Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHSX will take to ensure that patients are (a) informed about and (b) engaged in the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

NHSX is driven by user needs, so any technology we introduce, including that related to artificial intelligence (AI), must be done with, and not for patients. We are developing a policy toolkit for responsibly applied AI in health and care, and we are working closely with public voice organisations to ensure that patients are involved and engaged.

We are also developing tools to help technology vendors comply with principle 7 of the Code of Conduct for Data-Driven Health and Care Technology: "Show what type of algorithm is being developed or deployed, the ethical examination of how the data is used, how its performance will be validated and how it will be integrated into health and care provision." In the middle of April these tools were tested with patients and we are currently refining based on the feedback we received.

We will continue to engage with patients as we work to maintain and improve public trust and patient safety.