Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's announcement that NHS health information will be made available through Amazon’s Alexa, who will have ownership of data generated through that collaboration; what estimate he has made of the financial value of that collaboration to (a) the NHS and (b) Amazon; and for what reasons that collaboration is exclusively with Amazon and not other providers of voice-activated searches.

The agreement signed between the Department and Amazon is clear that none of the data generated will be shared with third parties; that it will not be used for selling products or making product recommendations to Amazon users; nor is it building any form of health profiles on Amazon customers.

This is a mutually beneficial collaboration that will enable greater numbers of people to access information accredited by the National Health Service, helping to put people in control of their own healthcare. The information being provided to users of Alexa devices asking questions is already freely available through the NHS website. This is just an alternative mechanism for delivering that information.

The agreement with Amazon is non-exclusive and we want to work with other organisations to arrange for the content to be provided on other home devices.