The UK government has told MPs that Fujitsu has promised not to pursue contracts with new public sector customers through frameworks potentially worth billions of pounds while its voluntary bidding moratorium remains in place. In July, The Register revealed that the Japanese supplier had won a place on a UK government framework worth up to £14.9 billion despite its role in the Post Office Horizon scandal, one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in modern times. The supplier's place on the Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7 (DOS7) framework came after it won spots on two other frameworks, including Technology Services 4, worth up to £19.08 billion, and Transport Technology worth around £2.3 billion. In January 2024, Fujitsu voluntarily committed to stop bidding for contracts with new government customers until the public inquiry into the Horizon scandal had concluded. After Fujitsu secured places on the three government frameworks, House of Commons Business and Trade Committee chair Liam Byrne wrote to the government seeking assurance that the company would not use them to pursue work from new public sector customers. He also asked what discussions the government had held with Fujitsu about its participation and compliance with the moratorium. Horizon is an EPOS and back-end finance system that was first implemented in the 1990s by ICL, a UK tech firm majority-owned by Fujitsu at the time and fully acquired in 1998. It has since undergone two upgrades. Between 1999 and 2015, the Post Office prosecuted 700 subpostmasters in cases in which Horizon evidence may have featured, while almost 300 more cases were brought by other bodies. Hundreds were wrongfully convicted, devastating lives in the process. A statutory inquiry into the scandal was launched in 2021 and remains ongoing. The inquiry's first report said the families of at least 13 people believed their deaths by suicide were linked to their experiences with Horizon and the Post Office. Fujitsu has apologized for its role in the scandal. Frameworks are procurement vehicles that let public bodies buy from pre-approved suppliers under agreed terms, although a place on one does not guarantee any work. The Government Commercial Agency (GCA) – which replaced the Crown Commercial Service – is the Cabinet Office agency that manages the framework and receives a 1 percent levy on sales made through it. In a letter published this week, Cabinet Office Parliamentary Secretary Mark Ferguson said: "While appointment to a GCA framework, such as DOS7, places a supplier on a list of approved providers, Fujitsu has assured the GCA that its voluntary moratorium fully applies to call-off contract opportunities that arise via its participation on GCA frameworks. Consequently, inclusion on a framework does not override Fujitsu's commitment not to seek work with new public sector customers." He added that the GCA monitors Fujitsu's compliance with its self-imposed bidding restrictions and that agency officials were in regular contact with the company to oversee its framework activity. "To date, GCA can confirm that Fujitsu have kept to these self-imposed restrictions," Ferguson wrote. In April 2025, The Register revealed that Fujitsu had won a £125 million contract to build Northern Ireland's new land registry system for the Department of Finance, a new government customer, more than a year after its voluntary moratorium came into effect. At the time, a spokesperson for Fujitsu told The Register: "Fujitsu was named preferred bidder for this contract in 2023, before the voluntary restrictions came into place." Fujitsu's 2024 letter said the company would assess its continued involvement in procurements that were already underway when the moratorium began. However, it also said Fujitsu would bid for work with a new government customer only if asked to do so. Fujitsu said it had been named preferred bidder for the Northern Ireland contract before introducing the restrictions. The Northern Ireland government subsequently confirmed to The Register that it had not asked the company to continue bidding. Ferguson's letter does not explain how that award was reconciled with Fujitsu's undertaking. The Register has asked the Cabinet Office for clarification. ®

