The UK government has accepted all 44 recommendations of the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, it said on 6 October. The commission was set up by the MHRA, the medicines and devices regulator, in September 2025 as an independent advisory body, and gathered evidence from more than 12,000 people.
Its central principle is that AI-enabled medical devices should be assessed and monitored throughout their working life, not approved once and left alone. The MHRA says it will issue draft guidance by December 2026 on managing changes to AI devices, consult in 2027 on how AI devices are qualified and classified, and publish a full implementation roadmap by spring 2027. It is also exploring staged authorisation, so promising tools can be used in the NHS earlier under close supervision.
AI Airlock, the MHRA’s regulatory sandbox, has three more years of government funding. Its third phase focuses on monitoring devices after they reach the market, and the first innovators will be chosen in November 2026.
Why it matters: these are commitments, not law, and most of the detail is still to be written. But they shift UK oversight from a one-off approval towards continuous checks, which matters for AI tools that keep changing after launch.
Source: GOV.UK, Government backs recommendations of NHS doctor-led AI commission.