Dame Chi Onwurah
MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West · Labour · United Kingdom
“An extraordinary debate is going on right now inside and outside AI companies about whether the possibility of AI destroying humanity is more or less than 10%. The European Union is moving ahead with a comprehensive AI regulatory framework, but the UK continues to rely on existing regulation.”
“The Pope also highlighted how the billions of online digital twins constitute an unprecedented concentration of power in the hands of a small number of men. Among the many consequences of the 40 years of neoliberalism repeatedly called out by the Prime Minister is a libertarian attitude to technology.”
“But this stealth digital twinning violates the integrity, uniqueness and very personhood of our constituents and of all of us. Digital twins can take many forms, from content creation algorithms and deepfakes to chatbots that reflect aspects of our personalities back at us. It is particularly worrying when children are the target.”
“The automated version of our kids will grow with them, using the power of AI to target advertising and products at them, and worse. The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has heard about some of the tragic consequences of online grooming by algorithms and chatbots—a vulnerable boy persuaded to kill himself; a vulnerable girl fed…”
“In the arts, entertainment and tech industries, many performers are agreeing to the creation and use of digital replicas as part of their work—think of ABBA Voyage. But performers increasingly encounter unauthorised digital replicas of themselves, which pose a threat to their career, livelihood and reputation.”
“Since then, deepfakes have proliferated. The hon. Member for Mid Norfolk (George Freeman) was shown crossing the Floor in Parliament to join Reform, to his constituents’ consternation and his own—it was a fake. Then there were the horrendous photos of naked women and girls that Elon Musk’s AI created on demand.”
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“My constituent is a leaseholder in one of the 2,700 blocks —I think that is what the Minister said—that have applied to the building safety fund, which has approximately enough money to remedy about 600 blocks. She does not know whether her flat is safe. She cannot sell it and she does not know how much her liabilities may be. The Minister can talk about finding innovative solutions, but it is three and a half years since Grenfell and we still do not see builders, owners or developers paying for remediation. Will he guarantee to my constituent that she will not have to be liable—that she will not have to pay for these costs—and does he agree that this is just one more example that shows that the leasehold system is broken and needs to be reformed?”
“Small Business Saturday is only a couple of days after the lifting of this lockdown, but the fantastic small businesses in Newcastle do not know how or whether they will be able to trade. Many small businesspeople are excluded from all support, for one reason or another, and their losses are mounting, so will the Prime Minister set out the per head economic support he will be providing to local authorities to help small businesses make it through to the promised land of covid-free vaccines?”
“Will the Minister reassure us that that has been considered? Finally, will the Minister, representing the Government, provide a commitment to firms that trade in medicines and agrochemicals between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland that the rules and regulations will not change in how they evolve, in order to provide long-term security to British and Irish businesses? The Labour party will not oppose the draft SI, and we are happy to work with the Government in future to ensure the safety of agricultural and medicine products, as well as frictionless trade between all the nations in the United Kingdom.”
“My understanding—this follows on from my first question, and I discussed it briefly with the Intellectual Property Office as well—is that the draft statutory instrument could lead to drugs and agricultural products being available in Northern Ireland under different conditions and circumstances from Great Britain, in terms of whether they can be reproduced or generic equivalents can be sold. A general impact assessment has not been performed, so I would like to know whether the Government have looked at the implications. If drugs are available under different rules, in different circumstances or with the different extent of a patent in Northern Ireland and in Great Britain, is there a possibility of that causing issues, advantages or incentives for trade or movement between Great Britain and Northern Ireland?”
“I note that an impact assessment has not been undertaken, because of the limited impact, but we would benefit from understanding how the Government envisage the SI being used. The SI will allow an SPC to be granted based on whichever authorisation the applicant has at the point of application. If the SPC enters into force with a marketing authorisation covering only one of either Great Britain or Northern Ireland, the protection provided by the SPC extends only to that territory, as the Minister set out. An applicant may submit an additional marketing authorisation allowing protection to be extended to the whole of the UK. Ensuring minimum friction between Northern Ireland and Great Britain is of the utmost importance. The Prime Minister promised exactly that just over 12 months ago.”
