Kanishka Narayan MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 4 Nov 2025 · Draft Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025 · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison, in my first debate on a piece of delegated legislation in the rigorous venue of a Committee Room. The draft regulations will be made under powers provided by the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022. The PSTI product security regulatory regime comprises of part 1 of the 2022 Act, together with the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) Regulations 2023. That world-leading regulatory regime came into force in April 2024. It better protects consumers, businesses and the wider economy from the harms associated with cyber-attacks on consumer connectable products such as mobiles, smart cameras and smart appliances more broadly. The law requires that products that can connect to a network or internet are made available to customers in the UK only when they meet baseline cyber-security requirements. Those requirements include banning the use of universal default or easily guessable passwords such as “admin123”, reducing one of the most commonly exploited vulnerabilities in connectable products. Manufacturers must also be transparent about the minimum duration for which they will provide much-needed security updates that patch vulnerabilities. They must publish information on how to report security vulnerabilities directly to them, and provide status updates about reported issues. There are also important duties that importers must comply with, as they play an important role in ensuring that vulnerable products are not imported into this country. The same applies to distributors, as they are often the last line of defence against non-compliant products making their way to customers. The PSTI Act was the world’s first legislation of its kind, but let me be clear that we are not alone in our commitment to improve the security of connected products. Across the world, countries that share our values are taking action. One such country is Japan, where the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Information-technology Promotion Agency launched the Japan cyber-security technical assessment requirements labelling scheme for internet of things products in March 2025. Similarly, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore launched its cyber-security labelling scheme for consumer smart devices in March 2020. The Japanese and Singaporean labelling schemes require manufacturers to ensure that their products meet a set of baseline security requirements that are based on European Telecommunications Standards Institute standard EN 303 645 on cyber-security for consumer IOT products—a standard that the UK developed in partnership with over 90 countries and to which we aligned our own security requirements. Products issued with a valid label under either scheme will therefore have an equivalent or greater level of cyber-security than required under the UK’s PSTI regime. There is no security advantage in duplicating compliance processes for manufacturers that have already met equivalent or higher security standards. Our focus must be on removing undue burdens from businesses, reducing unnecessary costs and opening the door for UK businesses to succeed in markets around the world. Subject to the approval of the House, the draft regulations will establish two alternative routes for manufacturers of consumer connectable products to demonstrate compliance with the UK’s product security regime. On 23 October, at Singapore international cyber week 2025, the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency formally signed a memorandum of understanding on the mutual recognition of consumer internet of things cyber-security regimes. The UK will also shortly be signing an MOU with Japan. Those MOUs represent a significant step forward in our international collaboration on digital security and innovation. They each establish a framework for recognising cyber-security certifications across borders. When both MOUs come into effect, UK businesses will benefit from streamlined access to the Japanese and Singaporean labelling schemes, boosting their product credibility and market appeal in those regions. The draft regulations will enable the UK to uphold its commitments, allow Japanese and Singaporean businesses to trade more easily with our market and reinforce our shared dedication to securing the connected device supply chain. Regulations 4 and 8 amend the 2023 regulations to provide for deemed compliance with the requirement under section 9 of the 2022 Act that relevant connectable products must be accompanied by a statement of compliance. Under new regulation 4A and schedule 2A to the 2023 regulations, a manufacturer will be deemed to have complied with this requirement where the relevant connectable product carries a valid label under Japan’s JC-STAR STAR-1 labelling scheme, or a label under any level of the Singapore cyber-security labelling scheme. Regulations 5 to 7 amend schedule 2 to the 2023 regulations to provide for deemed compliance with other relevant security requirements set out in schedule 1 to those regulations, where a manufacturer’s product carries either such label. Regulation 3 inserts definitions of Japan’s JC-STAR STAR-1 scheme and the Singapore cyber-security labelling scheme into the 2023 regulations for the purposes of the deeming provisions. Cyber-security is not just a technical issue; it is a strategic priority. By aligning with like-minded nations and reducing unnecessary barriers to trade, we are strengthening our digital resilience, supporting UK businesses and protecting our consumers. The UK must continue to lead by example, championing the global adoption of cyber-security standards and advancing mutual recognition, which are both a vital part of establishing a trusted global supply chain of connected products. These new mutual recognition arrangements, which will be implemented in part by the draft regulations, will not only reduce the regulatory burden on businesses, but streamline compliance and support our ambition to make the UK a more attractive and competitive market for secure digital products. The draft regulations will extend and apply to the whole of the United Kingdom and will have practical effect throughout the United Kingdom. I hope the Committee will recognise their importance.