Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The government is committed to harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the productivity of the Civil Service and the quality of public services. Ministers, special advisers and officials may only use generative AI tools that have been approved by their department for official use.
Within the department, colleagues are encouraged to use Microsoft Copilot Chat as the approved enterprise chatbot. Claude is also sanctioned for use by a limited number of technical staff. These tools are configured to ensure departmental data is held securely and is not used to train publicly available AI models.
The use of publicly available or consumer versions of generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek is not permitted for use with departmental information.
The use of generative AI across government is governed by the Generative AI Framework for HMG and the AI Playbook.
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 much her Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
This information is not held in the requested format.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether her Department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Attorney General’s Office does not permit the use of external generative artificial intelligence tools of the type referenced in the Question, unless they have been formally approved and assessed as meeting the required security and data protection standards.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much his Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This detail of information is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much his Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This information is not held in the requested format and could only be collated at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.
Answered by Rachel Blake - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ministers, special advisers, and officials in HM Treasury have access to HMT-GPT, our internal AI tool which is built on Claude and ChatGPT, and Copilot, which have been assured to the appropriate security standards and approved for official use.
The use of publicly available or consumer versions of generative AI tools, including those named in the Question, for official business is not permitted. Approved enterprise tools are configured so that departmental data is held securely and is not used to train publicly available AI models.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve the productivity of the Civil Service and the quality of public services.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) provides officials, Ministers and special advisers with access to secure, enterprise-grade generative AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot and DBT Assist that have been assured to the appropriate security standards and approved for official use.
The use of other artificial intelligence tools, including publicly available or consumer versions of generative AI tools mentioned in the Question is not routinely permitted at DBT. Any proposal to use such tools must first be assessed and approved through the Department’s governance processes in line with the cross-government Generative AI Framework for HMG and the AI Playbook for the UK Government to ensure safe, secure, responsible, and effective use of these tools.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much his Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This information is not held in the requested format.
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, how much her Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not spent any money on advertising on podcasts in any of the last three years.
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, whether her Department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve the productivity of the Civil Service and the quality of public services.
The Department provides officials, Ministers and special advisers with access to secure, enterprise-grade generative AI tools that have been assured to the appropriate security standards and approved for official use. Ministers, special advisers and officials are directed to use these tools for official duties.
Approved enterprise tools are configured so that departmental data is held securely and is not used to train publicly available AI models. The use of generative AI across government is governed by the cross-government Generative AI Framework for HMG and the AI Playbook for the UK Government, which set out the principles for the safe, responsible and effective use of these tools.
Defra officials are currently permitted to access Microsoft Chat and Copilot through the Departments Enterprise agreement. Microsoft CoPilot enables controlled access to Chat GPT. Access to DeepSeek is explicitly prohibited and prevented by network rules. Google Gemini, Claude and Grok are accessible for the purposes of exploration or experimentation. Access has been provisioned under the strictest of guidance to caution against entering any personal, sensitive or restricted data. In all cases, the use of publicly available or consumer versions of generative AI tools, including those named in the Question, is not permitted for official business.