Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she is taking steps to ensure that disabled people are included in the development of (a) policy on and (b) the regulation of artificial intelligence use and development.

All Government Departments are bound by the Public Sector Equality Duty, as mandated by the Equality Act 2010. Across His Majesty’s Civil Service, Government Departments are also equal opportunities employers. In AI specifically, there are a number of initiatives that ensure the experiences of disabled people inform public policy, including how we consider regulation.

The AI Procurement Guidelines published in 2020 recommend that teams within Government procuring AI are diverse and reflect the diversity of society. In terms of implementing AI solutions in public service delivery, the same guidelines also recommend that Equality Impact Assessment be carried out, so that public services work for people regardless of disability status or any other protected characteristic.

For the wider economy the Department is now working at pace to develop a proportionate regulatory regime that will make use of our world-class regulators’ expertise, which will be set out in a White Paper to be published soon. Our approach will establish a framework based on a set of cross-cutting principles to inform how regulators should tackle issues such as fairness, which would include discrimination against disability. We had over 130 organisations in industry, regulation and civil society respond to our policy paper call for views. Our AI regulation White Paper will be open to public consultation and we will work to hear a wide-range of perspectives through different activities. We would encourage all civic groups - including and especially those by and for people with disabilities - to respond to the open survey on our proposals.

Finally, in order to address the issue of underrepresentation of disabled people in the AI industry, last year we expanded our diversity scholarship programme for postgraduate conversion course Masters courses in AI, which are open to disabled students, alongside encouraging more women, black students, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to study towards a career in AI. In the 2021 phase, over a quarter of students identified as having a disability. The Government is now working with industry up to cofund 2000 more scholarships, and we would encourage anyone with a disability who meets the academic criteria to apply.