Topical Questions

This Government are harnessing the power of technology to create a smarter, smaller state. My Department is partnering with the Department for Work and Pensions and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to understand how AI can save taxpayers’ money and deliver the world-class public services that people deserve. At the same time, we are tearing down the barriers facing businesses that want to invest in Britain. Last month, we welcomed experts from across the energy and tech sectors to the first meeting of the AI energy council, at which we discussed how we can use clean energy to power our domestic AI sector and deliver strong growth and good jobs right across the country.

I met Jess and Hannah from Aston Clinton in my constituency, who are doing brilliant work to encourage parents to delay giving their children smartphones. Responding on Second Reading of the safer phones Bill, the Minister for digital, my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda and Ogmore (Chris Bryant), agreed that excessive smartphone usage is detrimental to the physical, mental and spiritual health of young people, and confirmed that the Government intend to act in this area. Can the Secretary of State share what his next steps will be?

I agree with my hon. Friend; excessive smartphone use is detrimental to children, as it is to MPs across the House. I can assure her that I am commissioning evidence on the impact of social media use on children. I am looking particularly closely at the addictive nature of some of the algorithms being deployed, and at how we can act to keep children safe and benefit their welfare.

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

Labour has cancelled Britain’s new national supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh, damaging our research capability and economic growth. That project was fully funded by the Conservatives, and the university says that it will be a disaster if the cancellation is not reversed, so will the Government reinstate that supercomputer, or will it be another victim of the Chancellor’s failed economic experiment?

It surprises me that the hon. Gentleman continues down this path. One of the first decisions I had to take after becoming Secretary of State was how we deal with an unfunded commitment for hundreds of millions of pounds where the money never existed—the Treasury had not committed it. Not a single letter had gone to my Department from the Treasury, yet the previous Government spent years making verbal commitments. We will deliver a compute strategy that is fit for purpose, that will get our country where it needs to be—

Order. We are not going to get everybody in, Secretary of State.

That project was fully funded, and the Secretary of State knows it. While Labour cancels our tech investment, our competitors—the US, Germany and Japan—are all increasing theirs. Next month, the Chancellor will cut the Department’s budget in real terms, so can the Secretary of State tell us today whether he will allow the Treasury to cancel more investment in Britain’s future, or will he finally speak up for Britain’s vital tech sector?

We will release the compute strategy. That strategy will be fully funded and fully delivered—unlike under the Government, which the hon. Gentleman was part of, that let our country down.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There are older people, and others for that matter, who either have no online access or do not have a smartphone, who would not be able to access things in a digital world. That is why we introduced a digital inclusion plan, and that is one of the key differences between a Labour Government and a Tory Government: they did not have any interest in digital inclusion and they did not have a plan for 10 years, and we brought one in.

Before we come to Prime Minister’s questions, I welcome to the Gallery the Speakers of Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat and St Helena.