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 Rural Payments Agency has used AI in the last 12 months.

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 Rural Payments Agency participated in a Central Digital and Data Office led cross-government trial of Microsoft’s AI tool called M365 Copilot, which uses generative AI. This trial started on 7 November and ended on 31 December. M365 Copilot was used for limited tasks, such as note-taking or summarising information, to assess how AI can support day-to-day productivity.

RPA have a limited number of licences to explore this capability further. All content produced by Co-pilot AI is checked by a human for accuracy. RPA are not currently using Copilot for customer interactions.

The Rural Payments Agency have undertaken AI pilots to support remote sensing, monitoring land, and intelligence on flood detection to deliver environmental outcomes for Defra. Two projects are now operational that use AI and satellite imagery to classify crop types across England and a system to detect flooding on agricultural land. We publish information about algorithmic tools we develop, where they are used in decision-making processes that affect members of the public, using the Algorithm Transparency Recording Standard.

The new Government will now examine the findings to inform the next stages of the strategy.