Asked by: Juliet Campbell (Labour - Broxtowe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to use AI and automation to (a) improve the delivery of, (b) reduce administrative burdens of and (c) improve the accuracy of assessments for welfare benefits.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are adopting AI in DWP to help colleagues deliver better outcomes for customers and to improve productivity and efficiency, so that colleagues can get more decisions right first time and can support the people who need it most.
The Department uses automated decision-making in some areas, as described in our Personal Information Charter. Customers are told when an automated decision may have been made in relation to their case, along with information on the steps they would need to take if they want to exercise their right to ask for a human to review that decision.
DWP has a legal requirement to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place when carrying out automated decision-making. The Department carries out regular checks to ensure our systems are working as intended, and any new features go through rigorous testing.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to improve the accuracy of automated decision-making tools used in benefit administration.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department uses automated decision-making in some areas, as described in our Personal Information Charter. Customers are told when an automated decision has been made in relation to their case, along with information on the steps they would need to take if they want to exercise their right to ask for a human to review that decision.
Using automated decision-making allows us to improve accuracy, speeds up delivery and frees up colleagues’ time so they can support the people who need it most.
DWP has a legal requirement to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place when carrying out automated decision-making. The Department carries out regular checks to ensure our systems are working as intended, and any new features go through rigorous testing.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to prioritise the the implementation of NHS England’s Cervical Cancer Elimination Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan for England: Fit for the Future, restates the National Health Service’s aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 through improved uptake of cervical screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Delivering the plan and making progress towards committed targets is a key priority for NHS England, working with the Department, providers, and wider health system partners.
NHS England continues to develop its strategy, building on the strong foundations of both school-based programmes, ensuring as many young people as possible take up the offer of HPV vaccination, and cervical screening offered by local general practices (GPs) and other venues. Key activities to increase equitable HPV vaccine and screening uptake include:
- all children, both boys and girls aged 12 to 13 years old, or those in Year 8, being offered the HPV vaccine. Vaccinating boys not only helps to protect girls, it also directly benefits them, as HPV vaccination helps to protect boys from HPV related cancers, such as head, neck, and genital cancers. NHS England is taking a multi-pronged approach to improving HPV vaccine uptake. This includes improvements in School Age Immunisations Service provider delivery, investing in better digital services and data, improving access to vaccination services in supplementary settings, and continuing to deliver clear public health messaging;
- ensuring appropriate follow-up for those who have not yet been vaccinated, as NHS England has launched the GP HPV campaign, which went live from July 2025. GPs have been asked to invite unvaccinated individuals aged 16 to 24 years old for their HPV vaccine as a requirement of the GP Contract. The campaign runs until 31 March 2026;
- NHS England working with the Department and the UK Health Security Agency to develop options for HPV catch-up vaccination through community pharmacies from 2026;
- improving confidence in vaccinations, by working with Government partners to deliver improved campaigns that raise awareness of vaccination;
- indicating our intention to transform our approach to cervical screening for under-screened women or people with a cervix in July 2025. From early 2026, they will receive home testing kits, starting with those that are the most overdue for screening. This will help to tackle deeply entrenched barriers that keep some away from life-saving screening;
- the Digital Transformation of Screening programme, which is leading an ambitious, end-to-end transformation of screening services, and which is being rolled out in a test and learn way. New digital services will support screening participants to manage their screening appointments via the NHS App as well as delivering new, artificial intelligence ready services for staff, freeing up their time to focus on care;
- taking insight driven approaches to addressing inequalities using both data and behavioural insights to target communications and activities to increase uptake and coverage;
- sharing good practice among regions, integrated care boards, and providers, with NHS England having developed a central online resource which includes information on reducing inequalities and supporting equalities, and where all information can be readily accessed by NHS organisations and providers;
- NHS England launching our first ever cervical cancer elimination creative campaign and communications toolkit for Cervical Screening Awareness Week, from 16 to 24 June 2025. This will continue to be developed;
- engaging and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, which will be central to the ongoing delivery of the Cervical Cancer Elimination plan, and ultimately the elimination of cervical cancer in England; and
- carrying out screening in any primary care setting, including sexual health clinics, rather than just at GPs. This includes evenings and on weekends.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the implementation of NHS England’s cervical cancer elimination plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan for England: Fit for the Future, restates the National Health Service’s aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 through improved uptake of cervical screening and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Delivering the plan and making progress towards committed targets is a key priority for NHS England, working with the Department, providers, and wider health system partners.