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House authorises the Secretary of State to undertake payments, by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982, in excess of £30 million to any successful applicant to the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, launched on 30 October 2024, up to a cumulative total of £520 million. Thank you for calling me on this none the less memorable occasion, Madam Deputy Speaker; it is the first occasion on which I seek the Chamber’s authority. The life sciences sector is a jewel in the crown of our economy—a national asset that plays a unique role in both the health and the wealth of the United Kingdom. The sector drives jobs, investment and innovation right across the country, from cutting-edge research laboratories in Cheshire to—close to my heart—advanced manufacturing sites in south Wales. Life sciences manufacturing is the critical link between our world-class research and real-world patient benefit. It ensures that scientific breakthroughs translate into tangible improvements in care, while underpinning economic growth and strengthening the resilience of our NHS. Yet despite the UK’s global leadership in many areas of life sciences manufacturing, we must acknowledge that, in recent years, growth in manufacturing sites and jobs has not kept pace with the expansion of the life sciences sector as a whole. That is why this summer the Government published the life sciences sector plan—a comprehensive strategy to ensure growth in all parts of the sector. The plan sets out the UK’s ambition to secure more life sciences foreign direct investment than any other European economy by 2030, behind only the US and China globally by 2035. Central to that ambition is boosting manufacturing through delivery of the life sciences innovative manufacturing fund, one of six headline commitments in the sector plan. Launched last October, the fund demonstrates this Government’s commitment to the continued growth of our life sciences sector, with up to £520 million of funding available to support private sector capital investments until 2030.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress for now. The life sciences innovative manufacturing fund directly supports two of the Government’s key missions: to kick-start economic growth and to build an NHS fit for the future. The scheme is projected to attract nearly £4 billion in private investment, creating more than 7,000 jobs and safeguarding more than 5,000 existing ones. However, the scheme’s impact is not just economic. The pandemic proved that we cannot take our critical supply chains for granted, and supporting the onshoring of life sciences manufacturing through the fund is therefore critical to strengthening our national resilience and preparedness for future health emergencies.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  The talent and ability of people in Northern Ireland are very much at the forefront of our minds, and we want to ensure that everything we are doing to support the life sciences sector is taking a whole-UK approach. I am very happy to write to the hon. and learned Member on his questions about Northern Irish eligibility.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  My understanding is that these are grant capital investments that the Government will be making, and I am sure we will be looking at the leverage at a whole-fund level. If there are particular requirements at an individual investment level, I am happy to write to the hon. Member on that particular point.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his important point. I am happy to take a full look at the R&D tax credit system and how it will support our ambitions to back our private sector partners in both R&D and subsequent commercialisation. The Government are clear that the life sciences innovative manufacturing fund is a strategic investment in our future. It is a vital step in delivering the Government’s commitment to supporting the UK’s life sciences sector and ensuring that our country remains at the forefront of the sector.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress. This week we announced the first two grant awards through the scheme, marking a major milestone in the fund’s roll-out. This will unlock substantial private investment, showcasing the UK’s appeal to valuable, globally mobile life sciences manufacturers. As delivery of the scheme progresses, we expect to announce more grant winners in the coming months. Each project supported through the grant will further strengthen health resilience and drive economic growth across all nations and regions in the UK.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I feel that, out of parity, I must give way to the hon. Member too.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I am afraid I will not; I believe I have been relatively generous in welcoming contributions from across the House. On the point of regional impact, in addition to the midlands, may I join the shadow Front Benchers in welcoming—they do so with laughter and amusement—the collective efforts of our entire Northern Irish contingent? I will take away the strong point about Northern Ireland’s strengths in the life sciences sector; it will be embedded on my mind. I thank the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Pippa Heylings) for South Cambridgeshire for talking about investments. The only thing I will say on some of the announcements is that they have to be taken in the context of the wider global context for those firms, MSD in particular.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I want to be in your good books, Madam Deputy Speaker, so I will proceed at pace in answering some of the questions raised. I first thank the Members on the shadow Front Benches and in particular the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez). I was sad that her generous welcome to me was not extended to this particular announcement. In particular, I was sad that she did not welcome the fact that out of their Tory fiscal wreckage we have managed to get £520 million for the British life sciences sector, that out of the economic damage they did to this country we have still managed to secure over £1 billion in investment from Moderna in the British life sciences sector, and that out of what we inherited from the Tory context we have managed to secure over £1 billion from BioNTech. Right across the board, there is a picture of stability, good jobs in the life sciences and broader technology sectors, optimism and, above all, an energy shared across Government, the private sector and academia.