UK Prime Minister Starmer Unveils £45 Billion AI-Driven Public Sector Transformation Plan

Starmer Sees £45 Billion Savings in UK Push Into Digital, AI

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to announce plans for a "digital revolution" to reshape the British state, saying that digitizing public services and harnessing artificial intelligence could unlock £45 billion ($58 billion) in annual productivity savings. "No person's substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard," the prime minister will say in a speech Thursday, according to excerpts emailed in advance by his office.

Will AI save the UK government £45bn a year?

Sir Keir Starmer declared this week that the digitisation of government services could achieve up to £45bn in savings and productivity benefits annually across the public sector. The UK prime minister arrived at that total following a review this year that was commissioned by technology secretary Peter Kyle and conducted by officials in his department alongside consultancy firm Bain & Company. Their report, published in January, estimated that greater use of digital technology and artificial intelligence could save 4-7 per cent of public sector expenditure in total, making it "the most powerful lever available" to drive reform across the state. Crucially, however, it did not offer a detailed breakdown. Officials in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology told the Financial Times that £36bn -- or 80 per cent -- of the estimated efficiencies would derive from simplifying and automating delivery across the public sector. This would involve the widespread use of AI to perform administrative tasks, such as transcribing meetings, sorting and analysing state consultation responses, summarising policies and conducting legal and parliamentary research. The government's AI incubator is currently developing "Humphrey", a package of tools to cover each of these areas named after the mandarin from TV series Yes, Minister. These tools have the potential to save billions of pounds a year from the money currently spent on contractors. For instance, staff costs for the analysis of government consultation responses alone total £80mn a year. A further £4bn in predicted savings will result from "migrating service processing to cheaper online channels", officials forecast. This includes shifting from expensive modes of government communication, such as postal correspondence and text messages, to emails. Whitehall is also launching a beta version of its gov.uk app this summer, which aims to offer Britons a single point of online access for all their interactions with the state -- ranging from applying for benefits and paying tax bills to receiving MoT reminders. This will offer the government a cheap way of communicating with citizens. An extra £6bn could be saved by reducing fraud and error with digital compliance solutions, officials said. Digitisation is expected to improve data management across HM Revenue & Customs and beyond, improving the ability of algorithms to spot benefit fraud and tax evasion. Some experts are sceptical. Nick Davies, programme director at the Institute for Government think-tank, said he understood how digital technology could boost productivity, but warned that Starmer's suggestion of significant "cashable" savings may be misleading. While "transactional" services such as the issuance of passports and driving licences, and other back-office functions, can be automated, it is difficult to replicate in person-centred services such as healthcare that require frontline staff, he said. Davies predicted that achieving genuine savings of such a "huge scale" would require the state to stop providing some services rather than simply automate them. Joe Hill, policy director at the Reform think-tank, said it was "clear that more savings can be made through areas like fraud", but warned that neither the Treasury nor the Office for Budget Responsibility should build these savings into their models on the basis of "general commitments to digitise and automate across the public sector". Chi Onwurah, Labour chair of the Commons science, innovation and technology committee, said the total appeared "credible, in theory" but would require co-ordination between ministers, the civil service, systems and suppliers. "Past promise of public sector technological transformation has too often not been realised," she warned -- citing lessons to be learned from the creation of universal credit and digital health records, which her committee is examining.

