The Government is committed to ensuring the adoption of AI and other data-driven technology in an ethical, safe and responsible way to improve public service outcomes and boost public sector productivity.

Within government, making sure that the public sector use of data and AI is transparent, trustworthy, ethical and responsible is delivered through a suite of guidance, tools and expertise, including the Data and AI Ethics Framework, Model for Responsible Innovation, Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS), and the AI Playbook for UK Government.

Additionally, GDS has established a Responsible AI Advisory Panel, which brings together expert insight from the public sector, industry, academia and civil society to provide constructive challenge and advice, and direct expertise to GDS AI projects.

Such a holistic approach ensures that AI and data innovation is both responsible and effective, ultimately delivering lasting benefits to society.

The recent Skills England Annual Skills Report and Sectoral Skills Needs Assessments 2026 concludes that the skills system has not kept pace with rapid technological change, with artificial intelligence (AI), automation and digital skills shortages intensifying across the economy.

It highlights growing demand for digital, analytical and AI-related skills, which cannot be met by the current training pipeline alone and requires upskilling and reskilling of the workforce.

The Skills for AI: What works for AI upskilling in the UK research programme finds that AI adoption is outpacing workforce capability, and that skills are being developed unevenly and often informally, with limited time, resources and structured training in many organisations.

In response to these issues government is working with industry to identify and respond to the UK’s digital and AI skills needs.

The UK AI Hardware Plan identifies the skills needs of the UK’s AI hardware sector and how we will develop the skills required to build AI infrastructure.

Skills England are actively working with employers to shape relevant training pathways. We have introduced an AI and automation practitioner apprenticeship and three AI leadership apprenticeship units and are supporting initiatives such as DSIT’s AI Skills Boost programme.

The Government’s TechFirst programme will help boost the pipeline of skilled workers. At least 400,000 students from some of the most disadvantaged schools will be supported to take up AI and tech skills in efforts to tackle skills needs while ensuring opportunities are provided to those who need them the most.

This approach to tackling digital and AI skills gaps is aligned with the Industrial Strategy and associated sector plans and is focused on identifying where demand is greatest and ensuring provision meets employer needs.

The Government recognises that AI is transforming workplaces, demanding new skills and augmenting existing roles. We have launched the AI and the Future of Work Unit - a cross‑government function dedicated to ensuring AI delivers positive outcomes for the economy, jobs, and workers. We are preparing for a range of possible futures to ensure this transformation boosts productivity and opportunities and the Government launched an assessment of AI impacts on the labour markets in January 2026.

To build a digitally skilled workforce to support long-term economic growth, drive innovation and expand individual opportunity we are supporting AI Skills Boost to upskill 10 million workers in AI skills by 2030. We have already delivered more than 1 million AI training courses have been delivered to workers across the UK.

Building on the Future of Work Unit, the Chancellor announced a new AI Economics Institute in her recent Mais Lecture. This joint HMT-DSIT institute will incorporate the FoW Unit, as part of a broader focus on the economics of AI, including labour market, productivity and other impacts.

The Online Safety Act requires in-scope services to tackle illegal content and protect children from harmful content, including where it is AI generated. Ofcom has robust enforcement powers for non-compliance.

In the coming weeks, the offence of creating intimate images without consent, including using AI, will come into effect. The Secretary of State announced it will be made a priority offence under the Act, giving users the strongest protections from such content. In addition, the Government has announced that it will criminalise nudification apps – which will make it illegal for companies to supply tools designed to create non-consensual intimate images.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is taking significant steps to expand skills and ethical training in AI.

Last year, we formed a partnership with 11 major technology companies and leading UK businesses to upskill 7.5 million workers in AI by 2030. This will ensure that UK workers benefit from the transformational impact AI will have in the workplace right across the country by ensuring they have access to high quality skills provision, free at the point of use. This will cover a range of skills, including responsible and ethical use of AI.

Last year we also launched the AI Skills Hub – an online learning platform where learners can access training courses on a range of topics ranging from foundational AI literacy to ethics and responsible AI use, to more advanced skills to develop and deploy AI.

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The department recognises the transformative potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) use in schools when used safely and effectively. However, we also recognise that evidence is still emerging on GenAI use in schools.

That is why the department collects biennial evidence via the Technology in Schools survey, with our most recent report published on 27 November 2025 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technology-in-schools-survey-report-2024-to-2025.

