Organised by Bright Blue, an independent think tank, the event was called ‘A smarter state: can AI improve public services?’
Penman was joined by Julia Lopez MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, James Wise, Chair of the UK’s Sovereign AI unit, and Hacer Evans, Mananging Director Health and Public Service at Accenture.
Sharing insights from the FDA’s recent report ‘Adopt, Innovate, Transform‘, Penman highlighted that while there is a “real thirst” amongst civil servants to utilise AI in order to deliver a smarter state, there is a shared frustration “when they want to move faster than their organisations can”.
The General Secretary drew attention to the issues limiting the ambition of dedicated civil servants who are “frustrated by bureaucracy and waste”, such as inconsistent rollouts, lack of training, and failure to address staff concerns.
In particular, the damaging effect of government churn was addressed. Penman stated that whilst ministers have encouraged civil servants to embark on a joint endeavour of shared risk to “move fast and fix things”, “most civil servants had more than one secretary of state per year over the last ten years.”
He added that if AI is going to help deliver more efficient public services, then ministers need to stay in post long enough to see through complex transformation changes, so that civil servants have “that political stability, that clarity…that the minister who is going to share that risk is still going to be there” to provide clear strategy and own potential risks.
The General Secretary stated that there is always “going to be an appetite for less risk” in the delivery of public services. Penman warned that while getting something wrong in the private sector can affect the bottom-line, the same risky behaviour could result in huge consequences in “any number of the critical life support that happen in public services and the civil service.”
Penman concluded it is evident that technology alone won’t deliver better public services. Ministerial stability and political clarity will play “as much of a part in delivery efficiencies and good government than any bright idea or technology is going to do.”
You can read the FDA’s full report ‘Adopt, Innovate, Transform: how civil servants can help to deliver a smarter state‘ here, and find out more about its findings here.
While these changes begin to address challenges identified by our members in the CPS, the union continues its call for increased CPS funding, in order to help tackle these crimes long-term.
An opportunity to join the fastest growing union in the UK.
This week, the FDA attended the 2026 TUC Congress in Brighton. FDA delegates spoke to and moved motions on a range of topics, including the review of the civil service, supporting effective management, accountability and safe contracting in the NHS, and the importance of an evidence-led approach to regulation.