“At present, two marketing authorisations are valid in the UK: the European Medicines Agency and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Post-Brexit, marketing authorisations from the EMA will need to be converted into the UK equivalent. However, under the Northern Ireland protocol, Northern Ireland will remain bound by the EU law for the authorisation of medicines and agrochemicals, meaning that there will be separate marketing authorities for Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Will the Minister provide the Committee with examples of the companies and products that she envisages will take advantage of this situation? Having spoken to the IPO, I know that a limited number of SPCs are granted generally—there are only 70—but the Committee would benefit from some examples so that we can know how the legislation will be used.”
“As the Minister set out, following the end of the transition period and the introduction of the Northern Ireland protocol, the way in which some patent medicines and agrochemicals are regulated will change. New marketing authorisation procedures will therefore be required for those products in certain parts of the United Kingdom. The European Union’s SPCs apply to specific pharmaceutical and plant-protection products. They are designed, as the Minister said, to offset the loss of patent protection by products that occur due to the compulsory and, rightly, often lengthy testing in clinical trial phases, and are valuable intellectual property rights, taking effect when a patent expires. The draft statutory instrument will change the existing legislation on SPCs and the authority of marketing authorisations across the whole UK.”
“The Government’s ongoing negotiations are causing confusion and uncertainty for businesses across the United Kingdom. The shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh), set out yesterday the immense frustration in Northern Ireland at the Government squandering vital time to prepare for the biggest changes that it has ever known in its trading relationship. The Opposition wish to do everything we can to ensure effective preparation, certainty and readiness, so we will not oppose the statutory instrument and we welcome the measure of certainty that it provides. I have some brief questions, however.”
“It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Ms Ghani, and to follow the Minister—not for the first time. I welcome her opening remarks and I share her support for the United Kingdom’s world-beating life sciences sector and the fantastic innovation that it shows, for which we are particularly grateful as we face the pandemic. I agree that patents must recognise the balance between rewarding innovation and ensuring the diffusion of the often life-saving treatments, medicines and products that they protect. I also welcome the levelling of the playing field for IP attorneys, about which we have corresponded. The UK’s relationship with its closest neighbours following the end of the transition period is yet to be decided.”
“The Minister emphasises other means of engagement to written questions, delays to which I, too, have experienced far too often. In April, I wrote to the Minister for Care, the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately) with the concerns of a constituent of mine over personal protective equipment for care homes. I received a response in October. Will the Minister acknowledge that such delays undermine the confidence of my constituents in the Government’s public health measures? Will he commit, which I do not think he has done so far, to putting in place the capacity and resources to respond to constituents’ concerns in a timely manner, in whichever format they are expressed?”
“I very much welcome this increased commitment to invest in our armed forces, though to pay for it by reducing the commitment to global peace which our overseas aid budget represents would be a mistake. How is the Prime Minister going to ensure that jobs are created across the country through this investment? Innovative, high-tech businesses in Newcastle tell me that it is easier to secure a contract with the American Department of Defence than with the British Ministry of Defence, so what is he doing to improve procurement opportunities for small businesses?”
“Government must set out a clear plan to address these online harms and give people back control of their online lives, if our lives are to flourish online without fear or favour.”
“We also need a public debate on what our online future should look like, and that is why we launched the consultation “Our Digital Future” to build consensus on the underlying principles. We are now analysing the over 600 responses that we have received, and we will publish our report soon. We are committed to eradicating the digital divide—indeed, the many new digital divides—as a result of which marginalised peoples have become increasingly excluded from the online world. Many bodies, including the NSPCC, Big Brother Watch, the Carnegie UK Trust, Which? and the Institute of Alcohol Studies have contacted me and asked me to raise their concerns. I cannot do them all justice or spend time talking about algorithms, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and all the other emerging potential harms.”
