Artificial Intelligence Tools: Schools

Baroness Berger Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Berger]

To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they intend to publish a single, government-approved list of artificial intelligence tools that meet minimum safeguarding and data protection standards for use in schools.

[The Minister of State, Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are focused on ensuring that technology used in education is safe and trustworthy, through generative AI product safety standards, updated guidance and a planned consultation on introducing safety certification for higher-risk products. Such certification would lead to a published list of child-facing generative AI tools which have been certified as meeting safety criteria, including data protection and safeguarding, for use in education settings.

[Baroness Berger (Lab)]

My Lords, edtech is largely untested and we do not yet know the full impact of it on our children in schools. A school choosing an AI tool can struggle to judge whether it meets those safeguarding and data protection standards. A recent ICO audit of 28 edtech providers found that around 70% of their agreements with schools lacked the legally required detail. The edtech businesses could not provide evidence that the schools using their platforms had authorised reuse of student data for their own purposes. Can my noble friend the Minister, in light of her reply, say what additional practical support the Government can provide today to schools to ensure that children’s safety is not harmed by these tools?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

We have already updated the standards that apply to those tools, but my noble friend makes the important point that a fast-moving market, as that for edtech is, needs more than that. That is precisely why we want to consult on certificating products, so that it can be much clearer to schools, at any given time, which products are certificated. That certification would also take into consideration both data protection and safeguarding issues.