Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) algorithmic and (b) other automated decision making systems her Department uses; and for what purposes.

Information relating to use of algorithmic and other automated decision making systems to make automated decisions is not centrally held within the Department.

The Department uses elements of Automation, Robotics and Machine Learning, although much of the work remains experimental. Most automation that has been developed is for internal use and is aimed at improving the Department’s operational processes and not to aid implementation of policies. Neither the Department’s robotics/automation nor machine learning work are used in isolation to make decisions and do not drive decisions or actions directly or in an automated fashion.

The Department’s automation and robotics work includes using business rules to assign correspondence to team queues and text readers to help read and analyse reports. It also includes automation of data flows and validation processes, robots to develop and publish management information reports and analytical insight tools, and chatbots. Guidance for public sector organisations on how to use automated or algorithmic decision making systems in a safe, sustainable and ethical way can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ethics-transparency-and-accountability-framework-for-automated-decision-making.