PI4J wishes to underline the importance of the Home Office engaging with the growing range of academic research on the use of AI in public services contexts from the University of Bristol, UCL, University of York and the University of Surrey, all pointing out major issues with accuracy and reliability – especially when used in high stakes situations and for lower resource languages, which are commonly those in demand in the immigration and asylum system.
This is in the context of the Request for Information (RFI), Procurement Identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-05aa4d. Further information about the procurement can be found here: https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/063187-2025
Put simply, Asylum & Human Rights Operations, Border Force, Immigration Enforcement, Visas, Status & Immigration (VSI) and Passports, Citizenship & Civil Registration are all contexts where the red flags which this research identifies are very real, and present significant risks to human rights and public safety.
PI4J wishes to highlight these issues, and strongly advises that alongside seeking input from suppliers interested in taking part in this RFI, the Home Office also connects with the research and researchers from Bristol, UCL, York and Surrey some of whose work is summarised and can be accessed here: https://www.ciol.org.uk/ai-translation-uk-public-services
