11 Sep 2026

Safe, Fast and Trusted: techUK welcomes the National Commission's recommendations on AI in healthcare

Today the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare published its recommendations for a future regulatory framework, setting out how UK regulation should evolve as AI is increasingly used across health and care. techUK warmly welcomes the report, which reflects many of the priorities our members have championed throughout the Commission's work.

techUK's contribution to the Commission

techUK was pleased to contribute to the Commission's work by responding to the MHRA's call for evidence, developed with members through dedicated forums and an in-person roundtable with MHRA officials, and through our analysis of the Commission's findings in June. Today's recommendations show clearly that industry, the Commission and the MHRA share the same goal: AI in healthcare that is safely regulated, reaches patients sooner and earns the trust of everyone who uses it.

AI is transforming healthcare - regulation must keep pace

AI can support earlier diagnosis, more personalised care and better experiences for healthcare professionals, while helping the NHS meet rising demand. But AI products can change over time and perform differently across settings, and a framework built for static devices struggles to keep up. Two-thirds of industry respondents to the Commission's call for evidence said the current framework restricts innovation. The Commission agrees that regulation needs to evolve with the technology, and so do we.

techUK’s recommendations

When the Commission published its evidence findings in June, our analysis found that six of its ten key findings mapped directly onto positions techUK had put forward. Today's recommendations carry that alignment through into concrete proposals.

The Commission's response

The Commission's central conclusion is that the regulation and assurance of AI in healthcare must become more proportionate, lifecycle-based and system-wide, delivering a framework that is Safe, Fast and Trusted. Its recommendations are organised around three connected areas of change.

1. Proportionate lifecycle regulation

The right safeguards, at the right time, for the right level of risk. In our submission we called for a "dual-path" approach, with a fast track for low-risk tools and a full route for higher-risk products. The Commission recommends clearer classification, including clarity on when administrative, wellbeing and certain low-risk decision support tools are not medical devices, lighter oversight where evidence shows risk is low, and staged authorisations that allow promising technologies to reach patients under controlled conditions while evidence builds.

Its proposal for function-based regulation, focusing oversight on the specific medical functions within multifunction products such as ambient voice technology, echoes the case made in our AVT position statement. Its proposals on predetermined change control plans and tailored post-market surveillance, including escalation where performance degrades, answer our call for oversight designed around adaptive AI.

2. System-wide responsibility and safe management

Keeping AI safe is a shared responsibility. Our members told the MHRA that unclear liability creates a climate of fear for developers and deployers alike. The Commission calls for clear responsibilities across the product lifecycle, including liability arrangements, alongside organisational readiness, workforce capability and best practice in procurement. Its principle that no one should be left responsible for something they cannot understand, control or act on is one industry fully shares.

3. Trust, transparency and predictability

Trust must be earned, and industry wants to earn it. The Commission calls for greater transparency for patients and professionals, and for clearer, more predictable pathways for innovators, including early engagement with regulators and less avoidable duplication between regulation, assurance and adoption. This speaks directly to our call for a simplified "front door" and an end to repeated assurance across the NHS.

A shared ambition

The most important message in this report is one industry has been making all along: safety and speed are not in tension. Our members do not want less regulation; they want regulation that is proportionate, predictable and built for how AI actually works. We also welcome the Commission's recognition that regulators must be properly resourced to deliver, a point our members raised strongly.

What comes next

A cross-government response will follow, setting out how the recommendations will be taken forward. techUK will keep working with the MHRA, Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and system partners so that the sector's expertise shapes implementation.

Read the Commission's recommendations on GOV.UK

Get involved: join the conversation at techUK. To contribute to our response or join the Health and social care programme's policy discussions, please contact [email protected].