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I must proceed because, as I said, I need to be in Madam Deputy Speaker’s good books. A particular concern has been raised about VPAG, another part of a longer-standing legacy from a Tory Chancellor’s austerity rampage for the life sciences sector in this country. The Government’s position is very clear: we will always put patients and taxpayers first. This Government are open to working collaboratively with the pharmaceutical industry, which is exactly why we have put forward a generous and unprecedented offer worth approximately £1 billion over three years as part of a review of VPAG, which ultimately industry did not take a vote on. We remain confident in the life sciences as a driver of both economic growth and better health outcomes and our door remains open to future engagement. I know that regular conversations go on and while I will not update Members on the shadow Front Benches on every single meeting the Secretary of State takes, I can assure them that she is involved in both the particular conversations around VPAG and more general engagement with the life sciences sector. I particularly thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West (Dame Chi Onwurah), whose depth of experience in engineering prior to this House and extensive experience in this House, in particular through leadership of the Science and Technology Committee, is one that I take considerable inspiration from.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  If the Member listens, he may feel that his point is addressed in my claims. In at least one of those cases, a pause, rather than a cancellation, was announced and in the other, there have been a series of announcements globally regarding thousands of jobs, not only in the UK but beyond. As I said, I hope that the two announcements I mentioned, by Moderna and BioNTech, will give us some assurance that the life sciences sector in the British context is firing on all cylinders with Government support. Finally, I note with thanks the important point on national security and IP made by the hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood). It is top of mind for me in ensuring that we are not just powering economic growth and not just jobs and good health for people across this country, but doing the first job of Government to protect our national security. Question put and agreed to. Resolved , That this House authorises the Secretary of State to undertake payments, by way of financial assistance under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982, in excess of £30 million to any successful applicant to the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, launched on 30 October 2024, up to a cumulative total of £520 million.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  Not quite.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress for now. My hon. Friend raised a particular point around synthetic biology, which is very close to my heart because I think that Britain has a particular opportunity in the convergence of engineering, AI and life sciences, and we are keen on seizing that to its fullest extent. On the three particular questions from my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, foremost of which was about the size of the funding available, I will say a couple of things: first, that this is the largest fund of this nature announced in the history of the UK Government, to my understanding, with capital grants worth £520 million altogether; and secondly, that it is but one part of the overall funding package across Government if one considers the investments across Innovate UK, UKRI, the British Business Bank and beyond. I hope that some of the assurances around VPAG have answered the particular question posed there, and on regional impact, I point out that the first two grants from the scheme were made out to firms in Birmingham and Keele. I hope that is a starting indicator of my long-term hope; we will certainly monitor it.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Technology Companies: Accountability · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Mr Speaker. Through the Online Safety Act 2023, platforms now have a legal duty to protect users from illegal content and safeguard children from harmful content. Ofcom has strong powers to hold firms to account, including fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue. Ofcom has made it clear that it will act where platforms fall short, and has already launched 12 investigations into suspected non-compliance. I assure my hon. Friends that we will continue to review this area carefully and will not hesitate to go further.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Technology Companies: Accountability · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for an important and timely question. It is important because I have been in the room with Ian Russell, the father of Molly Russell, and I have seen the tireless resilience with which he and the Molly Rose Foundation have campaigned to protect children online. It is a timely question because, in memory of cases like Molly Russell’s, suicide prevention must remain front and centre in our minds. That is precisely why, in the first week of this new ministerial team, the Secretary of State announced that self-harm content is now a priority offence. Ofcom has requested risk assessments from over 60 services, including smaller but high-risk platforms, and I know it is actively enforcing compliance as well.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Technology Companies: Accountability · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman raises an incredibly important point. I am sorry and disappointed to hear of the instances he mentions. This is an incredibly important issue. We will look closely at the evidence base and if, under the codes of practice for illegal harm already published and implemented by Ofcom, there are found to be deficiencies in practice by any of the firms he mentions, we will, I am sure, take appropriate action.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Technology Companies: Accountability · Hansard source

