Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt on Saturday unveiled the government’s investment plan to boost public sector productivity.
The Treasury committed to investing £800 million by 2029 in a bid to deliver up to £1.8 billion worth of saved time across areas including health care, education, policing, and justice.
The plan includes measures such as upgrading MRI machines with artificial intelligence technology, reducing paperwork, and piloting the use of drones as first responders in some cases.
The Treasury said its plan on policing will “free up thousands of police officer hours spent on admin to instead help tackle crime and expand the violence reduction unit model, stopping tens of thousands of violent offences.”
According to the announcement, more than £230 million will be used on “time-saving technology” such as automated redaction of personal information such as name badges in shoplifting incidents, irrelevant faces from body worn cameras, and number plates from video evidence.
And £170 million will be invested into the justice system to digitise jury bundles and upgrade software used by probation officers to save up to 55,000 hours a year of administrative time.
The Treasury claimed that new software would also provide “more robust data on whether offenders are safe to release.”
More than 100 MRI scanners will be upgraded with AI. The Treasury said it would cut scan times by over a third.
The plan also includes using AI to triage 101 calls, trialling drones in incidents such as traffic accidents, and interviewing witnesses and victims via video call.
Funding will also be used to accelerate the replacement of paper-based communications in the Department for Work and Pensions, speed up planning applications processing with a new AI pilot, and create 200 additional child social care places to reduce government reliance on costly emergency places, the Treasury said.
The chancellor said there’s currently “too much waste in the system.”
“We shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking more spending buys us better public services. There is too much waste in the system and we want public servants to get back to doing what matters most: teaching our children, keeping us safe, and treating us when we’re sick,” Mr. Hunt said.
“That’s why our plan is about reaping the rewards of productivity, from faster access to MRIs for patients to hundreds of thousands of police hours freed up to attend burglaries or incidents of domestic abuse.”
Speaking to media outlets during the weekend, the chancellor said his budget on Wednesday will be “prudent and responsible.”
Mr. Hunt told The Sunday Telegraph that bringing down the current tax burden is a “long path.”
He also confirmed that the financial forecasts setting out how much so-called headroom he has in order to meet his fiscal rules had “gone against us,” in a move that is likely to curtail his ability to serve up pre-election giveaways.
Mr Hunt is under pressure to deliver tax cuts in what could be the last economic set piece from the Conservative UK Government before the next general election, which is widely expected in the autumn.
The tax burden is reaching record levels, with it expected to rise to its highest point since World War II before the end of this decade as the country looks to pay back heavy borrowing used to cushion the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and the energy spike that came after.
Speaking to Sky News’ “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” programme, the chancellor said: “It is going to be a prudent and responsible budget for long-term growth.”
Mr. Hunt said he believes “countries with lower tax tend to grow faster,” but it “would be deeply unconservative to cut taxes in a way that increased borrowing, wasn’t fully funded.”
