Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Answer of 14 June 2021 on Racial Discrimination: Technology, when a response to the The Independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report will be published; and what assessment she has made since the previous Answer of the feasibility of defining fairness mathematically as proposed in the Commission's Report.

The Government is carefully considering the findings of the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report and will publish its response in due course.

In line with the Commission’s findings, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published a consultation in September 2021 examining the role of sensitive personal data in bias detection and mitigation in AI systems, and the use of the term ‘fairness’ in a data protection context. The consultation is now closed and DCMS is analysing the responses.

The National AI Strategy published in September 2021 also sets out further government action to address concerns around fairness and algorithmic bias. The strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-ai-strategy/national-ai-strategy-html-version.