Government of the United Kingdom
Incidents involved as both Developer and Deployer
Incident 871 Report
UK passport photo checker shows bias against dark-skinned women
2020-10-07
UK passport photo checker shows bias against dark-skinned women.
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Incident 17901 Report
Purported AI Bots Flooded a UK Government Tobacco and Vaping Consultation with Reportedly Fraudulent Responses
2024-01-29
Purported AI bots reportedly submitted 90,835 fraudulent responses to a UK government consultation on tobacco and vaping, mostly opposing disposable-vape restrictions. The submissions made up 76% of responses and distorted the apparent balance of public opinion. The Department of Health and Social Care excluded them from its analysis. The operators and underlying AI technology were not identified.
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Incident 13054 Report
UK Facial Recognition System Reportedly Exhibits Higher False Positive Rates for Black and Asian Subjects
2025-12-05
UK government testing of police facial recognition technology reportedly found significantly higher false positive identification rates for Black and Asian individuals compared with white subjects, with particularly elevated error rates for Black women. The findings reportedly emerged from analysis of retrospective searches of the police national database and were disclosed by the Home Office amid plans for expanded national deployment.
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Government‑Backed AI4Peat Mapping Tool Allegedly Misidentifies Granite Outcrops and Quarries as Peat
2025-05-10
The UK's AI4Peat mapping project, developed by Natural England in collaboration with Microsoft, reportedly produced significant misclassifications of peatland across England, including labeling rocky outcrops, stone walls, and woodlands as peat bogs. In addition to the purportedly flawed data being publicly released and allegedly incorporated into official communications by Defra, the resulting confusion also reportedly led to the loss of trust among farmers and conservation stakeholders.
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Scotland's Education Agency Published Purportedly AI-Edited School Curriculum Papers with Apparently Nonexistent References
2026-11-05
Education Scotland, the national education agency, published evidence papers for Scotland's school curriculum review. A University of Edinburgh lecturer identified about 20 references he believed did not exist. The agency corrected errors and disclosed that AI was used to edit the papers. Whether AI introduced any of the disputed references remains unconfirmed.
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