“Self-regulation has failed—this debate has made that clear—but robust, reasonable, rational, forward-looking and principles-based regulation can succeed. It is shocking that in all this time, the Government have not established what those principles should be. Our ability to build back from covid depends on a successful vaccine, and we have had fantastic news about that recently, but, as we have heard, misinformation on vaccines as well as on 5G, the holocaust and so on is freely available. That is why Labour is calling for emergency legislation on anti-vax disinformation. Will the Government commit to that? Labour has made it clear that we need a digital bill of rights and a legal duty of care to give more powers and protection. We need a statutory regulator for online platforms to crack down on the harm, the hate and the fake.”
“Ninety-seven per cent of UK consumers consult reviews when buying products online, yet investigations by Which? have repeatedly exposed fake and misleading reviews. How will the Government address these online harms in economic terms and enable real competition? We have also heard about online advertising, which is the driver of the business model. It is unregulated, leaving television companies at a disadvantage and driving more and more extreme content in front of viewers. My understanding is that the Government plan to ban all advertising of unhealthy foods on the internet. Is that the case, and why will the Government not act more broadly to address the failings of the advertising model? As a constructive Opposition, we have proposals as well as criticisms.”
“I believe that it can improve the lives of my constituents and enable a more equal, more productive and more sustainable skills-based economy through a fourth industrial revolution, but people need to be protected and empowered to take control of their lives online. The Government need to be on the side of the people and not tech lobbyists. This Government have failed us to a degree that is historically negligent, as this debate shows. Members have highlighted how Government are failing in their duty to safeguard children from child abuse. Other Members have focused on the economic harms and the existing tech giants business model, which means that Google and Facebook have control of the online high street, even as Amazon unfairly competes the high street in our real-world towns out of existence.”
“That regulatory framework had a 10-year lifespan—I know because I was head of technology at Ofcom at the time. In 2012, the Conservative-led Government saw the growth of our online lives—social media and big data—and did nothing. The 2012 review of online harms may be the most important review that we never had. It was not until April 2019 that the Government finally began a consultation since which legislation has been promised repeatedly and yet it comes not, leaving big tech in control of our online lives. I consider myself a tech evangelist. I believe that tech is an engine of progress like no other.”
“On TikTok, the hashtag #vaccinesaredangerous has had almost 800,000 views, with almost no misinformation warnings. Incredibly, we have yet to have a debate in Government time on online harms. Hon. and right hon. Members have expressed many concerns in this place in written and oral questions over the years, but Government have done nothing. Regulation has not kept pace with technology, crime or consumers, leaving growing numbers of people increasingly exposed to significant harms, but it did not have to be this way. In 2010, the then Labour Government saw the growth of new communications technologies and undertook a comprehensive forward-looking review. The result was the Communications Act 2003 and a new regulator, Ofcom, with the power to ensure that these issues were resolved in the public interest.”
“For those who are not digitally excluded, social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter are all now woven into the fabric of our lives and, together with the vast array of online apps for everything from video conferencing to healthy eating, they are a critical enabler of an active life for citizen, consumer and economic contributor. None the less, as Members have shown so acutely, the internet can be a dark, challenging and inhospitable place. Content is curated by tech platforms that allow the spread of disinformation, sexual exploitation, fake news, extremism, hatred and other harmful content. September saw the highest number of public reports of suspected child sexual abuse material ever received in a single month by the Internet Watch Foundation.”
“I thank the Backbench Business Committee, the right hon. and learned Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Jeremy Wright), the hon. Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) and my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Dame Diana Johnson) for stepping in where the Government have failed by bringing forward this debate and for the excellent opening contributions. Indeed, we have heard excellent remarks from all parts of the House in this debate, and I am sorry that I do not have time to do justice to them all—I have just noted how much time I have. As a chartered engineer, I spent 20 years building out the networks that have become the internet. I am proud of that work and of what it has become. As we have heard, we are increasingly living our lives online, and the ongoing pandemic has accelerated that.”
