Question to the Home Office:

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

Automated decision-making in Government is compliant with provisions in GDPR and the Data Protection Act, which requires the completion of Impact Assessments and includes the right for a data subject to request “a new decision that is not based solely on automated processing”. Government has also published a Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework for Automated Decision-Making, which guides the safe, sustainable and ethical use of automated or algorithmic decision-making systems.

“Algorithmic” and “automated decision-making systems” are broad terms covering a large array of systems and processes, and the department does not currently keep a specific record of all systems that could fall within the definitions for this purpose. However, given the importance of transparency, accountability, and consistency alongside considerations such as security, we are assessing what more could be done to ensure we have the best possible records.