Starmer to target 'cottage industry of blockers' in overhaul of regulators

Sir Keir Starmer will on Thursday vow to reshape public services by taking on a "cottage industry of checkers and blockers" and embracing AI to drive through efficiencies, though Downing Street insisted he would not take "a chainsaw" to the state. The prime minister wants to cut the number of regulators and will claim that the country needs an agile state where "every pound spent, every regulation, every decision must deliver for working people". But Starmer is not setting a target for cutting the civil service headcount, and has so far identified only one out of around 130 regulators that he intends to axe. The Conservatives claim the prime minister has also set up or promised more than 25 new quangos and task forces since coming into office, including a new football regulator and an Office for Value for Money whose own efficiency has been questioned by MPs. However Starmer will insist that a revolution is under way. On Tuesday Britain's top two financial services regulators axed plans to impose stricter rules for diversity and inclusion, as ministers push them to remove barriers to growth. Downing Street also pointed to plans to get rid of the Payment Systems Regulator, which oversees the UK's main payment networks, by merging most its activities with the Financial Services Authority. The PSR was an easy target for Starmer, given it is already closely integrated with the FCA, with which it shares a headquarters, IT systems, staff contacts and senior leadership. Starmer has written to all ministers urging them to find other watchdogs to merge or scrap though one Whitehall official said: "It has proven harder than he thought." Downing Street insisted it wanted a nimbler state, rather than an Elon Musk-style purging of the current apparatus. "There's no approach where we take a chainsaw to the system," a spokesman for Starmer said, in reference to President Javier Milei in Argentina and Musk who have both wielded chainsaws to illustrate their cost-cutting zeal. Starmer will say in a speech in Yorkshire that he is "determined to seize" the opportunities created by AI, adding: "If we push forward with the digitisation of government services there are up to £45bn of savings and productivity benefits, ready to be realised." He will announce a new "TechTrack" apprenticeship scheme to bring 2,000 digital specialists into public sector departments by 2030, and will promise that one in 10 civil servants will work in digital roles within five years. Last weekend Pat McFadden, Cabinet Office minister, caused consternation in Whitehall when he said parts of the civil service "would and can become smaller", and that he would create incentives to remove underperforming officials from their jobs. Starmer then wrote to civil servants to reassure them they were valued and would be "empowered" by the reforms. In December Starmer had to calm Whitehall after he said too many officials were comfortable "in the tepid bath of managed decline". The prime minister's allies say Starmer is passionate about reforming the state. "The thing that bothers Keir is the growing gap between politicians and the public," said one. "We have to close that gap and make sure the populist right doesn't fill it." The ally said previous Conservative ministers created quangos to avoid having to take tough decisions themselves, adding: "Keir's view is that if you want to be a minister, you should take the accountability that comes with the role."

Keir Starmer pledges to tackle 'overcautious' and 'flabby' state

In his speech, Sir Keir will promise to cut the costs of regulation for businesses by 25% to boost economic growth. His plan also includes greater use of artificial intelligence, underpinned by the mantra that civil servants should not be spending time on tasks where digital or AI can do it better and quicker. The government gave the example of an AI helper for call centre workers, in partnership with Citizens' Advice, which it said could halve the amount of time it takes call handlers to respond to complex questions. New AI and tech teams will be sent into public sector departments to improve efficiency, with one in 10 civil servants working in tech or digital roles within the next five years. Meanwhile, the PM will take aim at the "cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery". Writing in the Telegraph, he said there had been "a tendency to avoid difficult questions by sweeping them under a carpet of regulation" to "outsource and delay decision-making and avoid accountability". "For any challenge faced, for too long the answer has been more arms-length bodies, quangos and regulators which end up blocking the government as we're trying to build," he added. Earlier this week, the government said it would abolish the Payment Systems Regulator, which looks after Faster Payments and Mastercard, because it had increased costs for small businesses. But the new Labour government has also set up more than 20 new arms-length bodies since winning power. These include Great British Energy, which will invest in renewable energy to help meet the government's clean power goals, and the Border Security Command, which aims to tackle small boat crossings.

AI should replace some work of civil servants under new rules, Keir Starmer to announce

