MPs have been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money by using AI bots for parliamentary questions, after key Whitehall departments had to answer almost twice as many written ones
MPs have been accused of using AI bots to draft speeches and ask “endless questions in Parliament”.
They are said to be using AI bots to draft correspondence and parliamentary speeches and also come up with hordes of written parliamentary questions. The parliamentarians have now been accused of wasting valuable taxpayers’ money by funding bots to come up with questions for them.
New statistics show that key Whitehall departments had to answer almost twice as many written parliamentary questions from MPs and peers in 2025 compared to the year before. The number soared to 90,331, up from 49,125 in 2024, which was close to the average for the previous decade.
Just 10 MPs accounted for 20% of the questions submitted in the second half of 2025 with the rest seemingly coming from robots ordered to work. Senior government sources attacked MPs for the growth of questions which they believe could be time-wasting and claim they’re being written by bots.
One told Sky News: “You’re regularly left wondering how any MP would have come up with them, and perhaps the answer is that they haven’t. We ask ourselves: how would this look any different if all their WPQs were being generated by AI?
“And the truth is it wouldn’t.”
Last year the Daily Star reported how ChatGPT was being used to write speeches by MPs who couldn’t come up with the words themselves. Labour MP Mike Reader claimed that MPs use AI like ChatGPT daily to draft speeches and correspondence, while using safeguards.
Telltale signs which are said to indicate AI-written parliamentary speeches are said to lines such as “I rise to speak”. The phrase “I rise to speak” was used more than 600 times in just half a year in 2025.
Now it seems the same AI features are being used in Parliamentary Question Time. Figures reportedly show the Department for Health and Social Care saw a 97% increase in questions compared to the previous year.
The Home Office saw a 92% increase, the Department for Education saw a 97% increase, while the housing department saw a 101% increase.
Under the current rules, MPs can submit up to 20 written questions electronically each day. There is currently an inquiry by the Commons Procedure Committee into WPQs, which could change this limit.
A Whitehall source told Sky News: “MPs mean well, but if they are sending hundreds of WPQs asking for the latest update from the teams responsible for removing RAAC concrete in schools, or reducing cancer screening waiting times, or responding to Hurricane Melissa, they have to understand they are diverting resources from the actual work they’re supposed to care about. If the House wants to remove the 20-per-day limit, while simultaneously allowing members to use AI to write their questions, that is a recipe for chaos.”
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