Department for Science, Innovation and Technology written question – answered at on 11 February 2026.
Charlotte Nichols
Labour, Warrington North
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to ensure that job applicants with protected characteristics are not discriminated against when AI is used to assess applications.
Kanishka Narayan
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to removing barriers to AI adoption, unlocking new opportunities, and ensuring that equality is embedded at the heart of every mission. We want AI to work for everyone, and that means supporting innovation while ensuring technologies are fair, inclusive and accessible.
We have published Responsible AI in Recruitment guidance which sets out good practice procuring and deploying AI systems for HR and recruitment. This guidance highlights the mechanisms that can be used to ensure the safe and trustworthy use of AI in recruitment.
As highlighted in the AI Opportunities Action Plan: One Year On, we have taken steps to build the AI assurance ecosystem that underpins safe and responsible use of AI. This includes establishing a new Centre for AI Measurement at the National Physical Laboratory, designed to accelerate the development of secure, transparent and trustworthy AI.
Yes2 people think so
No1 person thinks not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
