Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse is of implementing the Accessible Information Standard.

NHS England is committed to implementing the Accessible Information Standard (AIS) effectively. NHS England has identified a number of ways to support the standard, including through a self-assessment framework, and has committed to reviewing the efficacy of implementation. This will be achieved through existing staffing and team allocations.

For health and care systems, the AIS is an existing standard which has been in place since 2016, and we would expect systems to implement it within existing budgets, making it a priority where any costs are accrued to implement it. NHS England has invested officer time in developing the standard, and will invest further staff time in the launch and suitable communications as planned.