Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce duplication in local clinical safety and implementation assurance processes for AI-enabled clinical tools that have already been assessed through a national evaluation route, such as the NHS England Ambient Voice Technology Supplier Registry.

NHS England's Ambient Voice Technology (AVT) Supplier Registry is designed to support National Health Service organisations in local procurement and assurance activities. It provides information on suppliers' capabilities and supporting evidence against NHS and regulatory requirements, including clinical safety, information governance, technology, and interoperability standards. The registry supports local assurance processes by providing reusable evidence and helping to reduce duplication in implementation and assurance activities.

Procurement and deployment decisions remain the responsibility of individual NHS organisations, in line with their local governance and assurance processes. Whether or not a product appears on the registry, organisations must ensure compliance with relevant legal, regulatory, and NHS requirements, including clinical safety standards, data protection legislation, cyber security requirements, and, where applicable, medical device regulations.

NHS England has established national interoperability and data standards to support the secure exchange of clinical information across settings, and is supporting both AVT and Electronic Health Record suppliers to develop these capabilities. As part of a test-and-learn approach to the adoption of AVT, NHS England is establishing a national AVT Centre of Excellence to support the sharing of learning, evidence, and implementation experience.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is continuing its programme of regulatory reform in relation to medical devices to protect patient safety while supporting innovation. The Post Market Surveillance regulations came into force on 16 June 2025, strengthening requirements for monitoring devices once they are placed on the market in Great Britain. Further pre-market reforms are expected in 2026.

Finally, in September 2025, the MHRA also launched the independent National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, and the Government will consider its recommendations following publication of the report.