The new digital 'mantra', which aims to save the government £45bn, prompts unions to warn PM to stop blaming problems on Whitehall officials AI should replace the work of government officials where it can be done to the same standard under new rules that have prompted unions to warn Keir Starmer to stop blaming problems on civil servants. As part of his plans for reshaping the state, the prime minister will on Thursday outline how a digital revolution will bring billions of pounds in savings to the government. Officials will be told to abide by a mantra that says: "No person's substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard." In his speech, Starmer will claim that more than £45bn can be saved by greater use of digital methods in Whitehall, even before AI is deployed, with 2,000 new tech apprentices to be recruited to the civil service. However, with bruising cuts on the way at this spring's spending review, Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union for senior civil servants, said: "Mantras that look like they've been written by ChatGPT are fine for setting out a mission, but spending rounds are about reality." He said civil servants will welcome the commitment of more support with digital transformation, but with a bruising spending round ahead, the government "needs to set out, in detail, how more can be delivered with less". Starmer's rhetoric about reshaping the state has alarmed some trade unions who fear for civil service jobs and are also concerned about morale among officials, after years of being demonised as unproductive by the Tories. Penman said it was "right that the prime minister sets out an ambitious agenda for transforming public services with digital and AI tools, but ... many civil servants will be looking for the substance and feeling that, once again, the prime minister is using the language of blame rather than transformation" . Mike Clancy, the general secretary of Prospect union, said: "Civil servants are not hostile to reforms, but these must be undertaken in partnership with staff and unions. I urge everyone in government to avoid the incendiary rhetoric and tactics we are seeing in the United States, and to be clear that reforms are about enhancing not undermining the civil service." Clancy said it was right to make better use of tech in the public security but added that the government will find it challenging to compete for the skills needed to deliver on this agenda under the current pay regime, which is why Prospect is campaigning for more pay flexibility to recruit and retain specialists in the civil service in areas like science and data. "Government should also be doing more to utilise the talented specialists it already has at its disposal, many of whom are working in regulators and other agencies that have been starved of funding in recent years." In Starmer's speech, he will also pledge to reduce regulation and cut some quangos, taking on the "cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery for working people". The government will have a new target of reducing the cost of regulation by 25%. Starmer will give a diagnosis of the problem in the UK that the state has become "bigger, but weaker" and is not delivering on its core purpose. "The need for greater urgency now could not be any clearer. We must move further and faster on security and renewal," he will say. "Every pound spent, every regulation, every decision must deliver for working people ... "If we push forward with the digitisation of government services. There are up to £45bn worth of savings and productivity benefits, ready to be realised." In the US, Donald Trump has embarked on a radical programme of sacking government workers under the new department of government efficiency (Doge), advised by the billionaire businessman Elon Musk. Starmer's government is understood to want also to scale back the size of the state, reducing the number of civil servants by substantially more than 10,000. Pat McFadden, the Cabinet Office minister, on Sunday said the government is prepared to bring in tougher performance management requirements in a bid to shed underperforming officials, and put more emphasis on performance related pay. The Guardian revealed on Tuesday that No 10 and the Treasury are taking a close interest in proposals drawn up by Labour Together, a thinktank with close links to the government, to reshape the state under plans dubbed "project chainsaw". The project's nickname is a reference to Elon Musk's stunt wielding a chainsaw to symbolise controversial government cuts for Donald Trump's administration. Starmer's press spokesperson said on Wednesday that No 10 rejects the "juvenile characterisation" of their reshaping plans as slashing the state. "There's no approach here where we're taking a chainsaw to the system," she said.

UK PM says AI should soon replace civil servants

UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer has said that some civil servants could be replaced by AI as the PM is set to announce a new digital mantra. The mantra states that "No person's substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker, and to the same high quality and standard." In a speech to be given today, Starmer will announce that over £45 billion could be saved by introducing new digital tools and reforms to Whitehall - before even introducing any AI to the service. The PM will also announce the creation of 2,000 tech apprenticeship positions, and reductions in regulations and the involvement of some 'quangos' - quasi-non-governmental-organizations - which are typically government funded bodies with some devolved power, which Starmer claims have created a "cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery for working people." Unions have voiced some skepticism about the Prime Minister's plans, with Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect union, stating, "Civil servants are not hostile to reforms, but these must be undertaken in partnership with staff and unions." "I urge everyone in government to avoid the incendiary rhetoric and tactics we are seeing in the United States, and to be clear that reforms are about enhancing not undermining the civil service," Clancy continued. Civil servants have faced years of productivity-related accusations. The Prime Minister sent a letter to millions of civil servants earlier this week that said, "Each one of you must be enabled to re-focus on your core purpose, away from the things that hamper your day to day work, delivering excellent, high-performing public services that improve people's lives." The letter, pitched as part of the Prime Minister's plans to improve performance while cutting staff numbers, continued, "We know many of you feel shackled by bureaucracy, frustrated by inefficiency and unable to harness new technology. Your talent has been constrained for too long." Via The Guardian

AI tech teams to be sent into government departments as part of Starmer's efficiency drive

AI tech teams will be sent into government departments to "drive improvements", Sir Keir Starmer will announce amid reports of thousands of civil service job cuts. The prime minister is set to announce major reforms to the way the state works to "deliver for working people" and to ensure security in the new global "era of instability". His "intervention" will come following reports officials are drawing up plans to cut thousands of civil service jobs as part of proposals dubbed "Project Chainsaw" - a reference to Elon Musk waving a chainsaw to represent his crusade to cut US government spending. Downing Street on Wednesday rejected claims the government is "taking a chainsaw to the system", saying it is focusing on "making the state more effective, more agile in a way that delivers for working people". The prime minister will set out proposals to recruit 2,000 tech apprentices to "turbo charge" the take-up of AI in Whitehall with the aim of modernising departments and making sure the government has the skills to overhaul public services using technology. He will announce that new AI and tech teams will be sent into public sector departments "to drive improvements and efficiency in public services". Sir Keir will say: "No person's substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard." Downing Street said one in 10 civil servants will work in tech and digital roles within the next five years. Global instability to accelerate changes Sir Keir is also expected to argue that global uncertainty means the government must "go further and faster in reshaping the state to make it work for working people". He will vow to cut the cost of regulation for businesses by 25% and promise to refocus the state on his key missions and create "an active government that takes care of the big questions, so people can get on with their lives". And he will take aim at a "cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery for working people" - after he instructed ministers on Tuesday to stop a "trend" of "outsourcing" decisions to "other bodies". The PM will say: "The need for greater urgency now could not be any clearer. We must move further and faster on security and renewal. "Every pound spent, every regulation, every decision must deliver for working people." He is expected to say he is "determined to seize" the "golden opportunity of artificial intelligence". In January, Sir Keir said the government would "mainline AI into the veins" of the UK as he claimed that if the technology is "fully embraced" it could bring £47bn to the economy each year. On Monday, Sky News revealed the department for science, innovation and technology had carried out a trial using AI to reduce the number of minutes the public spends on hold to access government services. The trial found waiting times could be cut in half by using AI, with Technology Secretary Peter Kyle saying the technology was a win-win as it will save taxpayers' money and make the experience better. On Thursday's announcement, Mr Kyle said: "There is a £45bn jackpot to secure if we use technology properly across our public sector - but we can't hope to come close to securing that if we don't have the right technical talent with us in government. "Not only will these changes help fix our public services, but it will save taxpayer cash by slashing the need for thousands of expensive contractors and create opportunities across the country across the country as part of our plan for change."

