Lords
Debate
17 November 2025
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I must say, I admire the range of interventions made by the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra. I do not want him to fall back on his seat, but on this occasion, we have some sympathy with the two amendments he has put forward. This group addresses the establishment of the new civil penalty regime for onli…
My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, has so concisely described—he gets more concise as the evening goes on—this group deals with the sanctions applied under the online weapon advertising regime.
We very much welcome the Government’s commitment to ensuring accountability for businesses and…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
Artificial Intelligence Legislation
The issues to which the noble Lord refers have, of course, been extensively debated here. One outcome of conversations during the passing of the data Act was a commitment to have these discussions. I also think it would be premature to decide the nature or timing of legislation until those discussio…
Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I knew there was a reason why I was so nice about the earlier amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra. I am afraid we do not agree with Amendment 26. The amendment focuses on the power to issue closure notices, a measure which deals directly with the security of the home, which we b…
My Lords, this group, so well introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Russell of Liverpool, and spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Hampton, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Stedman-Scott and Lady Jones, focuses on putting the victim first, a principle that we wholeheartedly support.
Clause 6 aims to streng…
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Lords
Debate
10 November 2025
7 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, in moving Amendment 1, I will speak to other amendments in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Doocey.
I welcome the start of Committee and the opportunity to engage in detail with Part 1 of the Bill concerning anti-social behaviour. We on these Benches recognise the imperative to ma…
My Lords, I think it is the Matterhorn at this stage, rather than Everest, but we will see. I thank the Minister for his very full reply, and I thank all noble Lords for their support for this set of amendments that I and my noble friend Lady Doocey put forward. The Minister has set out his stall; h…
+5 more contributions in this session
Lords
Proceedings
10 November 2025
Curriculum and Assessment Review
My Lords, alongside my noble friends and the irrepressible noble Lord, Lord Baker, I very much welcome today’s Statement. It talks about “boosting digital literacy through a reformed computing curriculum to allow pupils to navigate the opportunities and challenges of AI and much more”. What is the “…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 November 2025
AI: Workforce Training
The noble Lord made several points there; I will address the point about AI gaps in the workforce. The Government are actively assessing AI skills gaps and taking action to close them. My department regularly reviews the AI labour market and has commissioned new research, due to be released later th…
Lords
Proceedings
30 October 2025
3 contributions
Protection of Children Codes of Practice
My Lords, this is a regret Motion, and one of my regrets today is that we are debating it so long after it was tabled back in May this year. The Online Safety Act 2023 was born from tireless campaigning over a long period, and when I look around the Chamber, I see a number of those who were heavily …
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for initiating this debate, and I agree with almost everything he has just said.
I applaud the enormous work that Ofcom has put into creating and implementing the children’s codes. I am pleased to hear that they have already led to a huge reduct…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Amazon Web Services
I thank the noble Lord for those points. The Government are aware and are taking cybersecurity seriously. That is why we have published a number of strategies and are working with the National Cyber Security Centre, as I mentioned earlier. The noble Lord also mentioned procurement and the service pr…
Lords
Debate
16 October 2025
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I also support much of this Bill. The Home Secretary introduced the Bill to drive her Government’s safer streets mission and to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, so I welcome the tightening of the law in Clauses 84 and 85 around voyeurism and criminalising exposure intend…
Lords
Proceedings
14 October 2025
Digital ID
My Lords, the introduction of compulsory digital ID represents another fundamental error by this Government. The Liberal Democrats strongly oppose this proposal, which is a serious threat to privacy, civil liberties and social inclusion. We thank the Minister for bringing the Secretary of State’s St…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
2 contributions
Online Safety Act 2023: Virtual Private Networks
My Lords, the Government and Ofcom are monitoring the potential impact of circumvention techniques on the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act, especially since the child safety duties came into effect in July 2025. Services promoting VPN use to bypass age checks could face enforcement action. The…
My Lords, the Online Safety Act places very clear duties on platforms to protect children, including tackling methods of circumvention. The use of VPNs to bypass safeguards is a known risk, and platforms must act decisively. They are already required to assess such risks and implement proportionate …
Lords
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
Merck Research Site
I thank the noble Lord for raising the VPAG scheme. The VPAG scheme, which was negotiated under the previous Government, turned out with a figure of 23%, which was completely unexpected on both sides. The industry entered the scheme jointly with government, negotiated it and that is the number it ca…
Lords
Proceedings
10 September 2025
Jaguar Land Rover Cyberattack
My Lords, I express my appreciation of the work of the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, which the Minister mentioned, and I wish her well in her non-ministerial capacity. Given reports that the attack has been claimed by hacker groups linked to Scattered Spider, which I believe is also responsible for re…
Lords
Debate
5 September 2025
Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for introducing this Bill, which, although a Private Member’s Bill, received the support of the previous Conservative Government; I understand that it has the support of the current Government as well.
