Local government is vital for the UK's AI strategy success, but faces challenges in digital transformation and AI adoption.
About us
The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national voice of local government. We are a politically led, cross-party membership organisation, representing English councils. Our role is to support, promote and improve local government, and raise national awareness of the work of councils. Our ultimate ambition is to support councils to deliver local solutions to national problems.
The Society for Innovation, Technology and Modernisation (Socitm) is a membership organisation of more than 2,500 digital leaders engaged in innovation and modernisation of public services. Established for more than 30 years, our network combines to provide a strong voice, challenge convention, and inspire change in achieving better place-based outcomes for people, businesses, and communities.
The Society of Local Authority Chief Executive (Solace) is the UK’s leading membership network for public sector and local government professionals. We currently represent over 1600 members across the UK and have regional branches across the country which play host to a number of events such as regional development days, skills days, and networking opportunities.
iNetwork is a membership led partnership for local public sector based organisations. Established 20 years ago, we currently have over 120 members across the North West and Yorkshire and Humber. We have a strong collective voice empowered to confront the most pressing challenges in the local public sector to drive innovation and change to enhance service delivery for our residents, patients, tenants and service users.
Key messages
- Local government's crucial role in AI adoption: Local government is vital for the UK's AI strategy success, but faces challenges in digital transformation and AI adoption.
- Compliance and procurement coherence: All service areas are underpinned by technology. The AI opportunities action plan envisages a key role for public sector procurement in driving growth. Assurance tools, such as AI Management Essentials, that are envisaged to be delivered through public procurement must be coherent with public sector compliance requirements.
- Alignment on government guidance and incentives: AIME needs better integration with existing government guidance such as the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard, and new legislation (like the Procurement Act 2023) to avoid duplication and confusion.
- Incentives for Vendors: To maximise its effectiveness and uptake, a certification for vendors that complete AIME should be explored. A central repository of certified organisations, similar to the ATRS records repository, could be established.
- Supplementary Evidence: The current yes/no format of the AIME self-assessment hinders effective evaluation by lacking nuance. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of vendors' practices, multiple choice or scaled answers should be explored alongside additional functionality to allow supporting documentation to be uploaded.
- Self Assessed: The self assessed nature of the tool undermines trust in AI development. A more rigorous evaluation process, that goes beyond self assessment is necessary to ensure the integrity of the AIME framework particularly for high risk use cases.
- Role of Public Buying Organisations (PBOs): PBOs, like the Crown Commercial Service, should play a larger role in embedding AIME and other assurance mechanisms into procurement processes. They could also coordinate third-party verification.
- A Local Government Centre for Digital Technology (LGCDT): The LGA proposes the creation of an LGCDT to support local authorities in digital technology procurement and adoption, including acting as a central hub for tools like AIME and facilitating collective bargaining.
Context
The production of the AI Management Essential (AIME) framework is a crucial step for local government.In January 2025, Government announced their AI Opportunities Action Plan which outlined an ambitious vision for the UK to become a world leader in the development and adoption of AI (artificial intelligence). The LGA believes that local government has a crucial role to play in each of the areas outlined in the Action Plan, and is vital to supporting the digital reform outlined in the new Blueprint for Digital Government. However, as outlined in our State of Digital Local Government report councils are facing a number of challenges in being able to deliver digital transformation and adoption of AI. Within our previous response to a Parliamentary Inquiry on the use of artificial intelligence in government, we highlighted the challenges of an immature assurance ecosystem for AI and the difficulties that causes buyers in identifying beneficial and trustworthy products and vendors. The local government technology market is currently concentrated by a few large vendors, which can hinder innovation and efficiency. AIME has the ability to foster a more diverse supply chain by encouraging SMEs to participate in local authority markets.
