Question follow-through · 103585

Artificial Intelligence: Business and Retail Trade

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of agentic AI systems on high street businesses and retail employment levels.

answeredDepartment for Science, Innovation and Technology

About this written question

A written question asks a government minister for information in writing. Parliament publishes the question and any answer.

Answering body
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Tabled
6 Jan 2026
Target answer date
7 Jan 2026
Answer
13 Jan 2026 · 7 calendar days after tabling

Elapsed calendar days describe the record timeline, not whether Parliament considers an answer on time.

More questions by this MP on Economy and business

Shared topic keywords suggest a connection; they do not establish a follow-up.

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Recorded timeline

  1. 6 Jan 2026

    Question tabled

    To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of agentic AI systems on high street businesses and retail employment levels.

  2. 7 Jan 2026

    Target answer date

    Date supplied by the official written-questions record.

  3. 13 Jan 2026

    Answer published

    AI is transforming the world of work. The UK must act now to ensure this transformation boosts growth, productivity and opportunity—rather than deepening inequality or eroding job quality. The government is not standing still: we’re investing in skills, m...

Open official record

Official data retrieved 28 Sept 2026.

Later records

Possible follow-up questions

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Digital Technology

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Artificial Intelligence

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Artificial Intelligence: Child Sexual Abuse Material

23 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of making the testing of AI models a legal requirement on the use of AI systems to create child sexual abuse material.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Artificial Intelligence: Child Sexual Abuse Material

23 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of making the testing of AI models a legal requirement to help prevent AI systems from being used to create child sexual

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28 Jan 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what proportion of a) government departments b) critical public services and c) critical national infrastructure rely on US-owned cloud infrastructure; and what assessment her Departmen

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Technology: Foreign Investment in UK

4 Feb 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the trends in the level of foreign acquisition of UK technology companies in the last five years.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence

25 Feb 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what progress the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence within her Department has made in improving the procurement of digital services, including cloud, since its establishment.

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Artificial Intelligence: Labelling

4 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made the potential merits of introducing content labelling requirements for AI-generated images and videos on social media platforms.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

O2 and Starlink: Data Protection

9 Mar 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will hold discussions with (a) Starlink and (b) O2 on data protection.

Unreviewed candidateSame MP and department; topic relationship is unreviewed

Internet: Children

10 Apr 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the stakeholder engagement underpinning the consultation entitled Growing up in the online world: a national consultation, published on 2