Chancellor unveils Britain’s ambitious plan for AI
What was announced
Major package to unlock the opportunities of AI in every postcode, scale up home grown AI firms, and keep UK safe from threats announced by the Chancellor.
Key points, in the publisher's words
- A major package of investment to unlock the opportunities of AI in every postcode, scale up home grown AI firms, and keep the country safe from hostile threats will be announced by the Chancellor next week.
- People across the country will benefit from stronger infrastructure and investment in local economies as the Chancellor (24 October 2026) is set to make AI a part of his Budget. He has announced hundreds of millions in investment to guard against the risks of AI while harnessing the opportunities to raise living standards for working people, back British industry and ensure our country is better off.
- The Chancellor’s plans include £10 million per year to lead the UK’s work in understanding how AI will reshape jobs and industry, and how Britain needs to prepare for it, addressing concerns about AI’s replacement of jobs from workers across the country and making sure government is best placed to help people into jobs in future.
Figures in this announcement
Each line is quoted from the original. Figures are as the publisher stated them on the day.
- “The Chancellor’s plans include £10 million per year to lead the UK’s work in understanding how AI will reshape jobs and industry, and how Britain needs to prepare for it, addressing concerns about AI’s replacement of jobs from workers across the country and making sure government is best placed to help people into jobs in future.”
- “To this end, the Chancellor has announced: £165m for a new National AI Biosecurity Initiative, including £100 million for a world-first AI Biosecurity Lab (AIBL) to apply AI to the detection and surveillance of biological threats, and £65 million to strengthen bio surveillance and develop medical countermeasures for priority pathogens.”
- “As a vote of confidence in the UK’s leadership on AI talent and tackling biological threats, AIBL will be supported by up to £200 million in AI model credits from OpenAI and Anthropic, plus partnerships with Google DeepMind and London-based AI life sciences pioneer Basecamp Research.”
- “An additional £120 million investment in the AI Security Institute to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of understanding AI capabilities and risks through its testing and research, building a shared scientific understanding by testing new AI systems and developing technical standards to ensure risks are mitigated.”
- “A new £70 million National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability (NERV) Centre will deploy AI tools to identify cyber vulnerabilities across our critical infrastructure and the economy.”
- “An additional £60 million for the Sovereign AI Fund to enhance its ability to invest directly in promising UK AI companies, to support them to scale and succeed here.”
Who and where
People
- Dan Jarvis (MP for Barnsley North (Labour)) · more news
- John Healey (MP for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough (Labour)) · more news
- Kanishka Narayan (MP for Vale of Glamorgan (Labour)) · more news
UK bodies of power
- HM Treasury (UK government department) · more news
Constituencies of the MPs named: Barnsley North, Rawmarsh And Conisbrough, Vale Of Glamorgan.
Where this sits in the 10 levels of power
Topics, as GOV.UK files them: Artificial intelligence.
Receipt
- Original: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-unveils-britains-ambitious-plan-for-ai
- Published 2026-10-24 05:00:05 UTC
- Read by this site 2026-10-24 05:15:11 UTC from GOV.UK
- Saved copy: receipt 940, with its SHA-256 fingerprint
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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