- New plan to put technology to work across public services announced, set to speed up delays for citizens and stop admin wasting their time
- Data sharing across the public sector will be tackled in bid to stamp out nonsensical delays and save taxpayers billions
- AI tools “Humphrey” launched to speed up work of Whitehall and cut back on consultant spending, with more government-built tech to be unveiled later today
Technology will be better used to improve public services and AI will make the civil service more efficient to turbocharge the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, under a shake up that changes how government experiments with, buys and builds new tech.
A new package of AI tools – nicknamed ‘Humphrey’ – will be available to civil servants in an effort to modernise tech and deliver better public services to set the country on course for a decade of national renewal.
This follows a review which found that the government inherited a dire system which over relies on ways of communicating that should be left in the last century – with HMRC taking 100,000 calls a day and DVLA processing 45,000 letters.
The Technology Secretary is today setting out a plan to set that right – launching his department as the digital centre of government to overhaul digital services and target £45 billion in productivity savings every year.
It will do away with insensitive and antiquated processes that have been holding this country back for too long. That means scrapping the need for people to queue at the local council to register the death of a loved one, and doing away with the need to post an advert in your local paper if you want to get a license to drive a lorry – getting in the way of growth.
It will also apply a common-sense approach to sharing information, which could central government departments, like HMRC and the Department for Business and Trade, share data with each other and local councils more seamlessly to crack down on fraud and get businesses the help they need to grow.
This is hot on the heels of the AI Opportunities Action Plan, which has put the UK on course to become an AI superpower – already attracting over £14 billion in investment since being launched last Monday.
Science Secretary Peter Kyle said:
Sluggish technology has hampered our public services for too long, and it’s costing us all a fortune in time and money.
Not to mention the headaches and stresses we’re left with after being put on hold or forced to take a trip to fill out a form.
My department will put AI to work, speeding up our ability to deliver our Plan for Change, improve lives and drive growth.
We will use technology to bear down hard to the nonsensical approach the public sector takes to sharing information and working together to help the people it serves.
We will also end delays businesses face when they are applying for licenses or permits, when they just want to get on with the task in hand – growth. This is just the start.
The changes will see a new team, housed in the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation (DSIT), cut across Whitehall barriers to join up public services, so people do not have to tell dozens of organisations the same thing, and training programmes to help civil service technologists become AI engineers.
The blueprint for a modern digital government, published today, sets out how the government will also overhaul how it delivers digital services and spends £23 billion a year on technology starting with a Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence.
This will look at how public sector organisations, like local councils, can negotiate costly contracts together to save money, and open opportunities for smaller UK start-ups and scale-ups to drive economic growth and create jobs as part of the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change.
Detailing priorities for the use of technology across government, a digital and AI roadmap will be published in summer aligned with the second phase of the spending review.
A new team will cut through organisational boundaries to build public services that make sense for the people using them, stopping the waste of taxpayer’s time and money.
The team will start by looking at services offered to people with long term health conditions or disabilities – who on top of dealing with their conditions – potentially have to interact with over 40 different services provided across 9 organisations from healthcare to local authorities.
Solutions are being developed that will help people access the right services at the right time, nudging them towards financial and practical support where it is available, which they would otherwise have to find on their own. These solutions will be piloted with local health agencies later this year.
Technology is currently funded by the government in the same way as new hospitals, with an initial burst of investment then a smaller allowance for maintenance costs – but most work to develop technology has not worked like this for over a decade.
The upcoming spending review will see the Treasury experiment with a new approach that recognises how modern technology works. Experiments will aim to give public services more freedom and flexibility while encouraging them to take more risks, seizing the £45 billion opportunity identified by the state of digital government report.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said:
Outdated technology is holding us back. Sluggish manual processes mean people don’t get the help they need quickly enough.
That’s why we want to use the latest AI technologies to bring Jobcentres into the 21st Century, giving our brilliant staff the tools they need to offer more personalised services to jobseekers.
But this is just one example of how AI can make our work more effective. We are committed to going further to make our services faster, fairer, and more accessible for the people who rely on us every day.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:
We are bringing our analogue NHS into the digital age. Our Plan for Change will rebuild our NHS, put patients in control of their own healthcare and arm staff with the latest groundbreaking technology, ending the needless bureaucracy faced by patients up and down the country.
We’ve already set out plans to transform the NHS App so patients can choose providers and book appointments, and we’re harnessing artificial intelligence to deliver faster and smarter care across the country.
By embracing technological advancements, we can both make substantial savings for the taxpayer and build a health service fit for the 21st Century.
Introducing “Humphrey”
A team of expert AI developers from DSIT, that is being expanded under new plans announced today, has built a package of tools to speed up the work of civil servants and make them deliver ministerial plans more quickly.
Across Whitehall, the bundle of tools will be known as “Humphrey”, named after the fictional Whitehall official made famous in BBC drama ‘Yes, Minister’. It is set to be made available to all civil servants soon, with some of the products included ready for use today. Among their uses, the tools will help the government take on board the views of thousands of people, civil society organisations and businesses that comment on policies through consultations.
‘Consult’, a tool in the package, analyses the thousands of responses any government consultation might receive in hours, before presenting policy makers and experts with interactive dashboards to explore what the public are saying directly.
Currently, this process is outsourced to consultants and analysts who can take months to consolidate responses, before billing the taxpayer around £100,000 every time.
This technology, which is currently being tested on data from past consultations, will drastically speed up the policy making process and make it easier for crucial decisions to take on board everyone’s views.
As well as Consult, the package to be known as “Humphrey” will include:
- Parlex: a tool to help policymakers search through and analyse decades of debate from the Houses of Parliament, so they can shape their thinking and better manage bills through the Commons and the Lords
- Minute: a secure AI transcription service for meetings, producing customisable summaries in the formats that public servants need. It is currently being used by multiple central departments in meetings with ministers and is in trials with local councils.
- Redbox: a generative AI tool designed specifically to help civil servants with day-to-day tasks, like summarising policy and preparing briefings
- Lex: a tool which helps officials research the law by providing analysis and summarisation of relevant laws for specific, complex issues
These tools are being announced following Matt Clifford’s AI Opportunity’s Action plan, delivering on his recommendation to expand the work of government AI teams to rapidly test, build or buy tools focused on public sector productivity and deliver better services for citizens.
To make sure this work can happen quickly, a framework for finding and buying AI solutions from the private sector will be developed with a focus on making sure small projects can happen quickly and responsibly, as well as addressing the barriers to using AI at scales.
The blueprint for a modern digital government also announces:
- Rules making it mandatory in due course for every public sector organisation to publish their “application programming interfaces” or APIs, which is technology that will make it easier for public sector organisations to exchange data in a secure and controlled way
- A Technical Design Council led by AI and data experts will also be set up to tackle the toughest technical challenges faced by different areas of government as it puts technology to work across the public sector
- Safeguards and assurance for the use of technology in the public sector, including the creation of a Responsible AI Advisory Panel, including front-line public sector workers, industry experts and civil society
- Plans to review how digital professionals are paid and rewarded across the public sector, with a view to making this sustainable and more competitive with the private sector
- The expansion of the Government Digital Service (GDS), within DSIT, to include the Central Digital and Data Office, Incubator for AI and the Geospatial Commission
- Raising the importance of digital skills in Whitehall, a new “Government Chief Digital Officer” will be advertised shortly, who will sit as a Second Permanent Secretary within DSIT and have responsibility for leading the overall digital profession across Whitehall