Councils prioritise AI's safe and responsible deployment to enhance services for all citizens. However, the current AI assurance ecosystem remains underdeveloped, making it challenging for councils to conduct thorough due diligence on AI technologies. The LGA, alongside partners, is actively supporting councils in this area by showcasing innovative technology solutions, facilitating access to SME vendors to counter market concentration in key service areas and producing guidance on safe and ethical deployment in collaboration with key regulators. Building on the success of our November 2024 Technology Innovation Showcase, the one-day hybrid event, showcasing innovative solutions to address core challenges facing local authorities. This format facilitates open communication with vendors and creates a collaborative environment that fosters the responsible, safe, and ethical development and deployment of AI technology.
This response will draw upon ongoing engagement with councils through our networks, including dedicated discussions about the AIME framework supported by the Department of Science Industry and Technology (DSIT). It will identify the limitations of this approach and outline key considerations for councils, highlighting the primary challenges faced by the sector.
AIME as an assurance tool: While primarily intended for SMEs, AIME also provides councils with a valuable tool to be adapted for enhanced assurance, informed procurement decisions and key considerations for overall governance of AI. Existing voluntary codes and standards offer limited assurance for councils regarding vendor practices. AIME is therefore highly valuable in supporting responsible AI adoption. By establishing a baseline for vendor expectations regarding compliance and responsible development considerations, AIME provides a crucial foundation for building a robust AI assurance ecosystem within the local government sector.
Beyond SMEs: While the AIME is primarily targeted at SMEs, it is crucial to emphasise that all technology organisations, regardless of size, must be held accountable for ensuring the technology they provide adheres to responsible development principles. In markets with high vendor concentration and a power imbalance between council buying teams and vendors, councils often face challenges in receiving the information they require from large vendors which increases the risk for councils.
Although encouraging SMEs in the AI market is important to local government, holding large technology suppliers to account for responsible development must be considered alongside breaking down barriers to entry for SMEs.
Capacity and capability of local government procurement teams and the need for coherence: Councils face varying levels of procurement capacity and expertise, impacting their ability to effectively navigate the market. Some councils have dedicated IT procurement specialists, while others rely on smaller teams with limited resources. Legal teams may also be overstretched. While many councils procure through procurement frameworks that offer valuable support, they may not always provide sufficient assurances regarding AI technology. Therefore, councils must develop and utilise their own assurance processes, which includes robust Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) and Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs), to critically assess technology before purchase.
AIME's relationship to existing compliance requirements for the public sector, including the Public Sector Equality Duty, and guidance produced by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is not clearly defined. While there is evident alignment between the objectives of existing DSIT tools such as the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS), and overlap with work undertaken by other departments such as the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), AIME does not explicitly draw upon these existing efforts.
To support overstretched council teams, as much coherence across compliance requirements and support to private sector assurance is vital. While we welcome the coherence across international standards and compliance regimes to support SMEs selling outside the UK, a more thorough assessment of the overlap between existing council processes, such as DPIAs and EqIAs, other Government guidance, and the AIME framework would be beneficial. This analysis would help identify areas where AIME can integrate with existing processes and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.
In addition to alignment to departmental initiatives, there are significant crossovers within new legislation, in particular, the Procurement Act 2023. This legislation introduces measures to streamline procurement for smaller businesses and enhance transparency through the development of a Central Digital Platform. This platform presents a valuable opportunity to integrate AIME centrally, potentially through collaboration with the new Procurement Review Unit (PRU). The Act's forthcoming implementation in February 2025 provides a timely context for aligning AIME with these significant legislative changes.
Voluntary nature of the tool: The AIME would be considerably strengthened if it was made mandatory across public sector procurement. While various codes of conduct and standards outline best practices for vendors, the majority are voluntary and self-assessed, offering limited assurance to councils. If AIME is not made mandatory, councils will likely incur the same challenges experienced in cyber security resulting in a cluttered, duplicative and confusing space that fails to foster trustworthiness in the supply chain. Coordinated assurance and compliance from the centre must be prioritised to foster trust in technology that can contribute to innovation and growth.
