Peter Kyle MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 20 Nov 2024 · Frontier AI Safety · Hansard source

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  The UK is a founding member of the AI Safety Institute international network. The network convenes for the first time today in San Francisco.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Frontier AI Safety · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is completely right to say that safety has to be there from the outset. We want our country to safely explore all the opportunities that AI offers, but it can do so only if people are reassured that safety is there from the outset. The UK safety institute is at the forefront of this. It is the first safety institute, and we are at the forefront of delivering international as well as domestic safety. We are currently working on an international review of the science of AI safety, which draws on the expertise of 30 countries.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Frontier AI Safety · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee for choosing this as her first inquiry. It is an incredibly important area. This Government are committed to the algorithmic transparency recording standard. The previous Government reneged on their commitment to having individual Departments releasing their standard statement each year. This Government are committing to doing so again and will remain committed to reinforcing the fact that algorithms are there to serve people and not the other way round.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Frontier AI Safety · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for acknowledging my interest in Northern Ireland, which I have already visited since being appointed in order to meet some of the pioneering tech companies there. I will stay committed to ensuring that the Government recognise the talent across Northern Ireland, harnessing it for not just the domestic good but the global good.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his post. We worked together on the all-party parliamentary group on the fourth industrial revolution, which he chaired, and I look forward to having a constructive relationship going forward. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the last Government. Given the way the Conservatives are going, that will have been their last Government. To be honest, the circumstances that businesses, large and small, operating in the tech landscape have asked for are a smooth regulatory process—we have already delivered regulatory reform; reform to planning—we have delivered reform to the planning system; a stable financial settlement—we have delivered that with a Budget for—

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Government are working closely with individual universities, the university sector and our intelligence community to ensure that our research is not only world class but safe and secure.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Budget gave a pay rise to working people in this country and set the conditions for a stable economy, fixing the black hole left in our economy by the mismanagement of the last Government.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for raising one of the most serious issues of our time. The Online Safety Act 2023 requires providers, as part of their risk assessment, to consider specifically how algorithms will impact a user’s exposure to illegal content and children’s exposure to harmful content. I have introduced new measures to ensure that children are kept safe, and today I issued a statement of strategic priority to Ofcom to insist that it continues to do so in future.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Outside the classroom, the CyberFirst programme has engaged 250,000 young people across the UK. Those are the first steps; this Government will be going further.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  To protect people online, today I became the first Secretary of State to exercise the power to set out my strategic online safety proposals for Ofcom to consider. From increasing transparency to baking safety into social media platforms from the outset, those priorities will support Government in monitoring progress on acting where our laws are coming up short. I have also launched a new research project to explore the impact of social media on young people’s wellbeing and mental health.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  What a pleasure it is to speak from the Dispatch Box to another Labour MP from Sussex. That issue is a Department of Health and Social Care responsibility but, on its behalf, the Data (Use and Access) Bill will include a requirement that IT providers in the NHS have to meet information standards. That will deliver the interoperability needed so that data can be shared across the NHS, often for the very first time.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s question, because the first job I ever had was at the Body Shop working for Anita Roddick, and I joined her campaign against animal testing for cosmetics. She would be proud to see me at the Dispatch Box engaging in this conversation. Labour made a manifesto commitment to phase out animal testing in the long term. That is something we are committed to and something we are taking steps towards.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Roblox: Child Protection · Hansard source

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  I extend my deepest sympathies to those who have been affected by the crimes that my hon. Friend outlines. The Online Safety Act—and its measures that will soon come into force—is there to address that concern directly. I want these powers to be used as assertively as possible. Just today, I have heard about another story concerning Roblox. I expect that company to do better in protecting service users, particularly children, on its platform.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Roblox: Child Protection · Hansard source

