Lord Vallance to Chair New Prime Ministerial Artificial Intelligence Taskforce

LONDON — The UK Government has created a Prime Ministerial AI Taskforce intended to place artificial intelligence at the centre of national economic strategy and public-service reform.

Lord Vallance, a former Government Chief Scientific Adviser, has been appointed chair. AI Minister Kanishka Narayan will lead the taskforce’s work within government and attend Cabinet.

The taskforce will form part of the new Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, alongside Downing Street, No10 North and other Cabinet Office functions. It will direct and implement the Government’s overall AI strategy and support the adoption of AI technologies across public services.

Responsibility for the AI Security Institute will also move into the Prime Minister’s central operation. The institute examines the safety and security implications of advanced AI systems, including risks associated with misuse, cyberattacks and increasingly capable models.

Lord Vallance served as Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2018 to 2023 and later held ministerial responsibilities covering science, innovation, research and nuclear policy. He has also been appointed chair of the Oxford-to-Cambridge Growth Corridor, linking government AI policy with research institutions, businesses and regional development.

The Government believes AI can improve productivity, reduce repetitive administrative work and support better public services. Possible uses include processing documents, assisting medical analysis, improving fraud detection and helping citizens find government information.

However, centralising AI strategy also creates significant governance responsibilities. Public-sector systems may process sensitive health, financial, employment or justice information. Their use must therefore include strong data protection, independent testing, cybersecurity safeguards and meaningful human oversight.

Government departments should be required to record where AI is being used, explain how automated recommendations affect people and provide clear routes for challenging inaccurate or unfair outcomes.

The taskforce must also manage a potential tension between rapid adoption and independent safety scrutiny. The AI Security Institute should be able to publish evidence-based concerns even where those findings slow down government deployment plans.

The new structure gives AI a prominent position at the centre of government. Its success should be assessed not simply by the number of systems introduced, but by whether they improve services without weakening privacy, accountability or public trust.