One of the few proven use cases for generative AI is automating customer service inquiries to reduce costs even further than it’s been possible to achieve by offshoring jobs to low-wage companies like the Philippines – which yesterday bet that its outsourcing industry will thrive even as it plans a massive investment in AI. The nation’s government yesterday delivered the PAIIM – aka the Philippines AI+ Infrastructure Masterplan [PDF], a policy that calls for $34.4 billion of investment in infrastructure, connectivity, and datacenters. Current government programs and private investments dedicated to funding network and energy spending already cover $18.2 billion of the planned spend. The government hopes the remainder “will be mobilized through targeted public investment and private sector participation, particularly for hyperscale AI datacenter infrastructure.” The plan assumes private enterprise will invest $21 billion of the total spend. The likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft currently spend roughly $20 billion on AI infrastructure each quarter. Chinese clouds also expect to spend tens of billions each year. The Philippines is bidding for less than a month of their combined spending to fuel its national plan. The Philippines’ government nonetheless thinks this plan will turn the nation into a regional AI hub and see the national datacenter fleet surge from today’s 50MW to 1.5 GW by 2033, and for the new bit barns to house around 152,000 GPUs. Again, these are small numbers: American and Chinese AI players have committed to acquire and operate millions of GPUs that require multiple gigawatts of energy. Government officials said the plan means the Philippines can compete with regional competitors Singapore and Thailand. They didn’t mention nearby Malaysia, where the Johor datacenter province already has almost 4GW of datacenter projects in place, with similar capacity in the planning and construction pipeline. Citizens have been told that the plan will see over 1.3 million professionals receive training on how to use AI, and will generate half a million AI-related jobs – 175,000 of them working on AI infrastructure projects. “These investments will further produce spillover benefits such as improved public service delivery, greater international connectivity for all businesses, and enhanced cybersecurity and data governance frameworks in line with global best practices,” the plan promises. Those outcomes are made possible, the plan suggests, by the fact that the nation already has a million-strong tech workforce – including its outsourcing industry that will apparently both make the AI plan possible and benefit from it. “PAIIM does not position AI as a replacement for the Philippine IT-BPM industry;” the policy document states. “Rather, it enables the sector to move up the value chain by using AI for first-level, repetitive, and data-intensive interactions while empowering Filipino workers to handle complex, empathy-driven, and higher-value customer experience functions.” That’s a very old assumption about the impact of automation on customer service. Yet the Philippines owes the existence of its business process outsourcing industry to the fact that automation alone didn’t drive down the cost of customer service to levels that some businesses were willing to pay. And AI will likely enable even more automation at even lower costs. ®

Britain's publicly owned energy system operator has awarded Palantir a £21.2 million contract without competition, extending a relationship that began under private ownership three years earlier. The National Energy System Operator (NESO) handed the US spy-tech firm the £17.7 million contract – £21.2 million including VAT – to continue licensing and supporting two "critical business processes," Connections and Skip Rates, running on its Foundry platform. NESO said it was preparing a competitive procurement for a replacement platform but needed to continue working with Palantir in the meantime to avoid disruption to customer-facing services and regulatory obligations. "A contract will be put in place to enable continuity of the existing critical platform services whilst a competitive procurement is undertaken," a tender notice said. The organization has already begun sounding out potential suppliers. "Palantir possesses the specialist knowledge, technical expertise and the system knowledge required to maintain and support the solution effectively," the notice said. The Financial Times reported that the original contract began in March 2023 but was not publicly disclosed. NESO said it was part of National Grid at the time and therefore did not publish the contract award notice. A NESO spokesperson told us: "Palantir has supported both connections and skip rates since the original contract was put in place by National Grid ESO in March 2023 and transferred to NESO at separation from National Grid and, while this extension provides continuity of these services as NESO develops procures any long-term solution through a competitive procurement process, it does not determine the future supplier of these services." Palantir told The Reg: “We’re proud to be supporting Neso’s efforts to improve energy efficiency, drive down costs and transition to net zero.” The new contract is due to run from September 8, 2026, until July 31, 2027, with six-month extensions available until July 31, 2028. "Due to the complexity of legacy data structures and potential security, data quality, or regulatory compliance issues, the data modelling process may encounter unforeseen challenges. Should these risks materialize and impact data integrity, security, regulatory compliance and/or the successful transition of services, the contract may be modified, including to extend the transition timeline," the notice said. NESO was established under the Energy Act 2023 as an operationally independent public corporation responsible for coordinating and planning Great Britain's electricity and gas systems. It is wholly owned by the government but funded through regulated industry charges. According to a "preliminary market engagement notice," it has begun discussions with suppliers about a new Strategic Enterprise Modelling Capability. The proposed platform would provide enterprise-wide modeling, decision support, audit trails showing how source data informed decisions, and tools for comparing scenarios. The notice, published last month, also mentions "AI-enabled innovation." The resulting contract is expected to begin on July 31, 2027, and run until July 2032, with a possible two-year extension. The procurement path has echoes of Palantir's route to the NHS Federated Data Platform (FDP). Following a competitive process, the company won the principal contract, worth up to £330 million ($412 million), while several consultancies secured related awards. That award followed £60 million in contracts handed to the US company during and after the pandemic, some without competition. Critics argued that Palantir's incumbency allowed it to influence the later procurement and gave it an unfair advantage. The NHS maintained that the FDP competition was fair and open. ®

