Security alert as civil servants make use of AI to draft and reply Commons questions
Civil servants are creating a security risk by using artificial intelligence to draft and answer parliamentary questions, MPs are warning.
The AI assistant Microsoft Copilot, one of the largest pieces of AI technology, is already being used to draft parliamentary responses by the Foreign Office.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to boost the take-up of AI in Whitehall but Conservative MP Peter Bedford said: ‘The use of AI to answer questions poses a security risk.
‘The way AI works is it shares information with itself but can be used anywhere in the world.
We need to be sure that sensitive information is not being input into AI and transmitted across the world.
‘MPs also deserve clear, thought-out responses to their questions, not just copy and paste jobs from AI.’
The Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are all also using AI to help staff answer questions.
The AI assistant Microsoft Copilot, one of the largest pieces of AI technology, is already being used to draft parliamentary responses by the Foreign Office
Sir Keir Starmer wants to boost the take-up of AI in Whitehall but Conservative MP Peter Bedford said: ‘The use of AI to answer questions poses a security risk
Conservative MP Sir John Hayes said the policy was ‘appalling’ and struck right at the heart of the process of government. He told The Mail on Sunday it could lead to serious problems such as the Post Office’s Horizon computer system scandal.
‘We have seen in recent history what happens when the machine is trusted over the human,’ he said.
‘You end up with the Post Office’s Horizon IT scandal. This is a slippery slope.
‘Ministers need to urgently assure the public this is not the beginning of the end of personal responsibility for the answers given to questions in the Commons.’
Department spokesmen have confirmed AI is being used but insist any parliamentary questions answered using AI are reviewed by a civil servant and signed off by a minister before publication. Mr Bedford was told only ‘a small proportion of staff in the Department of Business and Trade’ use AI technology. It is used to ‘support the drafting process’ for responding to written parliamentary questions.
A Department for Business and Trade spokesman told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Ministers and experienced civil servants remain entirely responsible for the drafting and clearing of all official responses and correspondence in Parliament.’
Announcing that new AI and tech teams will be sent into departments to ‘turbo-charge’ AI in Whitehall, Sir Keir said: ‘No person’s time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard.’
