1st ORAL QUESTION
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Lord Ranger of Northwood. My Lords, I beg leave to ask the question standing in the order paper in my name.
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My Lords, the government's core evidence is the AI sector study. The 2024 study found SMEs make up 96%
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of UK AI firms and
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90% of firms surveyed
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revenue growth within a year. To encourage investment, my Lords, the sovereign AI fund backed by
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up to 500 million pounds invest directly in British AI startups alongside free compute through the AIInnovate UK's 130 million growth catalyst and 100 million R&D procurement scheme.
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My Lords, I thank the noble Lord the Minister for the answer.
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budgets in support of AI. But I thinkThe total was about
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kaleidoscope of initiatives. May I put that into context with JP Morgan advising that US hyperscalers driven by AI investment this year alone
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businesses to benefit from it. And I think that is where we need to focus. And I declare my interest as a co-founder of the Business AI Alliance, grouping
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SMEs who are searching for support from the government. So, may I
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AI adoption worth 30 million and focused around
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Yorkshire. Does the Minister recognise the risk of creating a two-tier AI economy where larger businesses and those in selected regions benefit while others fail?
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My Lords, yesterday's budget announcement demonstrates our commitment to turning AI ambition into practical outcomes.Alongside the 700 million in wider AI investment, we are providing, as the noble Lord has mentioned, 30 million pounds locally.
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Let AI adoption partnership starting in Yorkshire and sixty million for an AI
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These initiatives will help businesses overcome adoption barriers, build skills and improve productivity. So working alongsideleads industry will ensure that funding delivers measurable benefits for British businesses across the country.
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interests as an adviser to DLA Piper on AI policy and regulation. My Lords, the Government talks of sovereign AI but continues to avoid to award its biggest data
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US hyperscalers, my Lords, what share of public AI procurement is intended to go to British SMEs under the new UK supplier definition?
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Well, look, I I hear what the noble Lord says, but let me say again, my Lords, our £100 million R&Dgovernment scheme will help British startups develop innovative solutions to government challenges. We're
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Smarter, more accessible customer, creating procurement opportunities for smaller firms in
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favoring established suppliers. So through the AI sovereign fund, we are also supporting early startup procurement, enabling
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technology hubs and see the innovative AI companies. I was up in Manchester yesterday and I saw young people, exciting projects there, and perhaps if noble Lords could go out to theseA university science park and being developed in this country.
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My Lords, does the Minister agree that the government's support for an adopof an open
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AI framework could greatly reduce the barriers to entry for smaller firms and accelerate investment
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if this could be done in partnership with with other allied nationsacross the world
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Yes, I do I do agree with the noble Lord, and that is why the British Business Bank has a two
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and financial capacity to support smarter, uh, smaller bit, or rather smarter and smaller businesses, including 4 billion pounds in growth capital, particularly for innovative
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intensive companies. So the sovereign AI fund works alongside the bank, including co-investing in a company called
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intelligence research lab andMeanwhile the National Wealth Fund, with £27.8 billion to deploy, is mobilising private
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AI infrastructure
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two minute guarantee supporting various AI companies
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My Lords.
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My Lords, I draw the attention of the House to my interests as set out in the register. I too welcome the investment in AI in yesterday's budget. My Lords, AI presents a significant opportunity for businesses to innovate, attract investment and grow our economy. However, it also risks widening existing gender gaps in skills, pay, innovation, leadershipand investment. Our own research found that 43% of young women entering the workforce are concerned that AI will replace them, and we also know that only 2% of funding from venture capitalists has gone to all-female founding teams. Can I ask my noble friend the Minister what steps the Government are taking in partnership with businesses to ensure thathave equal access to AI skills, AI-enabled employment, opportunities for innovation, leadership and investment.
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My Lords, I I co-chair the Women in Industry Taskforce. I'm very proud to be the co-chair and Iwork with women leaders every day to encourage them to start their businesses, especially in tech,And so my noble friend will appreciate and welcome the budget yesterday when the Chancellor said that
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he will be working with the Women Tech Taskforce in finding ways how
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women founders can access finance available. And if we empower women the same way that men does in
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intact, it would generate 300 billion pounds to the economy, and we must support women tech founders.
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A nice short question. AI investors have told the government that energy costs are the barrier to investment here.Can I ask the noble Lord the Minister why did yesterday's budget find room to cut tariffs on gherkins but not to not to cut the energyare holding back our AI capacity.
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I mean, I was tempted to the noble or perhaps even to read the entire red book. There areways that we are supporting AI companies. I mean, yes, as far as data centers are concerned, we are ensuring that our national grid is linked
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And we're doing that.
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In the Maude Smarter Review identified that a major impediment to SMEs adopting the then availabletechnology was the expertise and knowledge of the management, particularly around digital issues. So put
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his small business minister hat on, can the
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I spent every day as Minister for Small Businesses talking to businesses of all sizes, including small AI startups as well.
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My Lords, firstly we got to ensure that the uh uh uh small companies have the access to finance to start their business. At the same time, we need to encourage uh young people to take up AI skills uhWe committed to train 10 million young people with AI skills and so far 2.2 million have completed programs.
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in Bristol University, which I gather now has approaches from several
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during power, which is one of the fastest processors.
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in the globally. So what plans does the government have now to install Isambard II, which I understand the Bristol University would welcome, which will improveincrease even more compute power for United Kingdom.
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The noble Lord is absolutely right. I mean, we've got to invest in not only the compute power but also quantum as well, and the government is set up its programmewhereby it will mobilise the investment through the sovereign AI investing in some of these supercomputers across the country.
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It's not just a matter of government resources.
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There are many, many enterprising businesses now who are coming into this field, and I welcome the
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going on in Yorkshire at the present to which the Minister has
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Surely, though, this is to do with even greater encouragement by Government of those who are investing?
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to make sure that all the businesses that are
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