Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford on 21 January (HL127), how they intend to assess (1) how any potential for Alexa to help with "prevention and early diagnosis" is being delivered in practice; and (2) whether such an approach is within the broader public interest.

The agreement with Amazon to provide medically verified National Health Service information from the NHS website, through its voice assistant Alexa, will help people become more informed about a range of medical conditions, their symptoms, and their potential treatments. Greater access to that information from the NHS will help people manage their own healthcare more effectively, reaching a far greater number of United Kingdom citizens, which could help with prevention and early diagnosis.

Significantly, it will help those who rely on voice-activated technology, such as elderly people or blind and visually impaired people, to access expert, accurate and safe medical information from the NHS.