Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to her Department’s White Paper New world leading approach to AI in the UK, published on 29 March, how much and what proportion of the budget of each existing regulator is spent on regulation of artificial intelligence; how many staff in each regulator work (a) wholly and (b) partly on these issues; and whether those regulators plan to increase the resources for work on artificial intelligence.

The different applications and uses of AI technologies are becoming increasingly central to many UK regulators within their domains, noting the faster adoption rates in some sectors - such as Finance, Information Technology, Media and Telecoms.

As part of the AI regulation White Paper consultation, we are engaging closely with regulators across the landscape and their sponsoring government departments to understand their relative levels of capability - noting that it is not a straightforward exercise to identify distinct 'AI resource'. We will continue to work closely with regulators to ensure that our regulatory framework for AI can be implemented effectively, including by exploring regulatory capability gaps and possible solutions or mitigations.

We are also developing a range of functions, outlined in the White Paper, to support regulators to undertake their regulatory activities. The proposed monitoring and evaluation function, along with other central functions designed to support implementation by regulators, including by supporting coordination between regulator, will allow us to quickly identify if regulator capability is a barrier to implementation and leverage existing AI expertise across government to build capability where necessary.

Alongside this, our regulators are already coordinating and working together to share expertise and ensure that AI innovations have efficient and safe regulatory routes to market, for example using forums like the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum and the NHS AI and digital regulations service; or initiatives like the ICO’s award-winning AI and Data Protection Risk Mitigation Toolkit, or the MHRA’s ground-breaking Software and AI as a Medical Device Change Programme Roadmap.

We will be providing further details as part of the publication of the White Paper Consultation Response in the autumn. We encourage responses to the consultation - including in the context of regulators’ capabilities - before the 21 June deadline.