Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 16
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)
The digital and data skills gap in government is long–standing and this committee has raised concerns about this issue in the past.35 We challenged the Cabinet Office and DSIT on how they were tackling the problem and they told us they need to do more to communicate the benefits of working in the public sector, including the opportunity for public service and to have an impact on people’s lives.36 They also told us they wanted to encourage the flow of people and skills between the private and public sectors through greater use of secondments and “tours of duty”.37 Other initiatives set out by the Cabinet Office included a digital excellence programme of training for senior civil servants, the creation of a digital, data and innovation pathway and providing different entry routes into the profession (for example, the digital fast stream and targets for new digital apprenticeships).38
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.