“Child poverty is evil—I know; I grew up with it. The North East Child Poverty Commission reports that our region suffered the country’s biggest increase in child poverty between 2015 and 2019, when half the children in Newcastle upon Tyne Central were growing up poor, and that was before covid. Yet 15,000 of the poorest households in my constituency stand to lose £1,000 a year because of planned cuts to universal credit in April. Instead of damaging last-minute U-turns, will the Prime Minister now commit to maintaining universal credit at least at the current rate?”
“It was distressing to see such critical funding for our regions mired in political favouritism. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that the shared prosperity fund does not suffer the same fate? Will he confirm that the north-east will receive from the shared prosperity fund at least the £1 billion that it would have had from the European structural funds?”
“The Opposition will not oppose the SI because we do not think that the Government could now respond quickly enough to fill the gaps in regulation that the SI’s failings will leave. I note that the Minister is smiling, but he must take seriously the deficiencies in our regulatory framework that are left unaddressed by the SI. I hope that he can assure us that the Government will finally wake up and deliver effective regulation against harms, misinformation and unregulated advertising on VSP through immediate additional legislation.”
“That failure places businesses in uncertainty, blocks innovation and gives away British regulatory sovereignty, but most of all, it threatens our children and members of the public from unchecked harms, misinformation and unregulated advertising. Despite that ongoing failure, the Government are still playing catch-up and are only now bringing in an SI on VSP regulation beyond the transition period, when there is barely less than a month before that period ends. And even then, they are introducing an SI that merely continues a highly imperfect scenario, in which British regulators cannot regulate to protect British consumers of VSP services. We deserve much better from our Government.”
“Has the Minister consulted consumer groups and relevant VSPs to ensure the creation of a thought-through policy that is domestically effective and internationally aligned for the UK regulation of VSPs? I fear that the voice of consumer groups is unheard; the big tech companies have many lobbyists and excessive profits to pay for them. In this debate the voice of the consumer and the citizen is not as loud as that of the big tech companies. The Government have been a static spectator as the debate on and the reality of VSPs’ online harms have passed them by. It is deeply concerning that Ministers are failing on such a matter.”
“At the fore of that, we will need a VSP regulatory regime that is effective at home and aligned with policy abroad, especially as we diverge from European legislation. That provides some scope for regulatory standards that offer robust protection to British citizens, but it also creates a need to ensure continuity, clarity and consistency for businesses. How does the Minister plan to ensure ongoing alignment with Europe on VSP regulation? It is worth noting that the online harms Bill is a response to a two-year-old consultation, but the pace of technology, social change and the impact of covid-19 will make some of the consultation’s conclusions either obsolete or inadequate in the face of future threats. It would be nice to have a forward-looking regulatory regime as opposed to a backward one.”
“That advertising is almost entirely unregulated by statute and that obviously places television companies at a disadvantage, given that their advertising is regulated. It also has implications for our democracy as political advertising is also unregulated online. When will the Minister introduce the appropriate regulation of online advertising? Has any assessment been made of the uncertainty created for media businesses as a result of the Government’s constant policy catch-up? At the heart of this, when does he intend to fill the gaping gulf between regulation and the Government’s constant catch-up? Although the SI poses pressing questions about risk and regulation, there are also persisting questions about long-term policy direction.”
“Why will the UK leave the transition period with no distinct regulation of grave harms that might be suffered by UK citizens? We urgently need an assurance from the Minister that the policy and enforcement vacuum will not endanger the wellbeing of citizens who use online VSP services. When will we have legislation to address that policy hole so that our citizens will be protected from online harms? When will the online harms Bill be brought before Parliament? Video-sharing platforms continue to profit from content that is harmful and, in some cases, illegal. Online advertising, which the Minister mentioned, drives the VSP business model, and that of the content providers, for example, influencers.”
