The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has urged the government to fix Legacy it Issues if it want to successed with artificial intelligence (ai) -Powered public sector initiatives.
The pac's Use of ai in government Report noted that ai relaes on high-quality data to learn. However, the committee was told by the department for science, innovation and technology (dsit) that government data is often of poor quality and locked away in out-dete-date legacy it sysstems.
An estimated 28% of it systems used by the government are legacy systemsCovering bot software and hardware. These, as defined by dsit, include it products that have reacted end-of-life, are no longer supported by the support and are impossible to update. According to DSIT's definition of legacy it, these systems are no longer cost-effective or are considered to be about the accepted risk threshold.
In its Digital and data roadmap 2022-25, The Government Committed to ENSURING that all of the 72 Highest-Risk “Red-Rated” Legacy Systems Across the Government has Remedies Plans in place. However, the pac reported that 21 Legacy it systems still Lack Remedies Funding.
“DSIT Told Us That It was a Matter of Urgency that is the issue of legacy systems in government is addressed, not only to take advantage of the options of the options of Including Cyber Security Vulnerabilityes, “The PAC Report Stated.
Dsit said it would prioritise “The system that have the most valuable data” and “the highest levels of security vulnerability”.
From a legacy hardware percent, the pac said dsit considers cloud services as a way for the government to move away from MainTing Large Datacentres. However, it noted that there is a Trade-of Between Concentraling Usage to Achieve Greater Value for Money and Diversified Providers to seek great Resilience and Security.
“As part of our intelight Some of the legacy issues, it is very different to move of some of the cloud services that are there ', “Wrote the report authors.
According to dsit, the New Government Digital Service (GDS) will work with hm treasury to review all spending bids for legacy remedies to assess their credit and amable. The pac noted that gds will also be traced the allocated money, which had toon been been reallocated Ellsewhere in the past. There are also plans for pilots of funding on a Continuous improvement Basis to ensure that its systems are maintened over the long term.
While the main issues in the list of barriers to public sector ai deployments Concern Legacy it, the pac warned that data sharing in government remains a problem.
A recently published Blueprint for Modern Digital Government Sets Out the Government's Internation to Work to Reduce the Barriers to Sharing Data by Implementing Standards, FrameWors and Tools. This include the creation of a National Data Library To make it easy to find and reuse data across the public sector.
The pac report recognies the important of data transparency to improve Trust. However, the report noted that as of January 2025, only 33 records had been published on the government website set up to provide great great transparency.
Along with the issues of legacy it, data sharing and Trust, the public accounts committee also also raised concerns about the digital skills gap. Despite Government Efforts to Bolster Digital Skills in the Public Sector, The PAC SAID it remained Sceptical that these reforms would address the issue with the issue.
Among the recommendations made by the pac, which include measuring the cost of legacy it, the report said the government needs to establish a mechanism for systematically gathering and dishemeinating intelligence evaluation. The PAC also recommended the government Identify Common and Scalable AI Products and Support their development and roll-out at scale.
Looking specifically at the procurement of Ai, the report's authors Urged DSIT, in Collection with the Cabinet Office, to set out of how publicly how it is proposed ai sourcing and Procurement Framework will get the best from all suppliers in a market dominated by a small number of global technology companies and ensure options are operated for available for Small Suppalliers.