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  Our technology sector, our entrepreneurs and our creators are close to my heart, as I spent most of my professional life—prior to coming to this place—in those contexts. We have consulted, we have listened and we continue to listen as a new team. Across the board, we will look closely at the evidence and make sure that we are backing this country’s entrepreneurs and creators.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Technology Companies: Accountability · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for this chance to put on the record that even when others have put their interests first, my hon. Friend has always put Southport above everything. In doing so, he has inspired many of us from across the House. Media literacy includes critically evaluating information. It is a key skill in helping people to be protected from harm online, and I know that the technology companies play a crucial role. We welcome collaborative initiatives like Parent Zone’s “hit pause” programme, and I encourage all platforms to continue to expand their work to embed media literacy into their product design.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Welfare Spending · Hansard source

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  The shadow Minister talks about trade-offs in public finances, growth and child poverty. In the period since 2015-16, there was zero progress on absolute poverty and zero progress on relative poverty—public finances ruined and growth flat. Does he not think that the central trade-off was between a Tory Government and a thriving country?

• 7 Jul 2025 · Government Performance against Fiscal Rules · Hansard source

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  The Leader of the Opposition has appointed every member of Liz Truss’s Treasury team to her Front Bench, apart from those booted out by the public. Does my right hon. Friend agree that a party that has no fiscal strategy but to believe “In Liz We Truss” cannot be trusted on any of it?

• 26 Jun 2025 · Transport: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  14. What steps she is taking to help ensure that the transport system supports economic growth.

• 26 Jun 2025 · Transport: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  We have a proud community in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan that is both growing and thriving thanks to the economic opportunity provided by the Bro Tathan enterprise zone. Will the Secretary of State work with Welsh colleagues to progress funding for a new railway station in St Athan to support that growth and provide dignity for the residents?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Just this week, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) put a singular burning injustice first: the plight of overseas billionaires who pay too much tax. Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree with the hon. Member’s priority, or does she agree with me that Reform UK doing sweetheart deals with the super-rich is a betrayal of British working people?

• 1 May 2025 · Industrial Strategy: Chemicals Sector · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the Minister’s recognition of the chemicals sector’s contribution as a foundational sector and an anchor employer in constituencies such as mine; we have the Dow site there. What can we do to support the deeply integrated supply chains across the UK and Europe that the chemicals sector, and Dow in particular, relies on?