK and Ukraine build long-term military, economic and cultural ties. This includes through science, technology and innovation collaboration – both to drive mutual growth and support Ukraine’s R&D sector. Since 2022, we have supported over 100 pairs of UK and Ukrainian universities through the University Twinning Programme, providing over £5 million of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Research England funding to work together. We also support UK and Ukrainian Innovators to work together through the UK-Ukraine Techbridge and over 170 Ukrainian researchers to continue their research at UK universities through the Researchers at Risk Programme.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the graduate route visa scheme on levels of innovation.

The Government is committed to making the UK the destination of choice for top international talent, who have an important impact on innovation and entrepreneurship in the UK. Their impact is particularly noticeable in the UK’s leading startup ecosystem; a quarter of Tech Nation-endorsed Global Talent Visa (GTV) holders are founders, and 39% of the UK’s fastest growing start-ups have at least one foreign born co-founder. In addition to providing a pipeline of entrepreneurs, international talent contributes significantly to innovation in key growth-driving sectors, and makes up 37% of higher education research staff.

Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2025 to Question 25126, whether his Department has now published a breakdown of spending on brain cancer research in 2023-24 for each UKRI body.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) delivers a substantial portfolio of researcher-led projects and strategic investments, including research investigating the causes for and underpinning the development of treatments for Brain Cancer. The Medical Research Council (MRC) spent £2.86 million on brain cancer research in funding year 2023-24. MRC, Innovate UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council all support research in this area. UKRI also plays a key role in funding underpinning research which may not be attributable to a specific condition but will benefit medical research more generally.

Innovation and Technology, whether he is taking steps to help protect authors who do not want their works to be used by AI models.

Copyright law already protects the rights of authors, who have several means of asserting their moral and economic rights. The Government published its consultation on Copyright and AI on 17 December 2024. This sought views on giving rights holders of creative works greater control over use of their material to train AI models and supporting their ability to be remunerated where it is used. The consultation closed on 25 February 2025.The Government’s priority now is to review all responses to the consultation, to help inform its approach to copyright and AI. The Government will continue to engage extensively as it considers next steps, and its proposals will be set out in due course.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to support the development of non-passenger carrying drones.

My department supports the safe deployment of drones for commercial and public benefit, through R&D support and innovative regulation. Wider drone policy is led by the Department for Transport.Since 2019, the Future Flight Challenge, administered by Innovate UK, has provided £125m of public funding for collaborative R&D and innovation in this area.We established the Regulatory Innovation Office to support our ambition to be the best place in the world to innovate. ‘Drones and other autonomous technology’ is an initial focus area of the Regulatory Innovation Office.