“Under his watch, he has taken back control on VSP regulation, only to give it right back again. The SI is an incomplete plug to address a policy vacuum on VSP regulation. It is accompanied by temporary guidance from Ofcom on the VSP regulatory obligations, which will be supplemented by further detailed guidance introduced next year. As the Minister said, both sets of guidance will be replaced by an online harms Bill, which he told us to expect next year. That Bill has been expected imminently just about every week in this year, and further reassurances that it is on its way is hardly sufficient at this time. Between now and the publication of next year’s final guidance, Ofcom has said that it will ‘prioritise only the most serious potential breaches’.”
“From my engagement with the media and technology industry, I know that that arrangement is deeply insufficient for the protection of our citizens and for the provision of a level playing field for British innovators. Fundamentally, it fails to retain, or regain, British regulatory sovereignty. Industry concerns mirror my concerns for child and public protection. Given the millions of British children and members of public who use VSPs and seek protection from harm, what assurance can the Minister provide to suggest that his regulatory regime will protect them, especially when the Government are handing regulatory control to the EU? Looking beyond the immediate horizon, how does he intend to bring the largest VSPs under effective UK regulatory scope?”
“The scope of jurisdiction is the central issue relating to effective regulation. The SI continues to require a measure of establishment in the UK, and not in a EU member state, for a VSP to be under the UK’s regulatory scope. The SI has been introduced in accordance with the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which is intended, as I am sure the Minister would agree, to deliver British control of laws to Britain. Analysis commissioned by the Government themselves, however, suggests that under the existing ‘establishment’ test, continued under the SI, the largest VSPs—YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, dailymotion and Twitter—are outside of the UK’s regulatory scope. Many of those platforms will be under Irish and broader European jurisdiction.”
“A VSP will come under UK jurisdiction if it has the required connection with the UK, the terms of which are narrow and limited to the two cases. First, a VSP will come under UK jurisdiction if it has a fixed establishment in the UK and the centre of its economic activity relating to the relevant service is based in the UK and not in another EU member state. Secondly, if the VSP is not established in the UK and no EU member state has jurisdiction over it, it will come under UK jurisdiction if the VSP has a group undertaking established in the UK. That seemingly narrow fix has wide implications and major deficiencies. It does not remedy failings in jurisdiction nor does it provide a level playing field for online and offline video services, and it does not protect our citizens from harmful content.”
“Done right, and regulated well, VSPs can be a boost to wellbeing, social engagement, education and business, and I am a big believer in technology’s positive impact on the world, especially well-regulated technology’s positive impact. As the Minister said, today’s SI is a seemingly narrow fix for deficiencies in the AVMS directive and the audiovisual media services regulations in the light of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. It aims to define the scope of businesses that will be under UK jurisdiction for VSP regulation beyond the transition period—the end of the year, and sets the precise date of the end of the transition period for broadcasting regulation. On jurisdiction, the SI maintains existing thinking on jurisdictional scope as being based on effectively country of origin principles.”
“Given that we hope to see a vaccine distributed very soon, the importance of appropriate action on misinformation is clear. Online advertising continues to be rampant on social media, and much of it is weakly regulated in terms of the protection offered to children in particular. The scale, speed and range of possible harms and misinformation facilitated through VSPs are vast. Yet, there is an acute sense of what those very platforms can offer for good—just ask the millions of school and university students who have continued to learn throughout the pandemic with the aid of online educational videos and video-based social engagement. I know many parents in particular who are very grateful to Joe Wicks stepping up to take on the role of the nation’s PE teacher during lockdown.”
