Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of using artificial intelligence in asylum (a) interviews and (b) casework on those processes.

The Home Office is investing in innovative techniques, including AI, to explore how we can improve productivity and continue to maintain order in the asylum system. AI technology does not make decisions on Asylum applications, instead, it helps analyse data and provides insightful information that can further inform choices. This is in line with the ‘human in the loop’ principle. The Home Office does not currently use AI software to transcribe asylum interviews or other components of the asylum decision making process.

Comprehensive Equality Impact Assessments and DPIAs were carried out for our AI caseworking tools during their development and ahead of pilots – this applies to both the Asylum Policy Search tool (APS; fully rolled out) and Asylum Case Summarisation tool (ACS; still in development and testing). Feedback loops and comprehensive monitoring is in place to continuously assess usage and impact for users and overall purpose.

The Equality Impact Assessments for APS and ACS are being reviewed and updated following the pilots for both tools and will be published in due course, after ACS has been fully operationalised.