Speeches by Wright.

“In terms of giving people the tools to exercise their scepticism about what they might be seeing, do you think that there is more scope for watermarking, or something similar, that enables people immediately to understand that something is an AI-generated image, text, video—whatever it may be?”

“There is a great deal in this Bill that we can all support, but some difficult concepts lurk within it, as I know the Secretary of State will recognise. He is talking about data transparency. One of the issues of concern is about precisely what we mean by the “scientific research” on which data may be employed, and pre…”

“The Minister will be well aware that the growth of AI across the country depends on a ready supply of data and other content on which models can be trained. She will recognise that much of that content comes from our creative industries, and she will know that they are profoundly troubled that they are not being proper…”

“The Secretary of State is very generous in giving way. Before he finishes, may I ask him about the situation we are creating with this Bill and the Online Safety Act 2023 of setting a framework within which regulators need to operate and cover a good deal of ground? Does he think the advent of these pieces of legislati…”

“Fair enough. Andrew, do you want to add to that, or does that cover it?”

“Understood. The same question to Bob and Stephen—again, if you can pick up the aspects of physical security and of online threat, and what advice you offer on those, that would be helpful.”

“What was your sense of the response you got from the platforms? Good, bad or indifferent.”

“May I ask you both about the support you offer to your candidates to deal with the problems that you have just identified? Mike, you have said something about it already. Specifically, I think we are interested in knowing about what level of support you can offer your candidates when it comes to threats and harassment.…”

“When you say “substantial problems”, do you mean that they did not show up, or did they not do what you expected them to do when they did?”

“Really? Okay. Before I turn to Elfrede, what about online? Do you take the same view of online support—that in essence candidates should come to you—or do you offer something more proactive in support on online harassment or threats that they might receive?”

“Elfrede, on the same subject. Elfrede Brambley-Crawshaw: Very similar. The police are the professionals on this issue, and we would defer to them and take their advice. We do a broad briefing to all candidates, or we offer that to all candidates, then depending on the particular circumstances, we offer different suppor…”

“I have one other question in relation to any interaction that parties or individual candidates have had with online platforms. Has that been positive or negative—if you are aware of it? If there has been a problem online and someone has approached the individual service and said, “What can you do about it?”, do you hav…”

“Let me take you back to the experience of candidates and the response of your respective parties to that. Can I ask you about the support that you offer to candidates? You have all been very clear about the nature of the problem, and Bob has made the point, which I think everybody agrees with, that it is worse for cert…”

“I think it is helpful for us to understand the degree to which this was the Labour party assisting candidates—perhaps even advising candidates that they ought to take advantage of this—and to what extent it was candidates reaching out on their own, or being directly offered it. I am just interested in your sense of how…”

“Fair enough. Andrew, do you want to add to that, or does that cover it?”

“Understood. The same question to Bob and Stephen—again, if you can pick up the aspects of physical security and of online threat, and what advice you offer on those, that would be helpful.”

“What was your sense of the response you got from the platforms? Good, bad or indifferent.”

“I have one other question in relation to any interaction that parties or individual candidates have had with online platforms. Has that been positive or negative—if you are aware of it? If there has been a problem online and someone has approached the individual service and said, “What can you do about it?”, do you hav…”

“When you say “substantial problems”, do you mean that they did not show up, or did they not do what you expected them to do when they did?”

“Really? Okay. Before I turn to Elfrede, what about online? Do you take the same view of online support—that in essence candidates should come to you—or do you offer something more proactive in support on online harassment or threats that they might receive?”