(LD):...According to recent announcements from
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, it is
conducting Artificial Intelligence trials internally
for issues of direct benefit to it. This shows not only that the
NHS is beginning to understand the power of data and digital
tools, but that this can be done in-house for public benefit and
that there are viable alternatives to handing data to and sharing
data with multinational companies. What are the Government doing
more broadly across the NHS to ensure that there is full
recognition across the NHS?
The Digital Economy Act affords the Secretary of State
considerable powers to make use of publicly controlled data,
which is of considerable concern in some quarters. The key
concern is the scope for different departments to share and then
link datasets, such as sharing health data from the Department of
Health and Social Care with the Home Office to identify illegal
immigrants, as stated in recent headlines. What is the scope
and/or limitation for the Secretary of State to share publicly
controlled data with private entities? Is this likely to inform
the introduction of so-called “data trusts”?
Then, of course, there is the question of whether any of the
codes is fit for the future in terms of technology. In
particular, what are the duties of transparency and
explainability where datasets are used to construct Artificial Intelligence solutions,
algorithms and the like for government purposes? What
consultation was engaged in this respect? There appears to be no
reference in any of the codes to this. Should we not wait for the
data ethics and innovation centre to give its guidance on these
matters involving the Government and their deployment
of Artificial Intelligence?
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