The government promised to harness AI to deliver its ‘Plan for Change’ for the UK – and it has now revealed the details of ‘Humphrey’, key to its approach to transforming public services.
It says this suite of technology and AI tools will streamline public services, eliminate delays through improved data sharing and reduce costs, including consultant spending.
In short, it promises that ‘Humphrey’ – a change in how the government experiments with, buys and builds new tech – will speed up delays for citizens and stop unnecessary admin from wasting their time.
The Labour administration claims that it 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.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle is positioning his department as the ‘digital centre of government’, with a new team, housed in the Department for Science, Technology and Innovation (DSIT), cutting across Whitehall barriers to join up public services.
The government says this will stop people from having to tell dozens of organisations the same thing.
A Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence will also look at how public sector organisations, like local councils, can negotiate costly contracts together to save money, and open opportunities for smaller UK startups and scaleups to drive economic growth and create jobs.
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A package of AI tools – ‘Humphrey’ – have been developed by AI experts from DSIT to speed up the work of civil servants and make them deliver ministerial plans more quickly.
Named after the fictional Whitehall official made famous in BBC drama ‘Yes Minister’ (pictured), these will be made available to all civil servants soon, with some of the products included ready for use today.
‘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, the government says.
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‘Parlex’ is 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’ is 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’ is a generative AI tool designed specifically to help civil servants with day-to-day tasks, like summarising policy and preparing briefings.
‘Lex’ is 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.
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.
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“Sluggish technology has hampered our public services for too long, and it’s costing us all a fortune in time and money,” said Kyle.
“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 on 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 blueprint also announces rules making it mandatory in due course for every public sector organisation to publish their 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 will also be boosted via the creation of a Responsible AI Advisory Panel.
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