Lords
Proceedings
13 July 2026
Employment: Artificial Intelligence
My Lords, I am concerned about the adverse effect that AI is having on employment in the creative sector. The Communications and Digital Committee, in its recent report on AI and copyright, recommended protections against both unauthorised digital replicas and harmful AI outputs in the style of a cr…
Lords
Proceedings
29 June 2026
Arrangement of Business
Good afternoon, my Lords. If there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, this Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.
Lords
Proceedings
16 June 2026
Social Media Ban for Under-16s
I thank the Minister for the comments she has just made. She has just said that Ofcom will have a consultation on which age verification method will be used for identifying under-16s. However, I understand that the preferred form of age verification in this new social media regime will be ID documen…
Lords
Proceedings
26 March 2026
Middle East: Economic Update
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to speak.
Lords
Oral Questions
26 March 2026
AI Growth Lab
As the noble Viscount knows, we published our report and impact assessment on AI and copyright and we have outlined three or four specific areas we will be taking forward, including digital replicas, AI labelling and looking at mechanisms for creatives to control their works online. It is clear that…
Lords
Debate
25 March 2026
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
The noble Baroness has said a couple of times that my noble friend Lord Nash introduced his amendment on Report. It was tabled in Committee and on Report and it was debated at Second Reading. Maybe she would like to correct her remarks.
Lords
Debate
18 March 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
My Lords, I support Amendment 422D and the consequential Amendments 434 to 437, to which I have added my name. In Amendment 429B the Government have gone far to respond to concerns over AI-generated harms, but this amendment, as the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron, has said, gives enormous powers to the…
Lords
Committee Stage
16 March 2026
Media Literacy (Communications and Digital Committee Report)
My Lords, I contribute to this debate with a little temerity. Having only recently joined the Communications and Digital Committee, I was not present to hear any of the evidence or representations received prior to the preparation of what is undoubtedly a very comprehensive report. That being said, …
Lords
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
EU Digital Services Act and Regulation
Our approach is to have regulators who are sector-specific and have the expertise to look at how AI is affecting the companies they regulate and its impact.
Lords
Oral Questions
2 March 2026
2 contributions
UK Streaming and Cinema Sector
My Lords—
Public service broadcasters are vital, and it is important for us to recognise how central YouTube is to a number of young people’s access to content. We welcome Ofcom’s recommendation that public service broadcasters and platforms such as YouTube work together urgently to ensure that public service…
Lords
Debate
6 February 2026
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
My Lords, I apologise: this is the first time I have spoken on the Bill. I have added my name to Amendment 115 in the name of my noble friend Lady Finlay. My concern is that, as other noble Lords have told the Committee, the Mental Capacity Act has the presumption that, if in doubt, the doctors maki…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 February 2026
AI Superintelligence
The noble Lord is right to highlight that issue. We are doing a lot already, but we must do more. As I said, we are investing in establishing our Sovereign AI Unit, we will equip some 10 million people with AI skills by 2030, and we will go further by supporting our SMEs to grow the AI market in thi…
Lords
Debate
27 January 2026
Crime and Policing Bill
A word of warning to the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries: if at this stage a noble Lord starts making a speech, we normally have to call the voices on it. But we will keep going.
Amendments 441 to 444
Lords
Debate
21 January 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
My Lords, I support many of the amendments in this group, but I also want to express my concerns about Amendment 94A in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Nash. I have listened carefully to his arguments and those of other noble Lords who support the amendment. I too am appalled by the many stories th…
I apologise. They suggest that the Act should be amended to ensure safety by design for all users, particularly young users.
There is a need to strengthen Ofcom’s response to tech platforms that breach their risk assessments. It needs to put the onus on the platforms to mitigate the risks, instead …
Lords
Committee Stage
20 January 2026
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
My Lords, I speak in support of Amendments 6 in the name of my noble friend Lord Clancarty and Amendment 10 in the name of my noble friend Lady Prashar. I have spoken to a number of people in local government and become convinced that the new strategic authorities could benefit their regions if they…
Lords
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Broadcasting: Recent Developments
My Lords, earlier in this debate, the noble Lord, Lord Fowler, described the BBC as a “unique organisation”. Later, the noble Lord, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, described the BBC as a “national institution”. I agree wholly with both noble Lords. I speak only of the radio, but this does go back a long wa…
Lords
Oral Questions
7 January 2026
Computer-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material
It is vital that the police and other security forces and agencies take action on this issue as a matter of urgency. The point that the noble Viscount has made is valid and correct. From my perspective, we have to send a signal from Parliament and from the Government that this type of misuse of thos…
Lords
Oral Questions
10 December 2025
Children: Social Media
The noble Viscount makes a really good point—one I was trying to make not as eloquently earlier—that there are good reasons for children to be online. Children of all ages can benefit from being online, but appropriate protections need to be in place, protections which do not lead to unintended cons…
Lords
Debate
9 December 2025
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I too support all the amendments in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Bertin, but I shall speak particularly to Amendment 298.
As other noble Lords have pointed out, these nudification apps are horrific and bring untold harm to the women and men who are victims of them. They are so prevalent in …
My Lords, I am pleased to support the noble Baroness, Lady Owen, in the latest stage of her campaign to stop online image abuse. I too applaud her success against deepfakes in the Data (Use and Access) Act. The Government have done much good work to progress that campaign in this Bill, but the distr…
+1 more contribution in this session
Lords
Oral Questions
17 November 2025
2 contributions
Artificial Intelligence Legislation
My Lords—
I thank the noble Viscount for his question. Strengthening media literacy education is incredibly important: it helps people navigate the growing presence of AI-generated content and it is important in schools and further than that. Noble Lords will remember that we have welcomed the report of the i…
Lords
Oral Questions
3 November 2025
AI: Workforce Training
I thank the noble Viscount for that. At the end of the day, the fact is that AI is now central to the UK’s growth strategy. The results are very clear: UK AI companies deliver some £11.8 billion in gross value added, revenues are up 68% and over 86,000 people now work in the sector.
As for the ques…
Lords
Proceedings
30 October 2025
Protection of Children Codes of Practice
My Lords, I thank the noble, Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for bringing this regret Motion. He gave a tour de force of all the reasons why we should regret that these codes are not more ambitious. I too wholeheartedly support the Online Safety Act and, once again, it is a privilege to be with the tech t…
Lords
Oral Questions
15 September 2025
Online Safety Act 2023: Virtual Private Networks
My Lords, many people use VPNs for entirely legitimate purposes. Their use does not negate the protections of the Online Safety Act, particularly when it comes to keeping children safe online. We have seen a significant increase in the use of age-verification tools as UK users attempt to access age-…