Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the higher risk of prostate cancer in black men, and what steps they are taking to provide support to black men with a higher risk profile.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government understands that more needs to be done to improve outcomes for all people with prostate cancer, including black men, who we know are two to three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men.
To address disparities and find ways to better detect prostate cancer earlier, we have invested £16 million in the United Kingdom-wide TRANSFORM trial, aimed at helping to find the best ways of detecting prostate cancer in men, even if they are not displaying any symptoms. This research will aim to address some of the inequalities that exist in prostate cancer diagnosis by targeting black men in trial recruitment, ensuring that one in ten participants are black men. We have also asked the National Screening Committee to review the evidence for introducing prostate cancer screening, including for high-risk groups.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the BARCODE 1 study on the early detection of prostate cancer using saliva samples to identify high-risk patients.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has invested £16 million in the £42 million, United Kingdom-wide TRANSFORM trial, led by Prostate Cancer UK, which aims to identify new ways of detecting prostate cancer at an earlier stage, including in men without symptoms. The BARCODE 1 study tests are being included in the TRANSFORM trial, and the UK National Screening Committee will be assessing the evidence that emerges from this trial as it is published.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of artificial intelligence technology in MRI scans at NHS hospitals in Hull, and whether they plan to support wider adoption of that technology across all hospitals.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is being used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in National Health Service hospitals, and this includes MRI acceleration software, which is an AI-driven technology that allows MRI scans to be delivered in shorter time frames. Over the past three years, from 2022 to 2025, NHS England has led significant transformation in diagnostic imaging and digital enablement, funding 275 imaging assets, including 27 new or replacement MRI scanners, and delivering 198 MRI acceleration upgrades to enhance MRI speed and efficiency.
In the North East and Yorkshire, including in Hull, 85 MRI scanners now operate, with an average age of just 6.3 years, underscoring our commitment to maintaining a modern, high-performing imaging fleet.
To date, MRI acceleration software has been deployed across 216 scanners in 80 trusts, significantly reducing scan times. Early evidence indicates scan durations may be cut by 30% to 35%, and when paired with best practice booking and scheduling, can deliver an overall 20% efficiency gain, equivalent to approximately 120,000 additional tests annually.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how implementing hiring quotas to encourage the recruitment and training of more British doctors will affect the hiring costs of the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, published on 3 July, we will work across Government to prioritise United Kingdom medical graduates for foundation training, and to prioritise UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the National Health Service for a significant period for specialty training. Over the next three years we will also create 1,000 new specialty training posts with a focus on specialties where there is the greatest need.
We will publish a new 10 Year Workforce Plan later this year to deliver the transformed health service we will build over the next decade and treat patients on time again.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential use of artificial intelligence technologies in providing healthcare diagnostics without the involvement of doctors.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Through the Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award, we have provided £113 million to test and evaluate artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in crucial areas, such as imaging and diagnostics. The Department is focusing the £21 million AI Diagnostic Fund on the deployment of technologies in key, high-demand areas such as chest X-rays and chest computed tomography scans to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in 12 imaging networks, which covers 67 out of a total of 137 acute and specialist trusts across all seven regions of England.
AI technologies are not designed to replace our National Health Service and care staff. Instead, they will augment human expertise by supporting healthcare staff with routine administrative tasks and clinical decision making. This will save staff time and allow them to spend more time with patients. AI diagnostic tools are to be used to support doctors, and their findings will be reviewed by clinicians before decisions are made.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the NHS has sufficient cyber security defences in place to protect systems.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the past year we have invested £37.6 million across health and social care, building on the £338 million invested since 2017. Through our ambitious Cyber Improvement Programme, we are tackling the changing cyber risk head-on, expanding protection and services to better protect the health and care system.
The health and social care supply chain is large and complex. We have a dedicated workstream in the Cyber Improvement Programme that is focused on this particular risk, developing tools and processes to increase cyber assurance and resilience.
Published in May 2025, the cyber security supply chain charter is designed to support suppliers and their customers in reducing the likelihood and impact of a cyber incident. The eight statements contained within the charter are fundamental security measures that should be reasonably expected from suppliers to help secure their organisation.
In September 2024, the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Assessment Framework was implemented into the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) for large National Health Service organisations. This enables them to understand and manage their own cyber and information governance risks, while maintaining the high standards necessary to protect patients. Over 56,000 organisations completed a DSPT assessment for 2023/24. As of July 2024, 82% of NHS trusts, or 172 trusts, had met or exceeded the standard.
72% of adult social care providers are now compliant with the DSPT, and the Government funded Better Security, Better Care programme continues to support care providers to prioritise safety and security when handling the data of those drawing on care.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will help us address the evolving cyber threat to our supply chain. It will strengthen our defences and ensure that essential healthcare services are better protected.
Through the Cyber Operations division in NHS England, we are able to respond to the ever-changing threat landscape and monitor security threats to IT systems and networks. Cyber Operations provide a range of specialist services that help NHS organisations manage cyber risk, and these are delivered through a range of centrally funded products and services.
We work to ensure that patient data and information is stored in systems that are safe and secure. We do this by providing services, guidance, and support to health and care organisations.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether funding is allocated to implementing artificial intelligence in the NHS, in particular technology for supporting patient diagnosis; and if so, what proportion of NHS funding is allocated for that purpose.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will transform diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to speed up waiting times for diagnostic tests, including through supporting the roll-out of artificial intelligence (AI). Shorter diagnostic waiting times are a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the referral to treatment 18-week standard.
No current assessment has been made on the extent to which AI is being used in the NHS for diagnosing patients. Whilst some funding has been allocated for AI diagnostics, the full proportion of allocated NHS funding is not held.
