Dr Allison Gardner

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West (Dame Chi Onwurah) on securing the debate. Ensuring that we have a strong and secure technological landscape in the UK is vital not only to our growth and development but to our national security. As we move at pace, we must also move with precision. That brings me to the £500 million sovereign AI fund. It is a very welcome commitment, but the impact will depend entirely on how it is used. I therefore ask the Minister for assurance and clarity on how the new funding will genuinely break from past initiatives and deliver real, measurable impact. That means being transparent about who will receive support, what priorities will shape those choices, how we will ensure true diversity—not only in the people and organisations involved, but in the problems we choose to tackle—and what value judgments we employ in the decision-making process. If we want innovation to flourish rather than stall, we must ensure that smaller British and diverse organisations are actively supported to grow and scale. I warn against being dazzled by big promises with big tech, particularly from those who are not British. I am pleased to see the Government’s commitment to building AI infrastructure, data security and compute power, which we see in data centres, AI growth zones and supercomputers, as well as the AI sovereign fund mentioned earlier. However, how can we be assured that such investment happens and has impact? What oversight will the Government have to ensure that funds are used as intended, outcomes are audited, and impact is recognised? Governance of funding beyond product timeframe is vital. I want to mention again the issue of definitions. We must be clear about what we are supporting. Often the terms “technology”, “digital” and “AI” are used interchangeably as though they describe the same thing, but digital is not the same as technology, and neither is synonymous with artificial intelligence. If we are to build a coherent national strategy, we must be absolutely clear about what we are talking about, what we are funding and what we are trying to secure.