Healey lists AI security funding ahead of the Budget, including a £100 million lab

HM Treasury said on October 24, 2026 that Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey has set out a package of AI spending ahead of the Budget. The Treasury release names Healey, Security Minister Dan Jarvis, and AI Minister Kanishka Narayan. It says the Chancellor is set to make AI part of the Budget next week, and it also says he has announced the investments. The page does not print a single total, and it does not say the money has been spent.

The security lines on that page are:

• £165 million for a National AI Biosecurity Initiative. Inside that, £100 million is for an AI Biosecurity Lab to apply AI to detection and surveillance of biological threats, and £65 million is to strengthen bio-surveillance and develop medical countermeasures for priority pathogens.
• An additional £120 million for the AI Security Institute, for testing, research, and technical standards.
• £60 million for a National Cyber Shield that will use agentic AI on cyber defense. Inside that, £25 million is a challenge fund for UK AI and cyber firms, and the release says the government is scoping a regulatory sandbox for agentic cyber tools in critical infrastructure, the public sector, and industry.
• £70 million for a National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre, called NERV in the release, to use AI tools to find cyber weaknesses in critical infrastructure and the wider economy.

A Cabinet Office page the same day describes the lab. It says the lab will be an independent non-profit, backed by £100 million of government funding and up to £200 million in company commitments, and it calls that combination up to £300 million. The £200 million is not Treasury cash. The Cabinet Office says OpenAI will provide £100 million in compute and model credits and trusted access to relevant models through what it calls the Rosalind Biodefense programme, and that Anthropic will provide up to £100 million in model credits, trusted model access, and technical support. Google DeepMind and Basecamp Research are named as research partners. The Cabinet Office does not put them inside the £200 million. It says DeepMind scientists will work with the lab and will look to provide access to Gemini and specialised science models, and that Basecamp will provide access to its AI-biology models.

The lab’s stated mission is to use frontier AI so the UK can understand, prevent, detect, and respond to biological threats. Initial work, the Cabinet Office says, is early detection of emerging biological threats and faster development of vaccines, treatments, and other medical countermeasures. It says the lab will work with the UK Health Security Agency, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and the life sciences sector, and with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on health emergencies and on regulation of AI-designed medicines. A scientific advisory committee is promised later. The page does not give an opening date or a city.

Chips, a fund, and local projects

Outside the security block, the Treasury lists more amounts:

• An additional £60 million for the Sovereign AI Fund, including a new focus on what the release calls physical and industrial AI.
• An additional £60 million for that fund’s research-and-development procurement scheme, for health and care and for AI security, assurance, and safe adoption.
• £18 million for a UK Advanced Chip Design Academy. The introduction also mentions chip-design investment in Edinburgh. The release does not say that mention and the £18 million academy are the same project.
• £15 million for an AI Challenge Prize. The first award is aimed at health problems.
• An additional £23 million over three years for the AI Economics Institute, which the release calls a government-backed body for research on how AI affects productivity, growth, jobs, and living standards, including work tied to the UK’s G20 presidency next year.
• £30 million to start local AI partnerships with Mayoral Strategic Authorities.

A National Cyber Security Centre AI cyber centre of excellence in Manchester is described as a training site for government cyber and AI staff. The release gives it no pound figure.

Separately, in the opening, the Treasury says the plans include £10 million a year to lead work on how AI will reshape jobs and industry. The release does not say whether that annual sum sits inside the Institute’s £23 million.

Healey is quoted saying, “AI will transform daily life: every firm, community, hospital, school, and every aspect of our economy can benefit.” Narayan says the biosecurity lab “will be a major new global institution.” Jarvis says the investment will help the UK “strengthen our national security.” Those are the ministers’ words in the release.

Adding up the listed figures

The Treasury page does not state a package total. Adding the ten pound amounts it lists as separate commitments, and leaving out amounts it describes as included inside those commitments, comes to £621 million. The pieces left out of that addition are the £100 million and £65 million inside the £165 million biosecurity line, and the £25 million challenge fund inside the £60 million cyber shield. The company credits, the uncosted Manchester centre, and the £10 million a year line are also outside that £621 million.

Julian David, identified in the release as chief executive of techUK, calls the announcement “a strong £600m+ package.” That is his description, printed by the Treasury. It is not a line in the government’s own list of figures.

The release also describes AI already in use, which it does not present as a result of this package. It says NHS tools help clinicians analyse more than 210,000 chest X-rays a month, about a third of NHS chest X-rays, and that this has produced an 11.5 percent increase in suspected lung-cancer cases identified within 24 hours, about 400 more patients a month, and cut the average wait for a follow-up CT scan from 6.3 days to 5.6 days. It says HMRC’s Ask HMRC assistant supported about 6.3 million customer interactions in 2025–26. Those figures are the release’s account.

Why it matters (analysis)

The page is a pre-Budget announcement from the Treasury and the Cabinet Office. The largest new institution in the security block, on the figures they published, is the biosecurity initiative at £165 million of government money, with a further company commitment of up to £200 million in credits and access that the Cabinet Office itemises as OpenAI and Anthropic. The AI Security Institute line is an addition of £120 million, not a statement of the Institute’s whole budget. Nothing on either page says Parliament has voted the sums, or that the lab is open.

This report is not tax, investment, or legal advice, and it is not a statement that any of the sums will be appropriated as announced.

This report is not legal, financial, or health advice. See the disclaimer.