Public responsibilities
“Efforts to introduce binding obligations of AI ethics on public authorities, as set out in Lord Clement-Jones’ private members bill, the Public Authority Algorithmic and Automated Decision-Making Systems Bill, are (regrettably) unlikely to find government support. ”
As we await the government’s Digital Information & Smart Data Bill and the promised “binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models” (despite the motion passed at the Labour Party conference calling for far wider regulation, and the U.K. becoming a signatory to the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, on 09 September 2024 Lord Clement-Jones introduced Private Members’ Bill HL Bill 27, his Public Authority Algorithmic and Automated Decision-Making Systems Bill.
The Bill would serve to ban public authorities from using algorithmic or automated decision making systems where “practical barriers”, whether technical, contractual, IP or others, limit the ability to assess and monitor the output or performance of the system.
Public authorities would be:
subject to transparency obligations in respect of algorithmic or automated decision making systems;
required to train users;
mandated to conduct and publish an Algorithmic Impact Assessment (AIA) addressing compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998 prior to use of such systems, to monitor their performance;
obliged to maintain logs of their operation; and,
required to register the system on a public register.
In addition, a redress mechanism would be required to be implemented by the Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. AI
In light of the government’s laissez-faire stance on AI regulation, it is not anticipated that the Private Members Bill will secure government support, despite many of its provisions reflecting emerging international thinking on the requirements of good industry practice for responsible AI.
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