We also collect more regular evidence via Omnibus Surveys and work closely with the sector and stakeholders to understand how we are pioneering safe and effective adoption of AI in schools. We have published guidance and toolkits for educators, launched the EdTech Evidence Board pilot to build confidence in education technology (EdTech) products, and developed product safety expectations with industry partners. We are also funding innovation through initiatives such as Oak National Academy’s AI lesson planning assistant.

Our approach balances opportunity with risk, prioritising child-centred design, safeguarding, data protection and evidence-based pedagogy.

The Government recognises the importance of industry adopting AI tools to drive growth and innovation. We recently announced a joint commitment with industry leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to upskill 7.5 million workers with the vital AI skills they need to thrive in their jobs. This will break down barriers to opportunity and unlock economic growth.

We also recently announced further commitments to support AI adoption in industry. This includes a pledge to expand Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme to sectors across our Industrial Strategy priorities, providing hands-on training and online programmes, as well as a £5 million local skills benefits package for each AI Growth Zone, to support local businesses adopt AI.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a wide range of opportunities to help change our health and care system for the better. One opportunity for AI in the National Health Service is to support with diagnostics, including detecting skin cancer.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) routinely evaluates medical technologies, including innovative AI-enabled technologies, and makes recommendations on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of products for the health and social care services in England. NICE has recommended the use of an AI technology for assessing and triaging skin lesions for patients in the NHS suspected skin cancer pathway.

This AI tool, DERM, can distinguish between benign and cancerous skin lesions with nearly 99.7% accuracy, and is now being used in 25 NHS trusts as a part of the NHS's rollout of ‘teledermatology’. Further evidence on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the tool is currently being collected.

The Government takes the use of artificial intelligence to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) extremely seriously. Offences involving AI-generated CSAM – including so-called ‘deepfakes’ – are an increasing concern for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) due to the realism of such images and the speed and scale at which they can be produced.

Creating, possessing, or distributing AI-generated CSAM is already a criminal offence. The Online Safety Act expands upon this by placing a duty on online platforms to proactively identify and remove this type of content. The CPS will prosecute individuals who commit these offences whenever the legal test is met.

The Attorney General’s Office and CPS are working closely with criminal justice partners to identify and address any legislative gaps. The Crime and Policing Bill will introduce a new offence to criminalise AI models that have been optimised to create CSAM. It will also expand existing legislation on ‘paedophile manuals’ to enable the prosecution of individuals who instruct others on how to use AI tools to generate CSAM.

We are hugely optimistic about how AI will transform the lives of British people for the better – but advanced AI could lead to serious security risks.

The UK Government has been clear eyed about the risks AI could bring and have been clear on the need to balance these risks, for example via:

• The National Security Strategy, published in June, outlines the government’s focus on building the UK national security agenda for AI around three pillars: creating more national capacity; accelerating adoption in key sectors; and advancing understanding of the national security risks.
• The Chronic Risk Analysis, also published by the Government in June, assesses longer-term challenges and risks. It highlights that while AI offers significant economic and societal benefits, its rapid advancements pose enduring challenges, including outpacing safety measures, misuse, and potential disruptions to society and the economy. Balancing these risks and opportunities is crucial.
• Establishing the AI Security Institute (AISI) which was set up to equip governments with a scientific understanding of AI’s risks.

The Department is testing artificial intelligence (AI) in areas that cause the most harm to health and to our economy. Through the £113 million AI award, a number of technologies that support with cancer diagnosis have been tested.

In addition, the £21 million AI diagnostic fund is focused on technologies that support with lung cancer diagnosis, such as chest x-rays and chest computed tomography scans.

On top of this, on 4 February 2025, the Department announced that nearly 700,000 women across the country will take part in a world-leading trial to test how cutting-edge AI tools can be used to catch breast cancer cases earlier. The Early Detection using Information Technology in Health, or EDITH, trial is backed by £11 million of Government support via the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

We are committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national ambition of 66.7%, which in England, at the end of February 2025, was 65.4%. To support the implementation of the Dementia Care Pathway, we have developed a memory service dashboard to support commissioners and providers with appropriate data on the diagnostic pathway and enable targeted support where needed.

The Department delivers dementia research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR funds a range of research into dementia, for example investing nearly £11 million to develop new digital approaches for the early detection and diagnosis of dementia.

