Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has conducted an equality impact assessment of the use of machine learning in benefit fraud investigations.

The Department has robust processes to ensure ethical use and impact of data is considered which includes Equality Impact Assessments for transformative initiatives that involve personal data, aligned with data-ethics frameworks, codes of practice, and working principles for analytical communities within the department that work with personal data.

We do not use algorithms to make decisions regarding fraudulent claims, these are always made by humans.

We will be providing further information in our 2023-24 Report and Accounts - committees.parliament.uk/publications/42012/documents/208912/default/