Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government's publication A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation, published on 29 March 2023, how much and what proportion of the budget of each regulator in their Department was spent on regulation of artificial intelligence in the latest period for which information is available; how many staff in each regulator worked (a) wholly and (b) partly on those issues in the latest period for which information is available; and whether those regulators plan to increase resources for their work on artificial intelligence.

The AI White Paper emphasised the importance of ensuring that UK regulators and public bodies have the capacity, expertise, and capabilities to implement government’s pro-innovation approach whilst recognising and understanding the risks. This is particularly true for those regulators for which AI falls squarely within their regulatory remit, but also applies to a much wider range of public and regulatory bodies considering the implications AI has across the economy.

The Department for Work and Pensions sponsors three regulators: The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and The Pensions Regulator. It is not possible to accurately confirm the numbers of staff who partly work on the implications of AI within their remit. This presents a challenge disaggregating ‘AI resource’ to provide figures on the proportion of budget spent. However, the department can confirm the following:

• ONR is developing a framework for regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). Following two successful expert panels on AI in collaboration with industry and academia, ONR was awarded a £170,950 grant from the governments Regulators’ Pioneer Fund (RPF) to pilot a first of a kind regulatory sandbox process for AI in the nuclear sector, in partnership with the Environment Agency. In line with their commitment to embrace innovation ONR continues to grow capability for the regulation of novel technologies, including AI.

• HSE does not allocate a specific budget for work in relation to AI, this is a cross-cutting topic which concerns many divisions within HSE. No HSE staff work wholly on AI and approximately ten staff have materially contributed to work on AI over the last 12 months. This is technology that is developing at pace, as an agile regulator HSE will reallocate resource to address new risks as necessary.

• TPR does not allocate a specific budget for work in relation to AI and no staff work wholly on AI. This is technology that is developing at pace, as an agile regulator TPR will reallocate resource to address new risks as necessary.