UK developing investment criteria for government AI spending
The UK government’s Treasury is working with the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) to develop criteria to assess the value of investments in artificial intelligence as part of the ongoing Spending Review.
Feryal Clark, the government’s minister for AI and digital government, said that the CDDO – which was recently moved from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology as part of moves to create a digital centre of government – is working to develop assessment criteria for AI funding to be agreed in the Spending Review.
A full Spending Review is underway in government and will be published in late spring next year. The government has said that the Spending Review will take a technology-enabled approach to funding public services, and the Treasury has already published new guidance on developing business cases for digital and agile projects.
Return on investment
Responding to a written question from Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe asking what steps DSIT is taking to integrate AI into civil service functions, Clark responded that CDDO has worked with the Treasury to develop assessment criteria for the Spending Review.
“The criteria focus on generating value for the taxpayer and ensuring investment in AI technology provides a significant return on investment,” she said.
“There is ongoing work to analyse the potential cost and value of AI for civil service functions, the outcomes of which are yet to be determined.”
The government’s forthcoming AI opportunities action plan will set out how to reimagine public services to take advantage of the best emerging use cases and tools, Clark added.
DSIT – which now hosts the Government Digital Service and the Incubator for AI as well as the CDDO after machinery of government changes – is also developing what the Budget documents called “a renewed strategy for digital transformation across the public sector to ensure that fundamental reforms in public services are prioritised and digital-led” as part of the Spending Review.
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Building on new business case rules for digital transformation
The update from Clark comes after the Treasury published new guidance on developing business cases for digital and agile projects in August. The guidelines aim to “realise the potential of the agile approach to produce better systems more quickly and cheaply than conventional IT planning and project management”, according to the Treasury’s statement.
Government departments are advised to take what was described in the guidance as a “light-touch” approach to planning such projects, particularly those that require their own dedicated business cases. This is intended to avoid traditional detailed IT planning documents that can hinder agile, responsive project management.
Read more; UK Treasury drafts new business case guidance for digital projects to ‘realise agile approach’
About Richard Johnstone
Richard Johnstone is the executive editor of Global Government Forum, where he helps to produce editorial analysis and insight for the title’s audience of public servants around the world. Before joining GGF, he spent nearly five years at UK-based title Civil Service World, latterly as acting editor, and has worked in public policy journalism throughout his career.
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