Science, Innovation and Technology

Submitted by: Federal Policy Committee
Mover: Victoria Collins MP (Spokesperson for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Summation: Dr Jonathan Everett (Chair of the Policy Working Group).

Conference believes that:

1. Technological innovation is essential to tackling the major challenges of our time; climate breakdown, conflict, economic stagnation, crumbling public services, and social unrest.
2. Technological advances must be for the benefit of all in society, not just for wealthy and powerful individuals and institutions.
3. For technology to benefit the whole of society and deliver the maximum benefit, government must play a comprehensive and active role, showing leadership with a national and international strategy.

Conference further believes that the Liberal Democrat values of internationalism, respect for individual rights and wellbeing, and challenging concentrations of power can combine with science and technology to usher in a new age of prosperity and progress.

Conference notes that the last Conservative Government was an utter failure for UK science and innovation, with a hostile attitude towards international collaboration, shambolic adoption of technology in the public sector, chaotic management of the economy putting off investment and ideological hostility to sensible regulation.

Conference also notes that the Labour Government lacks the ideas to take advantage of the emerging technological revolution and they are failing to address the deep issues they have inherited.

Conference condemns the Labour Government’s decision to cancel the exascale supercomputer in Edinburgh as a short-sighted cost-saving measure, symbolic of their lack of vision and understanding of how science and technology works.

Conference therefore endorses policy paper 158 Science, Innovation and Technology, and its flagship policies to:

1. Create a teacher workforce strategy for England to ensure that every secondary school child is taught STEM subjects by a subject specialist.
2. Ensure that the digital rights of every citizen are strengthened and upheld, with fair protection and remuneration for creative industries in the age of AI, so that all can benefit from technological progress.
3. Introduce a National People Strategy alongside an industrial strategy to ensure that the UK workforce has the necessary skills and people are protected from disruption.

Conference in particular endorses policies to:

1. Build a vibrant and successful technology and science sector, which is dynamic and innovative whilst ensuring that technological progress is fair to all in society, with guardrails against exploitation and abuse by introducing a national and international science and technology strategy that raises R&D spending to 3.5% of GDP.
2. Invest in young people’s education by:
   1. Creating a teacher workforce strategy that ensures that every secondary school child is taught by a subject specialist and fully funding the independent pay body’s recommendations for teacher salaries.
   2. Building a long-term consensus across parties and teachers to broaden the curriculum and make qualifications at 16-18 fit for the 21st Century.
   3. Emphasising data and digital literacy across subjects and overhauling mathematics education to improve teaching of data and computer science.
   4. Investing in adult education and skills, to be set out in a future policy paper.
3. Strengthen our universities as world leaders in research by:
   1. Enacting a decade-long programme of increasing and improving research funding, with a package of measures to improve spin-outs.
   2. Fully participating in Horizon Europe, and applying to join the European Innovation Council and EU-US Trade and Technology Council.
   3. Replacing the Conservatives’ failed immigration policies with a flexible merit-based system to attract international talent.
4. Unlock the innovative potential of the private sector, underpinned by four principles:
   1. High-quality, well-targeted regulation that can help enhance growth and create new sectors, while also protecting consumers, society and our planet.
   2. Providing businesses certainty to enable businesses of all sizes to invest and take risks; we will be transparent in our plans to help businesses feel confident in theirs.
   3. New technologies and scientific monetisation happen most effectively when based on high-quality good corporate governance that puts long-term, ethical growth over short-term returns.
   4. Innovation happens when the public and private sector meet; we will use the power and resources of the state to underpin, and incentivise technological development and adoption.

Applicability: Federal, except for 2. (lines 51-63), which is England only.

Amendments

Drafting Amendment

The following clauses at the end of the motion were accidentally omitted from the printed Agenda. The FCC has therefore agreed to draft them in. All the proposals in these lines were included in Policy Paper 158. 