To aid dementia diagnosis and provision of support in care homes, NHS England funded an evidence-based improvement project to fund two trusts in each region (14 sites), to pilot the Diagnosing Advanced Dementia Mandate protocol. Learning is currently being shared and promoted with regional and local partners following an impact assessment of the pilots.

The Government’s Dame Barbara Windsor Dementia Goals programme has invested £13 million into three biomarker innovation competitions, which include an AI tool designed to improve the accuracy of blood tests for dementia. Alongside Alzheimer’s Research UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and the People’s Postcode Lottery, the NIHR is funding the Blood Biomarker Challenge, which seeks to produce the clinical and economic data that could make the case for the use of a blood test in the National Health Service to support improved diagnosis of dementia in the future, if validated for clinical use.

The UK Government will partner with local and regional authorities and Devolved Governments to establish AI Growth Zones (AIGZs), ensuring substantial regional and national benefits, such as upskilling and employment opportunities, are felt across the country.

In February, Devolved Governments, along with local authorities and industry, were invited to come forward with potential sites suitable for hosting AI infrastructure as an early expression of interest. DSIT regularly engages with the Devolved Governments on a range of issues and there was significant interest in AIGZs from across the UK.

The Foreign Secretary has not discussed this specific issue with EU counterparts. However, he regularly discusses with likeminded partners a range of issues relating to China.

The Government follows the advice of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC). The UK NSC currently does not recommend screening for prostate cancer because the current best test is not accurate enough for use in asymptomatic men.

We are aware of very early-stage trials into artificial intelligence in prostate cancer detection and we look forward to these trials reporting formally so that the evidence can be carefully considered.

In the meantime, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has not had any conversations with his counterparts in Northern Ireland on this issue. Implementation of any UK NSC screening recommendation is a devolved matter.

We are committed to building an AI sector that can scale and win globally, ensuring AI companies want to call the UK home. Our 2024 AI Sector Study found that the UK AI sector employs over 64,000 people in the UK, up from just over 50,000 people in 2022, an increase of 29%.

There are strict safeguards in place throughout the National Health Service to protect data. All providers of services which handle patient data must protect that data in line with UK General Data Protection Regulations, and the Data Protection Act 2018, and every health organisation is required to appoint a Caldicott Guardian to advise on the protection of people’s health and care data, and ensure it is used properly. This includes where artificial intelligence (AI) is used in relation to patient records.

The NHS AI Lab and Sciencewise, which is funded by UK Research and Innovation, held a public dialogue on how the public feels decisions should be made about access to their personal health data for AI purposes. The NHS AI Lab conducted a discovery exercise to design approaches based on insights from the public, which is now informing broader data stewardship initiatives, for example as part of the Secure Data Environments.

To mitigate the likelihood and severity of any potential harm to individuals arising from use of data in AI, the Information Commissioners Office has developed detailed AI guidance which provides an overarching view of data protection, including Data Protection Impact Assessments and UK General Data Protection Regulations. They have also produced an AI toolkit to support organisations auditing compliance of their AI-based technologies.

In taking forward all 50 of the AI Opportunities Action Plan’s recommendations, DSIT shows its commitment to leveraging AI to deliver economic growth, improved lives, and better public services.

AI technologies are being developed to accelerate disease diagnosis and treatment across the NHS. AI-enabled analysis and interpretation of acute brain scans is supporting the decision-making of doctors in 100% of stroke units in England

DSIT is investing £6.4million into a Digital Pathology Network to train AI models in cancer diagnosis. DSIT will continue to ensure safe deployment of AI to deliver service enhancements, earlier diagnostics and improved patient outcomes.

Artificial Intelligence is a vital technology and is at the heart of the government’s economic growth plans. AI safety has been a vital part of the government’s work since the AI Safety Summit.

DSIT is working to address cyber risks to AI and recently consulted on a Code of Practice setting baseline security requirements for AI systems. This will be the basis of a global standard. DSIT will respond in 2025.

Government has also published a cyber security risk assessment on AI and other related research.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for acknowledging my interest in Northern Ireland, which I have already visited since being appointed in order to meet some of the pioneering tech companies there. I will stay committed to ensuring that the Government recognise the talent across Northern Ireland, harnessing it for not just the domestic good but the global good.