Extract from Lords
debate on Artificial Intelligence
(Con):...Turning to talent, no matter how good the
artificial intelligence is, ultimately it is people who will need
to be prime throughout the fourth industrial revolution. Not least
of these will be international people coming over to be part of
building the AI revolution for which the United Kingdom has such
a—perhaps unique—potential. However, our immigration system is
described as “expensive”, “tedious” and “putting people off”.
The Indian Prime Minister, Mr Modi, talking
about international students, put it very well: “You want our
trade; you do not want our children”. Does the Minister believe
that the current immigration system is fit for purpose and
optimised to enable us to make a real success of artificial
intelligence and all elements of the fourth industrial revolution?
Does he agree that it is high time that, as a start, international
students were removed from the net migration statistics?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord
Henley) (Con):...Secondly, at the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister
announced with Prime Minister Modi the new UK-India tech partnership to identify
and pair businesses, venture capital, universities and others to
provide access routes to markets for British
and Indian entrepreneurs and small and
medium-sized enterprises.
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Extracts from
Committee stage (Commons) of the Finance (No3)
Bill
(Thirsk and Malton)
(Con):...I do not look at these things through
rose-tinted spectacles, but many years ago, following protests by
those concerned about the impact on their livelihoods of imports
from India by the East India Company and the successful lobbying
of their Members of Parliament, legislation was introduced from
1700 called the Calico Acts, which banned all imports of
calico—rough-cotton cloth—from India. That gave rise to the
industrial revolution, because at that point we could not produce
enough calico, so Watt linked his steam engine to Hargreaves’s
spinning jenny and mass production resulted.
(West
Dunbartonshire) (SNP): The hon. Gentleman mentions the
historical Calico Act. He does know that it also impoverished the
people of India, rather than just creating the industrial
revolution.
: The hon.
Gentleman may well be aware of that fact, but that is not the
point that I was making. I am not keen to impoverish people from
any nation; the point is that what happened gave rise to a huge
opportunity. Amendment 14 looks at one side of the equation, as
if we can rely on a Treasury forecast simply as fact. It does not
take into account the other side of equation, which is that
business will respond to the future framework that it is part of.
There are concerns about the future, but there are also
opportunities...
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Extract from end of day
adjournment debate on UK Entry Visas
(Glasgow North West)
(SNP): Many of the academics my hon. Friend talks about
are from sub-Saharan Africa, India and the middle east. Does he
share my concerns that post Brexit this may involve academics
from across Europe too?
(Glasgow North)
(SNP): That is a very real concern and I will touch on
Brexit just before I finish...
The Minister for Immigration (Caroline
Nokes):...The UK offers a priority visa service that
sees applications normally processed within five days in nearly
200 locations. The UK is also the only country to offer a
24-hour service in China and a same-day service
in India. Access UK, a new online
application service, has been successfully rolled out to visit
visa customers in over 200 countries and 19 different languages.
This new system means a faster, more streamlined and increasingly
automated application process for customers.
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Extract from
Westminster Hall debate on Leaving the European Union
(Morley and Outwood)
(Con): ...The biggest benefit to us leaving on WTO rules
is our freedom to sign our own free trade deals with the rest of
the world, such as with the world’s largest economy—the USA—and
with the economic powerhouses of tomorrow, such as India. It has
the added benefit of meaning we would also keep the £39
billion...
To read the whole debate, CLICK
HERE
