Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the NHS can benefit for advances in artificial intelligence.

The Department is funding the NHS Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (NHS AI Lab), which was created to accelerate the safe, ethical and effective adoption of AI in health and social care.

The NHS AI Lab has provided more than £100 million to 77 of the most promising AI technologies, through its Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award. The technologies are being tested and evaluated in 53 hospitals and support clinicians in diagnosis, monitoring disease and managing health conditions at home.

The NHS AI Lab is also working on projects focusing on streamlining regulation, to make it easier for the health and care system to deploy AI technologies as well as improving the route for AI vendors into the system.

The NHS AI Lab is working with regulatory organisations, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and Medicines and Health products regulatory Agency, and the wider AI community, including the Alan Turing Institute and the Ada Lovelace Institute, to ensure AI technologies are ethical and safe.