Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the artificial intelligence (AI) applications funded to date under the NHS AI Lab's AI in Health and Care Awards; and how much each developer has received to date.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The AI in Health and Care Award has provided £123 million to 86 AI technologies over three funding rounds. The Award is accelerating the testing and evaluation of the most promising AI technologies likely to meet the aims set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
These are live in more than 340 primary care networks and 40% of National Health Service acute trusts in England. The AI solutions are helping patients by supporting stroke diagnosis, cancer screening, cardiovascular monitoring and managing disease at home.
The AI in Health and Care Award will not be considering any more funding applications, and all projects are set to complete either before or by 2025. The full list of the 86 projects and the developers granted funding from the AI in Health and Care Award is available in an online-only format on NHS England’s website.
The funding allocated to projects that applied in the first two funding rounds is available in an online-only format at the Contracts Finder on GOV.uk. The funding provided to the nine projects for round three will be made available on the same website later this year.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many automated decision-making systems are currently in use by the Department of Health and Social Care, even partially, to make decisions that affect people’s legal rights or entitlements; and how many of those systems have publicly available equality impact assessments or data protection impact assessments or both.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not use automated decision-making in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have considered re-instating the reports to Parliament on the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has no plans to re-instate the reports to parliament, which were a requirement under the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme. This requirement was not included in the 2019 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access. The governance of any future voluntary scheme is subject to ongoing negotiations.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether any disinvestment decisions have been taken in the UK because of the rebates imposed on companies through the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has considered in broad terms the link between volume-based rebate payments in our medicine pricing schemes and various kinds of investment in our impact assessment of recent updates to the statutory scheme for branded medicines pricing, which operates alongside the voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing and access (VPAS).
There are several factors which influence company investment decisions in any particular country or region. Available evidence suggests that supply side factors, such as availability of expert scientific labour and favourable tax conditions are of greatest significance in the decision on future investment. However, we understand that price regulation schemes such as VPAS may be a consideration in the decision to locate some investments, which is why we are committed to agreeing a successor voluntary scheme to VPAS that supports a strong United Kingdom life sciences sector.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current status of their review of Annex B to their Delivering same-sex accommodation guidance.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is in the process of reviewing its guidance on the provision of same-sex hospital accommodation. Revised guidance will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of NHS England’s announcement that Shared Care Records will be incorporated into its Federated Data Platform.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Shared Care Records and the Federated Data Platform will operate separately. The objective of Shared Care Records is to ensure that authorised health and care professionals providing direct care to patients have safe, secure and ready access to the person-based records and care plans needed to provide high quality individual integrated care.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how patients can dissent from the secondary use of their patient data within the Federated Data Platform, including pursuant to rights under (1) the National Data Opt-Out, and (2) the Data Protection Act 2018 (incorporating the UK General Data Protection Regulation).
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any patient can opt out from the sharing of their data for secondary use purposes in line with the National Data Opt-Out policy. This can be done at any time through the NHS App, online, by phone, email or post. Implementation of the National Data Opt-Out policy has been mandatory for health and adult social care organisations since 31 July 2022.
The procurement process for the Federated Data Platform has not yet commenced. Once operational, data will be treated in accordance with the provisions set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation. Opted out data will be separated from non-opted out data prior to the commencement of secondary use.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Kamall on 24 May (HL476 and HL475), what is the policy for recording the gender of people who self-identify as non-binary in medical records; and what is the legal underpinning for this policy.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Government continues to consider emerging data and research on the experiences of non-binary people to understand how future policy can be developed. In general, the National Health Service identifies individuals as male or female via NHS numbers and medical records. This aligns with the Gender Recognition Act 2004 which refers to two sexes: male and female. NHS bodies must always consider any legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights in respect of those who identify as non-binary.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Kamall on 24 May (HL476 and HL475), what is the legal underpinning for the policy set out in the Gender Identity Toolkit for General Practice that only gender, not sex and gender, are included on medical records.
Answered by Lord Kamall
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 provides additional rights and safeguards for those with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), such as making it an offence to disclose protected information. This includes information pertaining to the previously recorded sex of a person who holds a GRC where that information has been obtained in an official capacity and the person has not consented to its disclosure, subject to limited exceptions.
The Gender Identity Toolkit for General Practice is made available by the Institute of General Practice Management, Indigo Gender Service, Practice Index and Pride in Practice. However, it is not Government guidance. The Toolkit provides voluntary information to general practices on the administration of changes to medical records and makes reference to the Gender Recognition Act.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what stage the review of single-sex accommodation in the NHS has reached; and when the report of that review is expected to be published.
Answered by Lord Kamall
NHS England is continuing its review of the guidance ‘Delivering same-sex accommodation’. The revised guidance will be published once the review has been completed.