'Almost certain' civil service staff numbers will be cut in AI efficiency drive, minister says

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player It is "almost certain" civil service staff numbers will be slashed as the government embraces digital technology, a cabinet minister has said. Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle warned the headcount of the civil service "will go down" as AI is used in government departments to drive improvements. Speaking to Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast, Mr Kyle cited a report his department led, which found there was £45bn worth of productivity and efficiency savings to be made within government if it embraced AI. "More than half or about half of all transactions is carried out by government or analogue," he said. "So that is for example, the DVLA opening 45,000 envelopes every single day. "HMRC is picking up the phone 100,000 times every day - this is not the way we should be doing government. This is not the way we should be running a country in the 2020s." Asked how many government employees could lose their jobs to AI, Mr Kyle said: "It is almost certain that the headcount will go down. But it's not going to be an arbitrary overall figure." Mr Kyle was speaking ahead of a speech Sir Keir Starmer will give today where he will announce that AI tech teams will be sent into government departments to "drive improvements". The prime minister is set to announce major reforms to the way the state works to "deliver for working people" and to ensure security in the new global "era of instability". His "intervention" will come following reports that officials are drawing up plans to cut thousands of civil service jobs as part of proposals dubbed "Project Chainsaw" - a reference to Elon Musk waving a chainsaw to represent his crusade to cut US government spending. Downing Street on Wednesday rejected claims the government is "taking a chainsaw to the system", saying it is focusing on "making the state more effective, more agile in a way that delivers for working people". The prime minister will set out proposals to recruit 2,000 tech apprentices to "turbo charge" the take-up of AI in Whitehall with the aim of modernising departments and making sure the government has the skills to overhaul public services using technology. He will announce that new AI and tech teams will be sent into public sector departments "to drive improvements and efficiency in public services". Sir Keir will say: "No person's substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard." Downing Street said one in 10 civil servants will work in tech and digital roles within the next five years. Global instability to accelerate changes Sir Keir is also expected to argue that global uncertainty means the government must "go further and faster in reshaping the state to make it work for working people". He will vow to cut the cost of regulation for businesses by 25% and promise to refocus the state on his key missions and create "an active government that takes care of the big questions, so people can get on with their lives". And he will take aim at a "cottage industry of checkers and blockers slowing down delivery for working people" - after he instructed ministers on Tuesday to stop a "trend" of "outsourcing" decisions to "other bodies". The PM will say: "The need for greater urgency now could not be any clearer. We must move further and faster on security and renewal. "Every pound spent, every regulation, every decision must deliver for working people." He is expected to say he is "determined to seize" the "golden opportunity of artificial intelligence". In January, Sir Keir said the government would "mainline AI into the veins" of the UK as he claimed that if the technology is "fully embraced" it could bring £47bn to the economy each year. On Monday, Sky News revealed the department for science, innovation and technology had carried out a trial using AI to reduce the number of minutes the public spends on hold to access government services. The trial found waiting times could be cut in half by using AI, with Mr Kyle saying the technology was a win-win as it will save taxpayers' money and make the experience better. The minister told Wilfred Frost that disruption does not always have to be "negative", adding, "I think it can be a highly positive and rewarding experience". He added: "Yes, that will mean a leaner, smarter, smaller state over time - but it will also mean transforming relationships that people have with their government and their public services. "These are things that excite people who are delivering those services, as well as those of us who are trying to deliver the change from the political side."