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  Keeping children safe online is the priority for this Government. The Online Safety Act 2023 places strict safety duties on online platforms, such as Roblox, to protect children from being groomed by online predators. Ofcom is the regime’s regulator and, by the end of this year, it will set out steps for the platforms to take to fulfil their duties.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Farnborough has done an astonishing job at getting British aviation, which I have supported, into the global news. My dad served in the Fleet Air Arm back in the 1960s, and I went with him many times to Farnborough to see the planes he worked on up in the sky. As a country and a House, we should celebrate the fact that Farnborough is now moving into space. I am very grateful for what Farnborough is doing, and of course I will be there to participate in the event in any way that is meaningful.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  At the international investment summit on Monday, some of the world’s biggest science and tech firms committed to investing billions of pounds in Britain, growing our economy and creating new jobs across our country. In Rome last week, I launched the UK’s first online safety agreement with the United States. By working with our closest partner, home to the world’s biggest tech companies, we will create a safer online world for our children. Finally, on behalf of the whole House, I congratulate Sir Demis Hassabis and Geoffrey Hinton on the Nobel prizes they won last week. Their extraordinary achievements are testament to the phenomenal level of AI talent fostered in Britain today.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Every donation that was made to this party in opposition has been declared in the appropriate ways. I am proud to be part of a party that raises standards in public life rather than votes to lower them. [ Interruption. ] I am also proud to be part of a party that comes into government and attracts talent to working for it, whereas when the Conservatives see talent, they libel it.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  There we have it—a party that attacks civil servants and the world’s greatest talent gravitating towards this party and this Government, to work for them. When he sees talent in Government, he libels it and saddles the taxpayer with the bill. This Government attract talent and I am proud of that.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to The Courier for exposing some of these issues. We must keep children and vulnerable people safe when they are online. I intend to ensure that safety is baked in from the outset. When it comes to keeping children safe in this country, everything is on the table and I am open minded about how we move forward to achieve a much safer environment. Companies releasing products into our society should see that as a privilege, not a right. I have high expectations, on behalf of this country, to ensure that safety is baked in from the start.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Research and Development · Hansard source

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  Of course, I look forward to visiting Turbo Power Systems the next time I am in the region and seeing the amazing work it does. It is contributing to one of the key missions of this Government, which is to get to clean superpower status by 2030, and I look forward to seeing what it is doing to make that a reality.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Research and Development · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his appointment to his Front-Bench role. Let us just be honest about what this Government inherited. That £20 billion black hole affects every single Department across Government. My Department inherited a situation where the previous Government—including the former Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Jeremy Hunt), who is sitting on the Opposition Front Bench—committed at this Dispatch Box to an exascale project to which not one single penny had been committed. That was a fraud committed on the scientific community of our country by that Government, and I had to make the difficult decision to move forward—

• 16 Oct 2024 · Research and Development · Hansard source

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  It is incredibly important for this Government that we invest across the whole country, which is why we have invested £118 million in healthcare research and partnership hubs that are outside London and across the United Kingdom. I hope that this benefits the hon. Gentleman’s area too.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Research and Development · Hansard source

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  The UK’s R&D system is a central strength and vital for the future prosperity and wellbeing of our citizens. We are recognised for the strengths of our universities system and research base, and we are investing through UK Research and Innovation to continuously improve our R&D capabilities. In July we launched five new quantum technology hubs, which are delivered by UKRI and backed by over £100 million-worth of Government funding. This will ensure that the British people benefit from the potential of quantum technologies in a range of areas, from healthcare and computing to national security and critical infra- structure alike.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Research and Development · Hansard source

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  As always, I am grateful to hear from the hon. Gentleman. I will be in touch with any specifics that I can follow up with, but we are a Government committed to Northern Ireland, which I believe he will have seen from day one of this Labour Government back in July. I can also show that there have been great advancements in investment in Northern Ireland, which is why Northern Ireland has the highest coverage rates for fast fibre-optic broadband of any part of the United Kingdom. I want to be a champion for Northern Ireland, and I visited recently to ensure that everybody in the science and technology community there realises that this is a Government who are on their side.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Research and Development · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for her question, and I congratulate her, on behalf the whole House, on her election as Chair of the Select Committee—I look forward to appearing before it soon and regularly thereafter. She raises an incredibly important point. I can say that this Government are committed to working with local and regional mayors to ensure that local growth plans and the partnerships with UKRI will benefit all regions. These include a £100 million innovation accelerator pilot and £80 million in launchpad programmes, all of which will meet the needs that she outlines.