Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of artificial intelligence on public expenditure.

The primary focus of the government’s analysis has been to assess the potential for AI to enhance public sector productivity and efficiency, which are key determinants of future spending levels. Analysis by DSIT for the State of Digital Government Review found an estimated £45 billion per year in unrealised savings and productivity benefits in the public sector, 4-7% of public sector spend, which could be achieved through full digitisation of public sector services. Opportunities are based predominantly on process simplification, AI-driven automation of manual tasks, greater availability, adoption of low-cost digital channels and reduced fraud through compliance automation.

Of this, £36 billion in potential annual savings are from using AI to simplify and automate delivery across the public sector. This was estimated through a detailed analysis of 350,000 public sector roles using Civil Service data, scaling productivity savings from automating or augmenting routine tasks to the wider public sector workforce.