UK: New Private Member’s Bill on AI in the public sector introduced to the House of Lords

Private Members’ Bills are proposed laws introduced by Members of Parliament and Lords who are not government ministers. They are a way for non-governmental parliamentarians to create legislation. Although few Private Members' Bills become law, they are a way of exerting political influence on particular issues and can affect legislation indirectly.

The main purposes of the Bill are to: (1) mitigate the risks to individuals and society as a whole from public sector use of algorithmic and automated decision-making systems (ie AI systems); and (2) to make provision for an independent dispute resolution service.

The Bill, if passed, would require public authorities to take certain steps before deploying an AI system: 

1. Complete and publish an algorithmic impact assessment to ensure that the decisions made by the AI system are responsible and fair. This would include a mandatory bias assessment to ensure compliance with the Equality Act and Human Rights Act. 
2. Complete and publish an algorithmic transparency record to provide information on the automated decision-making process, including details of human oversight of the AI system and how the system is used to inform administrative decisions.
3. Ensure the AI system can automatically generate logs. These must be held by the public authority for a minimum of five years unless an exception applies.

If enacted, the Bill would prohibit public authorities from procuring AI systems where the outputs and performance cannot be effectively assessed or monitored. Therefore, AI vendors to public authorities should follow the Bill’s progress closely. 

The Bill would also require the UK government to make provision for an independent dispute resolution service to challenge or obtain redress for any decisions made by AI systems.

The UK does not yet have any specific AI legislation. Sunak’s government was hesitant to regulate AI and instead put plans in place for existing regulators to manage AI within their remits. Keir Starmer’s government announced in July through the King’s speech that they will bring in narrow legislation to regulate only the most powerful AI models. The UK has also recently signed the Council of Europe’s AI Convention but measures are required to give effect to the content. 

By introducing this Bill, Lord Clement-Jones appears to be particularly concerned by the autonomous nature of AI systems and the way in which they can be used to make decisions in the public sector, such as in schools or hospitals, without those decisions being able to be unpicked due to the so-called “black box theory”. It will be interesting to see the journey and impact of this Private Member’s Bill.