NHS England continues to develop its strategy, building on the strong foundations of both school-based programmes, ensuring as many young people as possible take up the offer of HPV vaccination, and cervical screening offered by local general practices (GPs) and other venues. Key activities to increase equitable HPV vaccine and screening uptake include:
- all children, both boys and girls aged 12 to 13 years old, or those in Year 8, being offered the HPV vaccine. Vaccinating boys not only helps to protect girls, it also directly benefits them, as HPV vaccination helps to protect boys from HPV related cancers, such as head, neck, and genital cancers. NHS England is taking a multi-pronged approach to improving HPV vaccine uptake. This includes improvements in School Age Immunisations Service provider delivery, investing in better digital services and data, improving access to vaccination services in supplementary settings, and continuing to deliver clear public health messaging;
- ensuring appropriate follow-up for those who have not yet been vaccinated, as NHS England has launched the GP HPV campaign, which went live from July 2025. GPs have been asked to invite unvaccinated individuals aged 16 to 24 years old for their HPV vaccine as a requirement of the GP Contract. The campaign runs until 31 March 2026;
- NHS England working with the Department and the UK Health Security Agency to develop options for HPV catch-up vaccination through community pharmacies from 2026;
- improving confidence in vaccinations, by working with Government partners to deliver improved campaigns that raise awareness of vaccination;
- indicating our intention to transform our approach to cervical screening for under-screened women or people with a cervix in July 2025. From early 2026, they will receive home testing kits, starting with those that are the most overdue for screening. This will help to tackle deeply entrenched barriers that keep some away from life-saving screening;
- the Digital Transformation of Screening programme, which is leading an ambitious, end-to-end transformation of screening services, and which is being rolled out in a test and learn way. New digital services will support screening participants to manage their screening appointments via the NHS App as well as delivering new, artificial intelligence ready services for staff, freeing up their time to focus on care;
- taking insight driven approaches to addressing inequalities using both data and behavioural insights to target communications and activities to increase uptake and coverage;
- sharing good practice among regions, integrated care boards, and providers, with NHS England having developed a central online resource which includes information on reducing inequalities and supporting equalities, and where all information can be readily accessed by NHS organisations and providers;
- NHS England launching our first ever cervical cancer elimination creative campaign and communications toolkit for Cervical Screening Awareness Week, from 16 to 24 June 2025. This will continue to be developed;
- engaging and maintaining relationships with stakeholders, which will be central to the ongoing delivery of the Cervical Cancer Elimination plan, and ultimately the elimination of cervical cancer in England; and
- carrying out screening in any primary care setting, including sexual health clinics, rather than just at GPs. This includes evenings and on weekends.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many benefit decisions made using (a) automated and (b) AI-assisted systems have been overturned on appeal since 2020.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
No Artificial Intelligence is currently deployed to make decisions regarding benefit entitlement or value in isolation. There is automation in some benefit processes but decisions regarding entitlement and value will have a human decision maker involved.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department collects data on (a) errors and (b) false positives arising from algorithmic fraud detection tools.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is committed to processing data lawfully, proportionately, and ethically, with meaningful human input and safeguards in place to protect individuals. “Algorithmic fraud detection tool” is not a term we use in DWP however, the department develops, tests, and invests in advanced analytics to support the detection of fraud and error. Currently, the UC Advances model is the only machine learning model deployed at scale in live service. On the 17th July, the Department published a fairness assessment of the UC Advances model, which includes consideration of the model’s performance. The model remains an effective fraud prevention control, performing approximately three times better than a control group in identifying high-risk advances.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether benefit claimants are informed when their claims are assessed using algorithmic tools.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP’s Personal Information Charter (PIC) (Personal information charter - Department for Work and Pensions - GOV.UK) outlines how DWP processes personal data related to and its use of both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Decision Making (ADM).
DWP does not use AI to replace human judgement to determine or deny a payment to a claimant.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what purposes the UK Health Security Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has focused artificial intelligence (AI) on both internal operational improvements and on external interventions, to enhance the United Kingdom’s health security.
UKHSA toxicologists have installed and are testing a cutting-edge commercial system integrating advanced data analytics with AI to detect airborne pollen in real-time. Further information is available at the following link:
The UKHSA has also successfully deployed one of its AI projects to the Tuberculosis (TB) Unit. This system enhances the manual review of country-of-origin documentation to identify those born in high-risk countries who are eligible for TB screening in the UK. The system is being trialled alongside standard practice to test performance and quantify the benefits that it brings.
The UKHSA has implemented governance structures to ensure the use of AI aligns to cross-Government guidance and the agency’s mission. In May 2024, details of a UKHSA Advisory Board paper on AI was shared on GOV.UK website, which is available at the following link:
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2025 to Question 21604 on Department for Work and Pensions: Artificial Intelligence, whether her Department has taken steps to inform benefits claimants that machine learning is used by her Department to flag cases for further examination.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP Personal Information Charter explains to benefit claimants how we use Machine Learning to help detect and prevent fraud and error.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps they are taking to use (a) artificial intelligence and (b) data to help increase their Department's productivity.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to improving its productivity, including through artificial intelligence (AI), and effective use of data. To make AI and data work, the Department has focused on establishing the enablers for adopting AI responsibly, ethically, and at low cost, to ensure a high return on investment via productivity gains while also maintaining or improving process outcomes. Specifically, implementing governance and delivery structures that pool internal experts from across the Department and bring the consideration of ethics, information governance, cyber security, data science, analysis, and technology in line with guidance offered by the Central Digital and Data Office.
The Department has developed proof-of-concept projects to test these structures, including a Parliamentary Intelligence tool that saves 40 hours per week of staff time and improves the quality of insights, and a partially automated approach to consultation analysis that reduces the cost and time to analyse large consultations, while respecting The Gunning Principles.
The Department draws on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI and data usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Data Maturity Assessment, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard. The Department of Health and Social Care also has access to the Central Digital and Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for expert advice.
Underpinning the Department’s approach to AI is shaping a data driven culture in the Department to support and enhance data science and data analysis capabilities, providing high quality data and data products in a secure, safe, legal, and ethical way. The Department has a large and mature analytical function who put data and insights at the heart of decision making and policy development. For example, the Data Hub that collates nearly 500 metrics in 27 dashboards across 13 topic areas, providing data and insights on-demand to inform decisions. The Department does not currently have any plans to implement automated decision-making systems, and people remain in full control of decision making, with AI augmenting their work.
The Department will continue to regularly review usage of AI and data to maximise productivity benefits for staff and the public.