Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 2
18th Report - Use of AI in Government
Published 26 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Use of AI in Government All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Public trust is being jeopardised by slow progress on embedding transparency and establishing robust standards for AI adoption in the public sector. Public confidence that the AI technology used by government is fair, accurate, secure and safe is key to successful adoption. Transparency is fundamental to building that trust but as at January 2025, only 33 records had been published on the government website set up to provide greater transparency on algorithm–assisted decision making in the public sector. Some 67% of government bodies responding to the NAO’s survey said that support from the centre of government in fostering public trust in AI was very important. DSIT acknowledges that it has more to do to communicate effectively with the public and to be ‘demonstrably trustworthy’. Its work to strengthen its digital and data spend controls for high–risk AI and develop technical standards and guidelines must be progressed quickly to build public confidence that AI adoption by public sector bodies is safe and responsible. recommendation DSIT should write to the committee in six months to update us on: • Departmental compliance with the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard and further action it is taking to tackle gaps in transparency to strengthen public trust, including to address public concerns over data privacy and the sharing of sensitive data. • How its strengthened spend controls for high–risk AI use cases will support safe and ethical AI roll–out
From: Public Accounts Committee, 18th Report - Use of AI in Government (HC 356), 26 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eighteenth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eighteenth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Eighteenth report from Session 2024-25
Published 10 July 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations, setting target implementation dates between October 2025 and June 2026.
- On legacy technology, it agrees and says GDS will define "consistent metrics and methods" to measure the ongoing costs of legacy systems and the estimated cost of failing to remediate or replace them, with a target date of January 2026.
- On transparency, it is "aiming to publish" Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard records for all currently identified in-scope tools in government departments (not including arm's-length bodies) "by the end of 2025".
- On digital skills, it agrees and says all executive committees will be required to include digital leaders and boards to appoint digital non-executive directors "by 2026", with further detail in the forthcoming Government Digital and AI Roadmap.
- On scaling AI pilots, it agrees and says a proposal is "currently being developed" in the Public Sector AI Adoption programme, with a target implementation date of May 2026.