NHS 10-Year Plan

Lord Bishop of Oxford Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Oxford]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister to her place and, like others, send good wishes to the noble Baroness, Lady Merron.

I welcome very much, as others have done, the three aspirations in Fit for the Future. I think that they are significant and that they are the right ones. I think they are bold and visionary. However, while I welcome the move from analogue to digital, for me, the document raises significant questions. We are looking to build a National Health Service which cares for whole people, not machines. We need, therefore, to be concerned for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, at every stage of life, across the NHS. That demands continuous investment in people, including, of course, chaplains.

I have specific questions around the ethics, governance and provision of technology. Where will process and governance responsibility lie for data storage? Will the Government continue to outsource this to Palantir or another provider, or will we build and maintain the NHS’s own secure provision? I am mindful that our data stored by the NHS is a hugely valuable commercial asset. Where will the ethical debates take place around, for example, the proposal that newborns will undergo wholesale genetic sequencing from birth from 2035, which seems to raise massive issues for our society? The document as it stands, it seems to me, is wholly positive about technology—it is techno-optimism. Will the Minister please balance this by telling us about the safeguards, reservations and governance that the technology needs in order to deliver the human, humane and kind care that we need?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I thank the right reverend Prelate for his very thoughtful contribution. It is particularly of the moment, and I completely recognise everything he said about this needing to focus on people.

We have to look at this technology as enabling better care and freeing up time. How many of us go to the GP and experience frustration at the restriction on the time that we are allowed to spend with the GP, because so much of their time is taken up with admin? Of course, data protection is central. The health service is not the only area where we are looking at systems of data protection, and the normal protection methodology will be brought to bear. We have to make sure that, in governance, there is a much more transparent and open style, which, frankly, we all have to admit has been missing in some cases. This is an opportunity to look at that.

I must admit that I will have to have a conversation about where the ethical discussions will actually take place, but I know that, throughout the professional bodies, these considerations are taken into account all the time. It is fundamental. The direction of travel is to have people at the centre, building the workforce, so that they have the opportunities to thrive and do their jobs to the best of their abilities for their patients.