Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of placing (a) transparency, (b) testing and (c) accountability requirements on private defence contracts for the development of AI systems.

The principal policy framework governing the Ministry of Defence's (MOD) safe and responsible adoption of AI is our published Joint Service Publication Dependable AI JSP 936 which sets out directives on AI safety, ethics, and governance. JSP 936 requires that externally acquired AI systems meet the same standards and give the same level of assurance as AI systems developed within the MOD. Under this framework, and in line with the National Security Strategy, we will look to leverage the UK's vibrant third-party assurance market to enable breadth, scale, and learning from other sectors.