Written questions by Hayes.

If he will take steps to improve information about early diagnosis for prostate cancer for men from areas of socio-economic deprivation.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in rural and socio-economically deprived areas.The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the Prostate Specific Antigen test does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefits in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, such as invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment.However, the National Health Service is prioritising the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

DWP Ministers do not use AI for their official business. Over the last 12 months, our officials have utilised AI to support them in delivering better outcomes for customers. This includes the use of AI to increase colleague productivity, improve back-office operations and processes, and to tackle fraud and error.

If he will take steps to increase access to PSA tests for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer for men in rural areas.

NHS England and the integrated care boards are responsible for ensuring healthcare needs of local communities are met. These responsibilities include considering adequate healthcare provision, care, and wider support for local populations, including in rural and socio-economically deprived areas.The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend screening for prostate cancer as the Prostate Specific Antigen test does not meet the required accuracy for use in a national screening programme. Current methods offer insufficient benefits in relation to harms caused by overdiagnosis, such as invasive investigative procedures and unnecessary treatment.However, the National Health Service is prioritising the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity, delivering the final year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has huge potential to support the Government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower and accelerate to net zero. Over the last 12 months DESNZ officials have, with robust safeguards and governance, used AI tools to:Speed up office-based tasks including basic drafting, summarising, and searching internal and external information sources;Analyse internal information sets;Analyse external information, such as job listings to identify trends in green jobs. Ministers have been supported by officials using AI tools, in line with the uses above.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.To seize this opportunity, the Ministry of Justice has established a new Justice AI Unit, led by the Department’s first Chief AI Officer, to develop a comprehensive AI strategy for the Department and its agencies.Officials are trialing the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot across 1,300 staff in the Department, specifically on its ability to reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks. In addition, we are exploring various pilots to support key functions, including frontline and operational staff.We adhere to a safety-first policy and have co-developed an AI ethical framework and toolkit with the Alan Turing Institute. This resource is designed to assist stakeholders, developers, policymakers, and decision-makers in understanding the requirements for fostering responsible innovation in the use of AI within the criminal justice system.

For what purposes (a) special advisers and (b) officials in 10 Downing Street have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.The Government draws on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.The department also has access to the Central Digital & Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, for expert advice.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the countryMinisters have not used AI in the Department in their roles as Law Officers.A small number of officials within the Department have been piloting the use of a Microsoft 365 application ‘CoPilot’ which can be used to summarise content and meetings, assisting with drafting content and interrogating information. ChatGPT has also previously been used in this manner.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the quantity of best and most versatile agricultural land.

The current estimate of the quantity of best and most versatile agricultural land is 42% of agricultural land. Grades 1 and 2 together form about 21% of all farmland in England; Subgrade 3a also covers about 21%. The last publicly available estimate of BMV land was published in a Natural England Technical Information Note in 2009. It can be foundavailable here: The new Government recognises the importance of accurately identifying BMV land, and work is currently underway to develop a new strategic-scale map to replace the 1960s provisional Agricultural Land Classification (ALC) map. The updated map will align with current ALC guidelines and include the subdivision of Grade 3 land into subgrades 3a and 3b, which is not reflected in the provisional map. This project is expected to be completed by spring 2025, providing a more accurate and up-to-date assessment of land quality to inform future land use decisions.

Food and Rural Affairs, for what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the new Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country. As of January 2025, officials are exploring AI tools in a number of areas, although this work is still a proof-of-concept and not a live system. Officials are also exploring deep learning for peatland mapping to aid CO2 reduction and machine learning to automate marine species identification. We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI usage. For example, Generative AI Framework, Data Ethics Framework, AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.

Communities and Local Government, for what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Ministers and officials utilise AI for various purposes. This includes automating routine tasks (such as data entry and document processing), supporting research and development initiatives and analysing large datasets to identify trends and inform policy decisions.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

The Ministry of Defence is experimenting with a range of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to increase productivity and efficiency across the Department. That includes the use of informational chatbots, machine learning applications and generative AI to manage large volumes of data, automate laborious or repetitive tasks and support policy work (summarising documents, drafting emails, generating meeting minutes etc).

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

AI has transformative potential, with the ability to drive growth, raise living standards, transform public services, and improve the lives of working people across the UK. In HM Treasury, we are using AI to build tools that support policy makers, including our bespoke HMT-GPT system and email triaging solution for managing correspondence. The award-winning Hawkeye service enables the Treasury to automatically combine key data on the UK economy and provide valuable insights for analysts. We are also adopting this modern, digital approach for the upcoming Spending Review.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

AI is being used for a range of purposes in the HO, including:to improve business delivery as part of overall digital improvements in the department with well-established systems such as e-Gates, to allow entry at the Border; in our passport service, to support online applications; triage tools, which route cases to the appropriate teams; and the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) Classifier, which helps police officers grade child sexual abuse material (CSAM) more swiftly and reduces their exposure time to harmful contentto assist the creation of documents and presentationsto research publicly available documentsto transcribe meetingsto summarise informationWe are also running several AI trials to test their potential for wider productivity and quality improvements in existing business processes.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

