Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what purposes the Office for Nuclear Regulation has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
Over the last 12 months ONR has explored the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support its efficiency and productivity. ONR’s use of AI has been exploratory and is subject to robust oversight from an internal AI governance group.
Uses include:
ONR’s exploration of AI is continuing and includes national and international collaboration on regulating AI. This is in addition to working with the wider nuclear industry to assess potential opportunities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what purposes the Forestry Commission has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
Forest Research, an agency of the Forestry Commission, is primarily trialling Machine Learning to automate some of the basic tasks currently performed by scientists to support its specialist work. This algorithmic learning can be trained using established and mature techniques on new and existing datasets to classify complex, multidimensional data. This is carefully considered and monitored for accuracy and performance and viewed in the context of evolving practice and recommendations of secure, sustainable and ethical Artificial Intelligence.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what purposes the Office of the Public Guardian has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
A small number of staff in Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) are trialling the use of Microsoft 365 Co-pilot as part of a Ministry of Justice wide pilot, looking to reduce time spent on repetitive administrative tasks. OPG does not use AI in its decision-making processes.
OPG can draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform AI usage. For example, the Generative AI Ethics Framework, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, for what purposes the Government Legal Department has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Government Legal Department is making limited use of generative AI (“Gen AI”) powered by large language models. Since December 2024, GLD has been running a trial of Microsoft’s M365 Copilot, which now has 100 participants and will shortly increase to 150. GLD’s AI Programme is considering where AI may be used and provide tangible benefits within specific work areas and processes, including proposed testing of online legal research tools with Gen AI-based capabilities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, for what purposes the British Council has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The British Council has incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its work to optimise productivity and efficiency. Examples include supply chain management and predictive analytics, automation of recruitment activities, analysis of grant applications, and the use of tools such as Copilot, Perplexity AI and ChatGPT in workplace activities.
The British Council released a commercial AI capability last year where AI is used to assess and adapt to English language learners' proficiency in real time. This capability will be incorporated into new learning and assessment initiatives.
The British Council is operationally independent from the UK Government.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what purposes the Government Property Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Redbox AI service provided by Cabinet Office is the primary service the GPA has used over the last few months.The Government Property Agency has used artificial intelligence primarily to summarise content such as policy documents and meetings.
Subject to Spending Review (SR), the GPA plans to explore how AI can be used to create efficiencies and improvements in how property is managed, such as validation of building design specifications, preventive maintenance, optimising building use and improving energy efficiency.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what purposes the Legal Aid Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
Staff within the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) are part of a wider Ministry of Justice project testing the use of Microsoft Copilot. The purpose of this work is to understand the opportunities, risks and benefits of using Microsoft Copilot to improve productivity, efficiency and quality in administrative processes. The LAA does not use AI in its decision-making processes.
All use of artificial intelligence in the Ministry of Justice is undertaken in line with the Ministry’s AI Ethics Framework and aligned with the Generative AI Framework for government and the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school children are eligible for free school meals in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
As of January 2024, 2,166, or 26%, of state-funded primary school pupils attending schools in South Holland and the Deepings constituency were eligible for and claiming free school meals. This compares with a rate of 24% of primary school pupils in the whole of England.
The figures are from the school census and published down to school level in official statistics, accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what purposes the Environment Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Environment Agency uses artificial intelligence for a number of purposes:
We draw from a range of existing government guidance to inform our usage and development of AI solutions. This includes the AI playbook for UK Government, Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.
We also have access to the Government Digital Service, part of the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, for expert advice.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish an anonymised list of Non Crime Hate Incidents investigated by police forces in England and Wales.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not currently centrally collate information on non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) recorded or investigated by individual police forces – this data is held by individual forces.
The Home Secretary has been clear that a consistent and common-sense approach must be taken with NCHIs. The Government has also been clear that its top priority for policing is delivering on the safer streets mission to rebuild neighbourhood policing, restoring public confidence, and making progress on the ambition to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls.
The Home Office has agreed that the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), supported by the College of Policing, will conduct a review on the use and effectiveness of NCHIs, including looking at force-level data.