I do not want to sound the slightest bit grinchy in the midst o…
Lords
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
European Framework Programme 10
We have got the money for the first two years of the programme in the spending review so, assuming that we associate, the money is there for those first two years, which covers the period of the spending review. The timelines for FP10 are in the hands of the EU, which has not yet defined what the pr…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 September 2025
Open Artificial Intelligence Service
As the noble Lord rightly says, the open AI approach—I mean the general approach to openness, not the company—has been an important part of how this has progressed so rapidly and will be an important part of what we do going forward. We need partnerships where necessary in order to access existing m…
Lords
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Civil Service: Artificial Intelligence Productivity Gains
I thank the noble Lord for his question. I have a full Question on sovereign AI on Wednesday, when I will answer that question in more detail, but in the meantime let me say that there is not a some inbuilt bias against that; it is just that many of the large language models are, of course, from US …
Lords
Debate
23 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, it is extremely disappointing that we are debating something of this order of importance at this time of day and at the fag-end of this Bill. However, unusually, I shall try to ingratiate myself with the House by being as brief as possible.
First, I want to thank the noble Lord, Lord Katz…
My Lords, I am going to be extremely brief because it is now 11.20 pm. We need to finish these proceedings at least before midnight, but that may be an ambition too far. I declare an interest, as I should have done in the last group, as chair of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society.
It wou…
Lords
Statutory Instrument
22 July 2025
4 contributions
Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025
Perhaps the noble Lord has never been on the board of a public limited company. There is a huge difference between a 5% and a 15% ownership stake.
If a company has a series of 5% ownership stakes it will have a plurality of shareholders and therefore a mix of influence, but if you own a 15% stake you have a much higher share in the company and are probably entitled to a single board member.
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Debate
21 July 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, Amendment 111ZA seeks to introduce a requirement for workplace AI risk and impact assessments. This amendment is focused on addressing the profound and rapidly evolving impact of artificial intelligence systems on the modern workplace. There are many opportunities for its adoption but also…
The noble Baroness nearly won me over at that point. I thank her. I feel like someone who was expecting a full meal but receives a rather light snack. I will explain why as we go through.
I thank the noble Lord, Lord Holmes. I feel that I am somewhat upstaging him by putting an amendment at the fro…
Lords
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Artificial Intelligence: Legislation
I agree that this is an urgent issue, and it is changing day by day. The urgency is reflected in the work that has already taken place through the Online Safety Act, the Data (Use and Access) Act and, of course, the Crime and Policing Bill. But the need to get the legislation right for a more widesp…
Lords
Committee Stage
15 July 2025
4 contributions
Online Safety Super-Complaints (Eligibility and Procedural Matters) Regulations 2025
My Lords, I want to add a few comments to the discussions on these regulations. I am sorry; I was a little slow off the mark.
I want to say from the outset that I believe we are going to need much more oversight to protect everyone —in particular our children and other vulnerable groups —from tech,…
The only information that I have is that we are anticipating that the report would be published and available in early 2028—so, obviously, it would need to start well before then. The noble Lord will know that setting up ombudsman schemes is not a simple process. However, we look forward to the outc…
+2 more contributions in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
9 July 2025
Fujitsu: Government Contracts
The noble Lord makes an incredibly important point. Yesterday, we saw the first volume of Sir Wyn Williams’s 160-page report, based on 2 million pages of evidence, which included 19 recommendations, and we will come back to it in due course. The Government are committed to responding in full to the …
Lords
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
3 contributions
ARIA: Scoping Our Planet Programme
ARIA fully complies with its responsibilities under the Environmental Information Regulations. ARIA is committed to transparency; it publishes regular information on its programmes in its annual reports and accounts, in the corporate plan and through the quarterly transparency disclosures on its web…
I thank the noble Lord for his question. I know that he is prone to shaking his head when Ministers answer. I fear that I may give him a neck injury during this answer.
Of course we are committed to transparency, but we have no plans to bring ARIA into the scope of the FoI Act. ARIA is a unique org…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Debate
24 June 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
My Lords, I will see my noble friend Lord Fox tomorrow and I will tell him what he has been missing. I think the noble Lord, Lord Leong, is already making history by using the phrase “very, very soon”—or was it “very, very, very soon”? In my experience, I do not think I have heard that, so it is pro…
Can the Minister say what the status is of the consultations she mentioned? She offered very reassuring words and said there was a consultation on employment status. Is that under way? Would that mean the idea is to eventually have an Employment Rights (No.2) Bill, which we would all look forward to…
+1 more contribution in this session