Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding will be made available to NHS trusts to integrate AI technology.

The NHS AI Lab has already provided £113 million, through the NHS AI Health and Care Awards, to 86 artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which have been used in 40% of National Health Service acute trusts in England and hundreds of Primary Care Networks across the United Kingdom. The awards have helped accelerate the testing and evaluation of AI technologies and developed an evidence base to support the commissioning of technologies that are clinically safe and cost effective.

Many of these AI technologies are being tested and evaluated in NHS England to aid clinical decision-making, healthcare diagnostics, and imaging. For example, the Department is focusing the £21 million AI Diagnostic Fund on the deployment of technologies in key, high-demand areas such as chest x-ray and chest computed tomography scans, to enable faster diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in over half of acute trusts in England.

In addition, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, sponsored by the Department, has funded an £11 million trial, which will use artificial intelligence for breast cancer screening. The trial will be launched across the country and showcases our commitment to embracing innovative technologies in healthcare.

The Department is also supporting the NHS to adopt the latest innovations in digital technology, such as artificial intelligence, with £2 billion having been allocated to digitise the NHS.

All future spending commitments beyond 2025/26 will be dependent on the outcome of Phase 2 of the Spending Review process, which will conclude and be published in late spring of 2025.