Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to complete algorithmic transparency reports for the ten pilot programs being developed by the Incubator for AI.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government has made transparency around automated decision-making a priority through the publication of the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS). The ATRS was endorsed by the Data Standards Authority (DSA), and the first approved version was published in January 2023. Any standards that have been designated by the DSA have an expectation that they will be adopted where there is a use case.
The i.AI team are committed to the development of safe, secure and transparent government AI. The pilot programmes are at various stages of development, and each will be subject to robust testing and evaluation in collaboration with other government expert teams including CDDO, DSIT and the AISI. This will include the completion of Algorithmic Transparency Standards for projects that move past Alpha stages, informed by user testing and pilot programmes.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer on 18 January 2024 to Question 9578 on Artificial Intelligence, in which private offices the Red Box Copilot is being tested.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Red Box Copilot has been made available to the Private Offices of Minister Burghart, of the Cabinet Secretary, and of the Chief Operating Officer of the Civil Service, in which it is either currently or will shortly be going through more formal testing.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to complete an algorithmic transparency report using the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard for the Artificial Intelligence Red Box ministers are piloting.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The government has made transparency around automated decision-making a priority through the publication of the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS). The ATRS was endorsed by the Data Standards Authority (DSA), and the first approved version was published in January 2023.
The Red Box Copilot is currently in Alpha, being tested in a controlled, transparent manner in a small number of private offices.
Any standards that have been designated by the DSA have an expectation that they will be adopted where there is a use case. As the AI Red Box is being piloted, the Government will consider the publication of an ATRS record, post evaluation.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the GOV.UK chat experiment.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Government Digital Service (GDS) tested an early prototype of a Large Language Model (LLM) powered chatbot (GOV.UK Chat) in December 2023. Feedback, and the quality of answers provided, were analysed from 200 users.
Nearly 70% of users found the prototype-generated responses to be useful and the answers were assessed to be accurate 80% of the time.
Ensuring the highest level of accuracy and efficiency is a priority, which is why the next phase of development and testing will focus on how to improve accuracy of the model and explore how users could best discover and use the service.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of people have (a) witnessed and (b) personally experienced antisocial behaviour in their local area for each local authority in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that polling commissioned by Government or paid for with public funds is not (a) used for party political purposes or (b) accessed by a political party on preferential terms.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The office of the Prime Minister is an integral part of the Cabinet Office. Complete information on opinion poll and focus group spending is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate costs. However, the Government routinely publishes details of all contracts over £10,000 on Contracts Finder.
As has been the case under successive administrations, any Government research, polling or analysis would be for official use.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what procurement process was undertaken before selecting Hanbury Strategy and Communications Limited to recruit Government special advisors.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Special Advisers are appointed to assist a Minister of the Crown after being selected by that Minister personally. All appointments must be approved by the Prime Minister. This is set out in Section 15 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
Separately, and in advance of Ministerial approval in accordance with the statutory requirement, it is open to political parties to undertake activity to identify individuals that Ministers may wish to consider for selection. This is not part of the appointment by Government but rather for the political party concerned.
Previously, the existence of such opportunities has generally not been made public. Openly encouraging people to express their interest, with greater information about what the opportunities may entail, will help broaden the field of potential candidates.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many companies were considered before Hanbury Strategy and Communications Limited were selected to recruit Government special advisors.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Special Advisers are appointed to assist a Minister of the Crown after being selected by that Minister personally. All appointments must be approved by the Prime Minister. This is set out in Section 15 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
Separately, and in advance of Ministerial approval in accordance with the statutory requirement, it is open to political parties to undertake activity to identify individuals that Ministers may wish to consider for selection. This is not part of the appointment by Government but rather for the political party concerned.
Previously, the existence of such opportunities has generally not been made public. Openly encouraging people to express their interest, with greater information about what the opportunities may entail, will help broaden the field of potential candidates.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans the Government has to support Public Service Day on the 23 June 2019.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The civil service looks to recognise the success and contribution of its staff throughout the year. There are currently no plans to organise events to support Public Service Day.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what events the Government has organised to celebrate Public Service Day on 23 June 2019.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The civil service looks to recognise the success and contribution of its staff throughout the year. There are currently no plans to organise events to support Public Service Day.