AI has taken the world by storm, and few workplaces have been immune to its impact. In the House of Commons last year, Written Parliamentary Questions from MPs and peers doubled compared with 2024. The Department of Health and Social Care saw a 97 per cent increase, with the Home Office up 92 per cent, the Department for Education up 97 per cent and Housing a whopping 101 per cent.
And who was blamed for the rise? Had MPs and peers discovered a new zeal for seeking answers from ministers in the name of democratic accountability? Not quite, according to Commons clerks. AI, apparently, was responsible.
Now, Mr S can reveal Parliament has deployed a new AI mechanism to crack down on MPs over-reliant on the very same tech. Clerks will use the intelligence to identify duplicate questions ‘by finding and listing questions which have been submitted previously where there is 80 per cent or greater level of similarity’.
While no one will complain about more transparency from this Labour government, it is worth remembering that the administrative cost to taxpayers of answering a single question ranges from £150 to £240. However, MPs have warned the crackdown is a mere ploy to avoid scrutiny…
A Conservative Party source said:
After months of claims that AI was being used to write Parliamentary Questions, it turns out AI has been used to stop them being asked in the first place.
This Government will do literally anything to avoid scrutiny.
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