Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the new Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.

As of January 2025, officials are exploring AI tools in a number of areas, although this work is still a proof-of-concept and not a live system.

Officials are also exploring deep learning for peatland mapping to aid CO2 reduction and machine learning to automate marine species identification.

We draw on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI usage. For example, Generative AI Framework, Data Ethics Framework, AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.