Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in advance of the decision to use of Amazon Alexa in the NHS; and what assessment he has made on the implications for data and privacy of the use of that product.

The Government takes the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously. Ministers have not discussed this specific agreement. It is up to each department to make sure they are complying with our data protection legislation. The greater the sensitivity of the data, the greater the care that needs to be taken. For example, all organisations need to ensure there is a lawful basis for processing the data, design new systems with data protection principles in mind and consult the Information Commissioner where appropriate.

As part of this agreement, no patient data held by NHS bodies is being shared with Amazon. The agreement is clear that Amazon will not share information with third parties, nor is it going to sell products, make product recommendations or build a health profile on users.