“VSPs are online services that enable users to upload and share videos with members of the public. Popular VSPs such as YouTube and Facebook allow users to engage with a large range of content. They have been of especially critical importance in recent months, although sometimes for worrying reasons. September saw the highest number of public reports of suspected child sexual abuse material ever received in a single month by the Internet Watch Foundation. The National Crime Agency estimates that there are at least 300,000 individuals in the UK who pose a sexual threat to children through contact abuse or online. On TikTok, the hashtag ‘#vaccinesaredangerous’ has had almost 800,000 views, with almost no mis- information warnings.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the Minister for his opening remarks. I declare an interest; as the Minister is aware, before I entered Parliament, I spent six years working for Ofcom as head of technology. Ofcom had responsibility for regulating broadcast audiovisual services and some responsibility for online audiovisual media services at a time when they were beginning to grow in importance, not always legally it must be said. Online audiovisual media services were then nowhere near as widespread or as important as they have since become. They have been especially critical during these pandemic months. Of those, video-sharing platforms, or VSPs, which are the focus of the SI, have become a major presence in the lives of many in this country.”
“I must say as respectfully as I can that there are many catalogues of disaster and inadequacy in the Government’s legislative framework, so we are not, unfortunately, able to address each of them given the time that remains before the end of the transition period.”
“As chair of the all-party group on Africa, I wish to emphasise the importance of trade between the UK and Africa. By offering Ghana levels of market access that differ from those of its neighbours in the regional trading bloc ECOWAS—the Economic Community of West African States—the Government are forcing Ghana to choose between new trade barriers within ECOWAS or tariffs with the UK, which would plunge Ghana’s banana and cocoa producers, many of whom are already in poverty, into even more extreme poverty. So instead of bullying countries such as Ghana, will the Minister work with African countries to agree deals that promote trade and fair, sustainable economic development?”
“Instead, they have continued to operate within a legal framework that, as we have heard, was created almost two decades ago, before Facebook or Twitter were even invented. My hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Charlotte Nichols) explained the impact of that uncertainty on the nuclear industry and investment in her constituency. That is why we strongly welcome the Bill now and agree that it is necessary. It is essential that we get the specific provisions of the Bill right, in order not to deter foreign direct investment while also balancing the need to protect our national security. First, there is the definition of national security, which was raised by many, particularly the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Bob Seely). The right hon. Member for South Holland and The Depths (Sir John Hayes)— [ Interruption. ] The Deepings, sorry.”
“This has been an excellent debate, one that I think showed the House at its best; we heard informed and considered speeches and, where there was disagreement, it was reasoned and open. There is strong agreement across the House that new legislation is necessary to combat changing security threats and to balance those considerations against the ambition to ensure that the UK remains an attractive country in which to invest. Companies in fast-developing fields, from quantum computing to telecommunications to artificial intelligence to cryptography, are no longer just companies; they are strategic assets that are fundamental to our nation’s security. Until now, Ministers have failed to modernise the takeover regime to keep up with this changing landscape, the pace of technological development and what that means for security.”
“Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), to the takeover of Imagination Technologies by Canyon Bridge, it is inarguable that the Government have been slow off the mark on foreign acquisitions and the possible implications for national security. Right hon. and hon. Members from all sides agreed on that, including, I think, the Chairs of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, the Science and Technology Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, and all five—I think it was five—members of the Intelligence and Security Committee who spoke. I thank colleagues from across the House for their contributions and apologise in advance if I cannot do justice to all of them.”
“As my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) set out very well in opening the debate, we support the Bill. Inward investment is crucial for businesses across the UK and our economy, but it is also crucial that the UK has the powers in place to scrutinise and intervene in business transactions that could have implications for our national security. In fact, we would have welcomed this Bill a long time ago. It is clear that the Government have failed to keep pace with other countries, including the United States, France and Germany, that have already taken steps to update the legislation in line with evolving security threats. From serious questions about Huawei’s dominant role in the UK’s 5G network, as raised many times by the right hon.”
“It is therefore not clear that the current takeover regime is fit for purpose. The weaknesses in the current regime are about not just national security but industrial strategy. Under the current regime, the Secretary of State has the power to intervene in qualifying businesses on four public interest grounds: media plurality, national security, stability of the UK finance system, and the capability to combat and mitigate the effect on public health emergencies.”