Self assessment: The current AIME self-assessment process presents several limitations. To enhance the AIME tool's effectiveness, several improvements are crucial. The current yes/no questionnaire format hinders robust vendor evaluation by not requiring supporting evidence. Several measures could be taken to improve this:
- Offer a range of range of answer options beyond simple yes/no answers, this could include multiple-choice options or scaled responses to capture more nuanced opinions
- Enable free text input field for vendors to elaborate on their answers and provide specific examples
- Allow for supporting document uploads, this would enable to provide additional evidence to substantiate their claims
These changes would enable local authorities to conduct more informed assessments of vendors and make more confident procurement decisions. However, procurement teams in councils face a range of capacity and capabilities challenges and there’s variance in the skills required to assess.
While the LGA acknowledges the resource implications of assessing and vetting submissions, a more rigorous evaluation process, that goes beyond self assessment is necessary to ensure the integrity of the AIME framework particularly for high risk use cases. In a market rife with inflated claims, local authorities need a higher level of assurance regarding the responsible practices of the vendors they engage with. We welcome DSIT’s ongoing work and commitment to increase trusted third-party auditors which is an important part of this overall picture. External third-party verification of AIME would provide greater legitimacy to assurance particularly for high risk use cases, increase the trust in the vendor market, and reduce the burden on council procurement teams.
The Role of Public Buying Organisations (PBOs): While ongoing discussions with CCS regarding AIME's integration into purchasing frameworks are encouraging, the tool's voluntary nature may still lead to inconsistent adoption across local government. Furthermore, the existence of multiple procurement frameworks, including those managed by PBOs independent of CCS that are local government led, necessitates engagement with these organisations to ensure widespread AIME adoption.
To maximise AIME's impact, an enhanced role for PBOs, such as Crown Commercial Service, other local government-led PBOs should be considered. In collaboration with local government information and cybersecurity specialists, PBOs can play a crucial role in embedding AIME alongside additional assurance mechanisms into procurement processes. If external verification was adopted for higher-risk use cases, PBOs could play a key role in coordinating this through public sector purchasing frameworks utilising the limited auditing resources in the UK more effectively for the benefit of the entire public sector. This would not only streamline the process but also significantly reduce the resource burden on both councils (as buyers) and vendors.
Supporting contract management: A big consideration for council contract management is that existing suppliers are increasingly integrating AI elements into their platforms, often without requiring new procurement processes. While AIME aims to address organisational processes rather than specific tools, its practical application outside the initial purchasing stages of the procurement process remains unclear. Without a clear benefit for vendors who already have a local government contract, such as recognition equivalent to certifications like Cyber Essentials, vendors may have little motivation to engage with the tool. Furthermore, many of the vendors councils engage with are large enterprises that fall outside AIME's current scope.
Given these challenges, it is unlikely that existing vendors will readily adopt AIME in its current form without a concerted effort centrally to drive adoption. To maximise its effectiveness, a certification for vendors that complete AIME should be explored. A central repository of certified organisations, similar to the ATRS records repository, could be established.
This would enable councils to make more informed decisions on their proposed suppliers. Additionally, the current AIME framework lacks guidance on the frequency it should be completed and the timeframe for implementing recommendations. Given the rapid evolution of AI technologies and the continuous development of organisational policies and procedures, AIME must be adaptable and reflect these ongoing changes.
Local Government Centre for Digital Technology: The LGA firmly believes that greater support is needed for local government to effectively procure and leverage digital technology. Our recent local government white paper calls for the establishment of a Local Government Centre for Digital Technology (LGCDT).
The LGCDT will empower local authorities to harness the potential of digital technology, driving innovation, improving efficiency, and enhancing service delivery for communities across the UK. It will serve as a collaborative hub for local authorities, central government, industry experts, and community stakeholders to address the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the digital age. By fostering knowledge sharing, co-creating solutions, and driving collective action, the LGCDT will enable local authorities to overcome shared challenges and unlock new opportunities.
A key function of the LGCDT will be an intelligent procurement operation. This function will analyse technology markets, facilitate collective bargaining, and enable councils to collectively procure products and services, addressing market failures and improving value for money. This approach will foster innovative procurement practices that promote localised economic growth and productivity.
The establishment of the LGCDT will provide a crucial platform for the adoption and integration of departmental tools such as AIME, while also facilitating the development of future support functions.