The UK government has considered the evidence and concluded that it spends far too much time considering the evidence. In a letter sent to all ministers on Monday, Chancellor John Healey, First Secretary of State Louise Haigh, and Attorney General Ellie Reeves said "consultation culture" had become an "industry of dither and delay" and told departments that the default should be to make a decision and get on with it. The ministers argued that formal consultations too often fail to reach those with the most relevant perspectives and can drag policies towards a "lowest common denominator outcome." The proposed cure is fewer formal consultations. These should generally take place only when legally required, when not holding one would be "conspicuously unfair," or when ministers decide there is a good reason to seek outside input that way. Previous promises to consult aren't necessarily safe either. Departments have been told to consider each case afresh rather than assume that past consultations or commitments require another. The government also wants to start removing what it says are thousands of unnecessary consultation and reporting requirements from the statute book. Its starting position is that these requirements should be repealed and retained "only by exception," with departments asked to look for opportunities to bin them through legislation already in the works. This is separate from Whitehall's other effort to wean itself off consultants, although the timing invites comparison. The government promised in 2024 to tighten controls on consultancy spending and deliver annual savings of £1.2 billion by 2026. As The Register reported in July, that didn't stop the Home Office from awarding Deloitte and PA Consulting contracts worth up to £200 million and £150 million respectively for data and analytics services. The National Audit Office also warned last year that the Treasury lacked comprehensive data on consultancy spending, while Parliament's Public Accounts Committee said in March that departments weren't complying with Cabinet Office controls designed to rein it in. Consultations aren't consultancies, of course. One involves asking interested parties what they think before making policy; the other can involve paying them rather a lot of money for their advice. Whitehall appears keen to cut down on both. The new drive doesn't stop at consultation. Ministers are also being encouraged to accept a higher risk of legal challenge when pushing ahead with policy. The letter says that where there is a "tenable legal argument," ministers can choose to proceed even when government lawyers assess the legal risk as high. Guidance for government lawyers is due to be updated this week to make that explicit. Judicial review is getting attention too. The government wants to extend reforms limiting challenges to nationally significant infrastructure projects beyond energy schemes to transport, water, and other major developments. Having identified consultation, legal caution, and judicial review as obstacles, Whitehall will now begin the traditionally straightforward business of changing Whitehall. ®

The UK government has corralled £7.8 billion of cross-departmental spending into a new space strategy intended to boost growth and national security through to 2030. The package covers orbital collision warnings, low Earth orbit communications, military intelligence, launch capabilities, and space science. The strategy brings together activity across government, including the newly created Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Department for Transport, UK Research and Innovation, and the Met Office. The government says the domestic space sector is worth £18.6 billion and supports more than 55,000 skilled jobs. In a prepared statement, BIST Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said space was becoming a new frontier of economic and military competition. "This plan will help keep Britain secure by strengthening our ability to launch satellites, detect threats and protect the services people rely on every day. At the same time, this plan will enable our excellent UK industry to seize the boundless opportunities of this new age in space, creating skilled jobs, driving growth and improving connectivity for all of us." The plans include work to strengthen space domain awareness – tracking and analyzing satellites, rockets, and debris in orbit – backed by £149 million for European Space Agency (ESA) space safety work, including the Vigil mission, and £85 million for the National Space Operations Centre. The funding is intended to improve warnings of potential satellite collisions, hostile activity, and solar storms, helping protect power, communications, and navigation services. The government has also allocated £880 million during this Parliament to space control and space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. The investment is intended to help track military activity on the ground, identify potential attacks on satellites, and protect British assets in orbit. The strategy also identifies £2.8 billion for satellite connectivity, including the Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit program and the military's SKYNET communications system. Funding of up to £160 million through March 2030 has already been announced for the UK Space Agency's Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit (C-LEO) program, helping British companies and researchers develop satellite communications technology. The strategy also puts £40 million towards technology for servicing, assembling, and manufacturing equipment in orbit. The government says this could support everything from repairing satellites and clearing debris to producing semiconductors and pharmaceuticals in space. Another £148 million is allocated to European rocket programs, while SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland is set to receive £30 million, subject to due diligence. A further £163 million will go toward space science and exploration missions, including delivery of the UK-built Rosalind Franklin Mars rover. The package also includes £57 million to improve rail connectivity, £190 million for astronomy and space science research, and £9 million to strengthen space weather forecasting. The government also plans to adopt a single approach to buying and developing space technology, beginning with satellite communications, in an effort to steer more work towards British suppliers, accelerate delivery, and secure better value for taxpayers. In July, the government's projects authority sounded the alarm over progress on Skynet 6, the £8.35 billion program to upgrade the military's satellite communications. The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) gave Skynet 6 a red rating, meaning "successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable" in its current form. Confidence had fallen from last year's amber rating because department-wide recruitment and resourcing constraints had created workforce shortages, while "sub-par supplier performance continues to delay delivery of the first SKYNET 6 satellite," the report said. The new document formally replaces the UK's 2021 National Space Strategy, which a House of Lords report warned last year had failed to turn its ambitions into reality. "The UK space sector lacks the strategic direction necessary for success," it said. ®

