Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure equal regional access to artificial intelligence diagnostic software for stroke patients.

The 10-Year Health Plan and the Life Sciences Sector Plan will help the National Health Service become the most artificial intelligence (AI)-ready healthcare system in the world. The Government is fully committed to the ‘scan-pilot-scale’ approach set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan published in January 2025, so that we can ensure AI is deployed in the critical areas where the technology can support better health outcomes. The action plan is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-opportunities-action-plan/ai-opportunities-action-plan

We have made particularly significant progress on the deployment of AI within the stroke pathway. Stroke AI tools have been trialled to support doctors to interpret acute stroke brain scans and make decisions about treatment. These are now in use across 100% of stroke units in England. Early data has shown patient "door in door out" time reduction from 140 to 79 minutes and triple the chance of independent living following a stroke when Acute Stroke Centers use these AI tools.