The Department for Business and Trade is committed to improving its productivity, including through AI and effective use of data. A range of AI tools are available for use by Ministers and officials across various roles the department, including: Microsoft Copilot, Open AI models and other models for specific uses. There are teams focussed on enabling use of AI by building necessary infrastructure and developing specific AI use cases.Ministers and officials also have access to a range of data services which allow them to deploy AI and data tools.We report against the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard on GOV.UK.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, for what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform diplomatic practice and the FCDO's delivery, enhancing our diplomatic impact and increasing individual productivity and corporate efficiency.AI is already integrated into many commodity products and devices. Ministers do not currently use specific FCDO provided AI augmented tools in their work. Officials already use a range of FCDO provided AI augmented tools in their work to support information analysis and national security activities. The FCDO participated in the cross-HMG pilot of Microsoft Copilot and is trialling an AI agent to intelligently sign-post written Consular enquiries on GOV.UK. The secure and responsible adoption of AI is a key component of the FCDO's multi-year Digital, Data and Cyber Security Strategy.

Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of regulation of gambling (a) advertising, (b) sponsorship and (c) marketing.

There are a range of robust rules in place to ensure that gambling adverts, wherever they appear, are socially responsible. The Gambling Commission is further strengthening protections on marketing to improve customer control and ensure marketing does not exacerbate harm. However, as the Gambling Minister set out in her speech at the GambleAware conference on 4 December, more needs to be done to improve protections. The industry now has a clear task to further raise standards to ensure that levels of gambling advertising does not exacerbate harm, and this work will be monitored closely.Regarding sponsorship, all major sporting bodies have published their gambling sponsorship Codes of Conduct, setting minimum standards for socially responsible gambling sponsorships. The Premier League’s decision to ban front-of-shirt sponsorship by gambling firms will also commence by the end of the 2025/26 season. The Department will closely monitor the implementation of the Codes to ensure they have a meaningful impact.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.The department has been using Microsoft Copilot, an AI-based web chat with commercial protection, for various means including:Information retrieval and summarisation, for example, from a policy or data publication.Learning new skills, for example, improving writing skills or use of analytical skills.Pattern recognition and data analysis.Natural language understanding and generation, ideal for conversation, content creation, and summarisation.In addition, 150 people across the organisation are piloting Microsoft 365 Copilot, which leverages AI to automate and accelerate tasks in Microsoft Products. We are tracking the benefits of this pilot which currently include:Increased productivity.Less time in meetings.Ability to search and analyse data more effectively.Less repetitive tasks.Increased efficiency in drafting.Ability to be more creative.User satisfaction.Since summer 2023, the department has created a secure Microsoft Azure Open AI sandbox environment. This allows limited groups of users to build and test AI models based on specific uses cases, in a safe and secure environment. Use cases are approved by a technology-led steering group, and this group will ultimately decide on which applications could potentially be moved into production for use more broadly across the organisation.We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI usage. For example the Generative AI Framework, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.The department has also had access to the Central Digital and Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, for expert advice.

What steps she is taking to improve the accessibility of bus services for disabled people in Lincolnshire.

The government is committed to improving bus services right across the country, including in Lincolnshire, so they are more inclusive and enable disabled people to travel safely, confidently and with dignity. On 1st October 2024, the first phase of the Public Service Vehicles (Accessible Information) Regulations 2023 came into force, meaning that newer vehicles providing local services must provide audible and visible information on stops, destinations and diversions. The majority of services will need to comply by October 2026.On 17th December, the government introduced a new Bus Services Bill that will give local leaders the freedom to take decisions to deliver their local transport priorities and ensure networks meet the needs of the communities who rely on them, including for disabled people. The Bill includes measures which will make bus travel more accessible and inclusive.

For what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

As the Prime Minister made clear in his speech last week at the launch of the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, AI can be used to radically improve public services, and we are determined to harness its potential. Ministers and officials in the Cabinet Office have access to a range of technology solutions and platforms to undertake business activities, including AI tools, to improve efficiency and productivity. For example, the Cabinet Office uses an algorithm to automate the review of digital records in order to determine which records should be permanently preserved. The Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard entry can be found here.

Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the supply of adapted housing for (a) adults and (b) children with disabilities in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

The English Housing Survey includes data on adaptations within the home at a national level. Data is not held at constituency level.The right housing arrangements are crucial in supporting people to live independently and well. The National Planning Policy Framework outlines that it is for local planning authorities to assess the housing needed for different groups in their area, including disabled people, and reflect this in their local plan.Local housing authorities also have a statutory duty to provide Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) funding for home adaptations to disabled people of all ages and tenures subject to a means test, eligibility criteria and a needs assessment.Government provided funding of £842,476 to South Holland District Council and £1,063,807 to South Kesteven District Council for the DFG for 2024–2025. As announced by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on 3 January 2025, an in-year uplift to the DFG budget, totalling £86 million, will be paid to local authorities as soon as possible. South Holland District Council will receive £115,925 and South Kesteven District Council will receive £146,380 in additional funding.