“We have lost far too many businesses to Silicon Valley, weakening our technological sovereignty. The takeover of leading UK technological company Arm by the US company Nvidia was announced recently, and while Ministers claim to have scrutinised the deal, they have not been forthcoming with the details. When Arm was previously taken over by SoftBank, legal assurances were extracted about the future of the company’s Cambridge headquarters and the UK workforce. Have Ministers extracted the same legal assurances at this time? Will the Minister come clean today? The Business Secretary said himself that the UK should be open for business but not for exploitation. However, key companies have been cherry picked by companies in San Jose, with the UK consequently losing out.”
“It is a missed opportunity to help UK businesses in key sectors to flourish and grow here in the UK, sustaining and creating jobs—a point on which my hon. Friend the Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock) was particularly eloquent. Time and again, we see vibrant, growing UK companies sadly lost overseas. While we recognise that foreign acquisition can breathe new life into a company, supporting jobs and growth in the UK, far too often we see UK companies pawned off or stripped for parts. Far too often we see UK companies bought out and wound down to eliminate the competition, with the consequent loss of high-skilled jobs. Nowhere is that more evident than in the technology sector, which must be a key part of any 21st century industrial strategy.”
“Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart)—including calling on the Government to explore giving the Intelligence and Security Committee a role in scrutinising the use of powers under this legislation. My right hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) was right to emphasise the importance of the involvement of and access for the intelligence services. We hope to work with the Government to ensure that we establish a robust, transparent and fair regime that protects national security, while allowing the UK to continue to enjoy the opportunities that overseas investment affords businesses across our country and economy, but the Bill is also a missed opportunity. It is a missed opportunity to demonstrate what the Government mean by “industrial strategy” and to show that it is more than a slogan.”
“Member for Dundee East (Stewart Hosie) highlighted the Government’s capacity, or lack of it, to process the sheer volume of estimated notifications that the Bill will provoke. We need also to look at how businesses, small businesses in particular, will be supported to cope with the new regulations, which may prove difficult to navigate. We will ask also whether an assessment has been made by Government of the impact the changes could have on investment in small businesses—a chilling effect—including university start-ups, particularly those in the 17 key sectors, which was a point made by the hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard). Labour will also seek assurances about transparency and oversight and how the powers are applied—a worry of the hon.”
“They could apply to almost every business transaction within the sectors, and the definition of national security therefore must be set out to help provide clarity for businesses and investors, but it is unclear—perhaps the Minister could provide some of that clarity—whether the takeover of the UK artificial intelligence company DeepMind by Google would have been called in on national security grounds under the scope of this Bill. In Committee, Labour will seek further details on how the retrospective powers to render acquisitions void would be applied and whether an assessment has been made of the economic and legal consequences for businesses and their employees of acquisitions being rendered void after the fact. The hon.”
“The right hon. Gentleman is always very deep in his responses. He suggested it was deliberately left undefined in the Bill. The sectors that will be subject to mandatory notification are also not defined in the Bill and, we are told, will be set out in secondary legislation. I thank the hon. Member for Bolton North East (Mark Logan) for his provisional mnemonic and wish him well in updating it. Definitions, and the lack of them, are important because the proposed powers are not limited by size of turnover or share of supply threshold.”
“Why did the Government not bring forward legislation to ensure that technology firms remain in the UK and to end the current ad hoc approach to industrial strategy being pursued by Ministers? That has seen binding commitments often negotiated at the last minute, companies lost, and no clarity as to the rhyme or reason why the Government choose to intervene or not. I urge the Secretary of State and the Minister to continue to approach the Bill in the spirit of collaboration, to address the undefined areas and issues that we have raised, and to shed some light on their long-term industrial strategy, including their plans to keep high-growth technological companies flourishing in the UK.”