Against a backdrop of increasing demand for NHS services and significant workforce pressures, AI presents significant opportunities for improving the delivery of care and outcomes for patients. AI tools have the potential to make healthcare more timely, effective, and accessible to the public. To make the most of these opportunities, the Prime Minister has accepted all 50 recommendations of Matt Clifford's AI Opportunities Action Plan.
Through the AI in Health and Care Award, £113 million has been provided to test and evaluate AI technologies in crucial areas, such as imaging and diagnostics. This funding is helping us to generate the evidence needed to deploy effective AI tools across the NHS and improve the lives and health outcomes of our population.
The Department is also focusing the £21 million AI Diagnostic Fund on the deployment of technologies in key, high-demand areas such as chest X-rays and chest computed tomography scans to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in over half of acute trusts in England.
The 2025 Spending Review settlement commits to a major transformation of care delivery, moving from analogue to digital systems, hospital to community-based care, and from treatment to prevention. To support this, the NHS productivity plan is backed by a nearly 50% increase to NHS technology and digital transformation spend since 2025/26, with a total investment of up to £10 billion by 2028/29.
This investment builds upon existing funding that the NHS has directed towards significantly innovating technology in diagnostics, including AI, across the NHS.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of artificial intelligence for note-taking in the NHS.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting and enabling the safe, effective, and ethical deployment and adoption of new technologies for the National Health Service. Ambient voice technologies (AVTs) hold transformative potential for the health and care system as note-taking aides. Their adoption, when used safely and securely, is encouraged to improve both the quality of patient care and operational efficiency. NHS England has published guidance on how digital technologies should be approved for use in the NHS, covering key areas such as implementation, information governance, data, security, privacy, and controls. Additional national guidance has been published explaining how AVT solutions should be selected, deployed, and scaled. These standards are required for any AVT solution to be considered safe, effective, and eligible for NHS adoption.
There are strict safeguards in place throughout the NHS to protect data. All providers of services which handle patient data must protect that data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and every health organisation is required to appoint a Caldicott Guardian to advise on the protection of people’s health and care data, to ensure it is used properly. This includes where artificial intelligence (AI) is used in relation to patient records.
To mitigate the likelihood and severity of any potential harm to individuals arising from the use of data in AI, the Information Commissioners Office has developed detailed AI guidance which provides information on data protection, including Data Protection Impact Assessments and UK GDPR. It has also produced an AI toolkit to support organisations auditing compliance of their AI-based technologies. NHS bodies are expected to make use of this guidance and toolkit, including those using AVTs.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to develop artificial intelligence note-taking technology for the NHS to safely and securely store patient data.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting and enabling the safe, effective, and ethical deployment and adoption of new technologies for the National Health Service. Ambient voice technologies (AVTs) hold transformative potential for the health and care system as note-taking aides. Their adoption, when used safely and securely, is encouraged to improve both the quality of patient care and operational efficiency. NHS England has published guidance on how digital technologies should be approved for use in the NHS, covering key areas such as implementation, information governance, data, security, privacy, and controls. Additional national guidance has been published explaining how AVT solutions should be selected, deployed, and scaled. These standards are required for any AVT solution to be considered safe, effective, and eligible for NHS adoption.
There are strict safeguards in place throughout the NHS to protect data. All providers of services which handle patient data must protect that data in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and every health organisation is required to appoint a Caldicott Guardian to advise on the protection of people’s health and care data, to ensure it is used properly. This includes where artificial intelligence (AI) is used in relation to patient records.
To mitigate the likelihood and severity of any potential harm to individuals arising from the use of data in AI, the Information Commissioners Office has developed detailed AI guidance which provides information on data protection, including Data Protection Impact Assessments and UK GDPR. It has also produced an AI toolkit to support organisations auditing compliance of their AI-based technologies. NHS bodies are expected to make use of this guidance and toolkit, including those using AVTs.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which artificial intelligence is being used in the NHS for diagnosing patients.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will transform diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to speed up waiting times for diagnostic tests, including through supporting the roll-out of artificial intelligence (AI). Shorter diagnostic waiting times are a crucial part of reducing overall waiting times and returning to the referral to treatment 18-week standard.
No current assessment has been made on the extent to which AI is being used in the NHS for diagnosing patients. Whilst some funding has been allocated for AI diagnostics, the full proportion of allocated NHS funding is not held.
Against a backdrop of increasing demand for NHS services and significant workforce pressures, AI presents significant opportunities for improving the delivery of care and outcomes for patients. AI tools have the potential to make healthcare more timely, effective, and accessible to the public. To make the most of these opportunities, the Prime Minister has accepted all 50 recommendations of Matt Clifford's AI Opportunities Action Plan.
Through the AI in Health and Care Award, £113 million has been provided to test and evaluate AI technologies in crucial areas, such as imaging and diagnostics. This funding is helping us to generate the evidence needed to deploy effective AI tools across the NHS and improve the lives and health outcomes of our population.
The Department is also focusing the £21 million AI Diagnostic Fund on the deployment of technologies in key, high-demand areas such as chest X-rays and chest computed tomography scans to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in over half of acute trusts in England.
The 2025 Spending Review settlement commits to a major transformation of care delivery, moving from analogue to digital systems, hospital to community-based care, and from treatment to prevention. To support this, the NHS productivity plan is backed by a nearly 50% increase to NHS technology and digital transformation spend since 2025/26, with a total investment of up to £10 billion by 2028/29.
This investment builds upon existing funding that the NHS has directed towards significantly innovating technology in diagnostics, including AI, across the NHS.