Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment she has made of barriers to AI adoption across government departments.

The Government continually assesses barriers to AI adoption to ensure we unlock significant productivity gains and modernise public services. As identified by the State of Digital Government review, there are several notable barriers: a national skills shortage, outdated legacy computer systems, and a risk-averse administrative culture.

We are tackling the skills gap by launching the National School of Government and Public Services to upskill our existing workforce. To fix legacy infrastructure, our Shared Services Strategy is replacing 286 vulnerable, outdated computer systems with modern, cloud-based platforms. To combat risk-aversion, "Project RESET" is stripping back bureaucratic spending controls so departments can procure and test new digital tools faster and more effectively.