Matt Clifford is stepping down as chair of the UK's taxpayer-funded Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), just days after saying he intended to keep the job while working for AI giant Anthropic. Clifford, one of the architects of the UK government's AI strategy, said in a LinkedIn post on Monday that he would leave ARIA, less than a week after his appointment as Anthropic's managing director of international affairs prompted warnings of a "clear conflict of interest." "Having completed my first full term last month, I have decided to step down to ensure my new role at Anthropic doesn't become a distraction from ARIA's incredible work," he said. The decision reverses the position outlined when Anthropic announced Clifford's appointment as managing director of international affairs last week. At the time, he intended to remain as ARIA chair, with safeguards put in place to manage potential conflicts between the two roles. He said the Secretary of State had asked him to remain until November 6 while a new chair is appointed, and that he had agreed to do so "with appropriate safeguards against potential conflicts in place." The overlap between the roles had already attracted scrutiny in Parliament. Dame Chi Onwurah, Labour MP and chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, warned last week that Clifford's plan to retain the ARIA role while working for Anthropic created a "clear conflict of interest." ARIA invests taxpayer money in high-risk scientific and technological research, including AI-related work. At Anthropic, Clifford will lead the company's engagement with governments outside North America. Onwurah welcomed Clifford's decision on Monday but said questions remained about how the original arrangement was approved. "It's right that the conflict of interest between the taxpayer funded ARIA and Anthropic has been addressed through Matt Clifford's decision to step down as ARIA's Chair," she said. "However, important questions remain. Last week, I wrote to the government seeking clarity on how this situation arose, what conflict of interest assessments were undertaken and what safeguards are in place to protect confidence in ARIA's governance. I expect a detailed response in the upcoming weeks." Clifford has become an influential figure in UK AI policy. As well as chairing ARIA, he helped establish the Frontier AI Taskforce, which later became the AI Security Institute, worked on the UK's 2023 AI Safety Summit, and wrote the government's AI Opportunities Action Plan. ®

Around 80 percent of UK teachers now regularly use AI in their work, although the minority say it has cut their hours. Research from YouGov shows that AI use among teachers has doubled in the past year. Among those who use it, just over half (51 percent) said it had reduced their workload, but only around a third (35 percent) said they were working fewer hours as a result, according to the poll of 1,033 teachers by YouGov. Although some time was saved with AI, that was more than made up for with demand to complete other tasks, resulting in 55 percent of teachers who say they use AI working the same hours as before, and 4 percent saying they work more. In April, the UK government launched a £23 million trial program for AI and educational technology it hoped would boost results and cut teachers' workloads. Many teachers work more than 50 hours a week, which is higher than contractual limits. But the YouGov survey — funded by education technology exhibition Bett — found reduced working hours do not necessarily follow from increased use of AI. Teachers said they were using AI across a spread of tasks: 76 percent to build lesson plans and worksheets, and around 39 percent to draft letters and emails to parents or write pupil reports. However, only 8 percent said they use AI to mark or grade pupils’ work. AI is not just for teachers, though. Pupils are using it too, and 71 percent of secondary school teachers (pupil-age 11-16 years) said AI had made it easier for children to cheat and get away with it. Fifty-seven percent of secondary teachers suspected at least one pupil of handing in AI-assisted work without permission in the prior four weeks, the report found. The research comes amid broader concerns about the effectiveness of AI across the economy. Despite the layoffs associated with AI in some tech companies, a study from the Atlanta Federal Reserve study found that about 90 percent of executives believe AI is yet to improve productivity in their organizations. ®

The Tories have pledged to tear up the requirement in the Equality Act for public-sector bodies to promote equality and diversity following the murder of Henry Nowak.

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The first thing a future anti-woke UK government should cut is the billions spent on useless Left-wing research, says Charlotte Gill. For starters, here are 10 studies funded by UKRI's Future Leaders Fellowships.

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