5. Ensure AI works for the common good – balancing innovation with ethical responsibility – with a National AI Strategy including by:

1. Introducing a robust regulatory environment, learning from experience of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, with flexible monitoring, inspection, auditing and enforcement powers that would oversee ethical and transparent standards for AI.
2. Supporting open approaches to AI to democratise and championing transparency.
3. Defending and expanding the rights of the public with regard to automated decision making.
4. Reaching an international agreement on the governance and use of AI.
5. Strengthening rules around copyright so that creators are treated fairly, with record keeping duties and robust, independent auditing of data and content use for AI developers.
6. Strengthening our democratic processes and investing in new technologies to detect illicit or harmful uses of AI.

6. Fixing our crumbling public services with a comprehensive public sector technology policy and investment plan, notably by:

1. Investing in skills, training and new technology across the public sector, with long term investment and planning.
2. Improving health and care with a new approach to personal data, a new agreement with the European Medicines Agency and a comprehensive technology adoption programme.
3. Ensuring our criminal justice system is able to make the most of new technology, with appropriate safeguards on AI to tackle biases and discrimination.
4. Empowering local government, with investment in skills and training and a technology sandbox.

7. Harnessing the power of technology to tackle the big social challenges of our time, notably by:

1. Generating sustainable, inclusive economic growth through a long term, consistent industrial and people strategy.
2. Tackling regional inequality through a digital inclusion strategy, national investment in digital infrastructure and investing in local government.
3. Tackling social inequalities, particularly gender, ethnic, disability and class inequality, so that science and technology bring benefits to all.
4. Tackling the digital divide with local and national plans for digital inclusion.
5. Investing in green technologies to help mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. 

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Applicability: Federal, except for 2. (lines 51-63), 6. (lines 109-120) and 7. (lines 121-134) which are England only.

Amendment One

Submitted by: 12 members
Mover: Manuela Perteghella MP
Summation: Lord Clement-Jones (Lords Spokesperson for Science and Innovation) 

After line 23, insert: 

Conference notes with disappointment the Labour Government's confused approach to AI in its Copyright and AI consultation that has unnecessarily created division between the creative and technologies sectors.

Conference further notes that the significant benefits and uses AI can bring to support creativity in the music, film, TV, gaming, arts and media sectors must work in tandem with continuing to protect rights holders.

After line 50, insert a new 2.:

2. Maintain a balance between enabling AIs to develop and defending the fundamental rights of those who create and own content by:

1. Increasing confidence in the transparency of AI development.
2. Introducing new record keeping duties and robust, independent auditing of data and content use for AI development.
3. Pushing for an active Government role in ensuring creators receive appropriate and proportionate remuneration when copyright material is ingested into generative AI models for training purposes and derive the full benefit of technology such as AI made performance synthesization and streaming. 

Amendment Two

Submitted by: 12 members
Mover: Max Wilkinson MP (Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport)
Summation: Bobby Dean MP 

After line 31, insert:

Conference notes the damaging effects of the concentration of enormous power in the hands of US tech oligarchs, and regrets recent moves away from crucial online safety and misinformation measures by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and others.

Conference condemns the Labour government’s decision to isolate the UK on the global stage, by siding with Trump in failing to sign the Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet recently agreed in Paris.

After line 134, add:

Conference calls on the Government to adopt the principles of the Paris AI agreement within a National AI Strategy. 

Amendment Three

Submitted by: 16 members
Mover: Brandon Masih 
Summation: Brandon Masih 

After line 31, insert: 

Conference also condemns the Home Office for its February 7th technology capability notice (TCN), where they requested technologically impossible demands of exclusive access to user data stored via Apple’s iCloud system, putting user data at risk and subsequent withdrawal of end-to-end encryption under Advanced Data Protection (ADP) from some forms of iCloud data for new UK users and those who have not enabled ADP prior to February 24th. 

Conference further believes that exclusive, secure access to personal data in a digital world via encryption is paramount for rights to privacy and should not be abridged via encryption backdoors. 

After line 134, add: 

Conference further calls for any TCN issued by the Home Office in relation to sweeping access to iCloud to be withdrawn, requests Apple to subsequently restore the option of ADP to all UK Apple consumer and calls on the Government to confirm no future plans on utilising encryption backdoors on other communication platforms.