The UK Treasury has announced an £800m technology package reform, set to be unveiled in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s upcoming budget. The package will aim to deliver “as much as £1.8bn worth of benefits to public sector productivity by 2029”, according to the Treasury. The package will primarily focus on freeing up time and maximising efficiency in the NHS and police force, with a particular emphasis on using AI technologies. For example, the government aims to reduce NHS scan times by a third using AI, potentially saving 130,000 patients a year. Similarly, drones will be used in policing to assess traffic collisions and other incidents, saving millions of officer hours every year.
Other notable elements of the technology package include:
£170m: digitising the justice system to save up to 55,000 hours a year of administrative time;
£165m: reducing overspend in council emergency care provision by investing in 200 additional child social care places;
The Treasury argues that the measures will return the government’s focus to “teaching our children, keeping us safe and treating us when we’re sick”. However, some have criticised the package as “spin without substance”. Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, remarked “and yet all the Chancellor is offering is more spin without substance”.
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