Outdated technology, poor data and a lack of digital skills mean the UK will struggle to boost public sector productivity by deploying artificial intelligence, an influential cross-party group of MPs has warned.
The verdict by the House of Commons public accounts committee casts doubt on Sir Keir Starmer’s promise in January of a new digital centre inside the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to “revolutionise how AI is used . . . to improve citizens’ lives and make government more efficient”.
More than 60 per cent of government bodies said access to good quality data would be a barrier to implementing AI, and 70 per cent said it was difficult to recruit and retain staff with skills in the fast-evolving technology, according to a report published by the committee on Wednesday.
It found that this was in part because much of the data needed to train AI models was locked away in “legacy” systems, which account for 30 per cent of central government IT systems.
Such systems were based on “an end-of-life product, out of support from the supplier, impossible to update”, the MPs said, adding that even where funding had been set aside to upgrade them, it was often later reallocated.
“The government has said it wants to mainline AI into the veins of the nation, but our report raises questions over whether the public sector is ready for such a procedure,” said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the public accounts committee (PAC).
The prime minister and his cabinet are betting heavily on the promise of AI to improve lacklustre productivity and underpin a revival in growth and living standards across the economy.
Andrew Bailey, Bank of England governor, said this week that facilitating AI was now the most likely route “to move the needle on growth” against a backdrop of ageing populations and rising trade tensions.
Rachel Reeves is also counting on advances in technology to slash civil service running costs by 15 per cent by the end of the decade. The chancellor said last weekend that the target was “more than possible”, with AI already used to spot fraud and error in the tax and benefits systems.
But the PAC warned that the government had “a long way to go” to build a market of AI suppliers and improve its own procurement, with a risk that it would become “locked in” to expensive contracts with a few large providers.
It also said the science department had made only slow progress in setting ethical standards for AI adoption in the public sector and ensuring the transparency needed to build public trust.
Clifton-Brown said there were “serious concerns that DSIT does not have the authority over the rest of government to bring about the scale and pace of change that’s needed”.
The science department said the PAC’s findings “reflect much of what we already know, which is why we set out a bold plan to overhaul the use of tech and AI across the public sector”.
“There’s a £45bn opportunity if we get AI right, which will help us deliver on our Plan for Change and drive up living standards across the country,” it added.
