Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government records instances of the use of Artificial Intelligence in the public sector.

The Office for Artificial Intelligence worked with the Government Digital Service (GDS) and the AI-first consultancy Faculty to review where AI and data technologies are being used across government, and where they can be used in the future to improve public services. As part of this work, we created 'A guide to using artificial intelligence in the public sector', updated this January 2020 and available on GOV.UK. This document provides a set of high-level guidelines for understanding how to deploy AI and data technologies.

To complement this work, the Office for AI has collaborated with the World Economic Forum to create a further set of guidelines for responsible public sector procurement of AI. Alongside draft guidelines for public procurement of AI, this work has also fed into a new dynamic purchasing system for AI, implemented by Crown Commercial Services, called the 'AI Marketplace'. Once established, the AI Marketplace will allow Government to better-procure AI & Data solutions from the best vendors. It will also facilitate understanding of where AI is being procured across Government.

GDS and the Office for National Statistics have also conducted a 'data science audit' to understand data science capability within teams across central and local government, and emergency services. Having such capabilities within the public sector workforce will ensure public bodies are well-placed to use data science, including AI technologies, to improve public service delivery. They will do so in-line with other Government principles and guidelines, such as the data ethics framework, to ensure the ethical use of data for AI.