Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what income they have received as a result of the agreement to share NHS data with Amazon.

The service provided by Amazon connects people to medical information that is already freely available through the National Health Service website. Patients already use Alexa and other devices to search for information on a range of health issues. This agreement ensures that the information they receive from Alexa is medically verified by the NHS instead of from a range of other sources, such as non-United Kingdom websites.

The agreement signed between the Department and Amazon is designed to enable greater numbers of people to access information accredited by the NHS, helping to put people in control of their own healthcare. This agreement is not exclusive. There are over 2,000 other organisations that are accessing and using information from the NHS website in a similar way.

There is no cost to the taxpayer, nor have we received any income as a result of the agreement to share this freely available information from the NHS website with Amazon. This new service through Alexa will enable a greater number of people to access it and help them to manage their own healthcare.