Information about General Instruction to FSS Staff for the use of AI or Generative AI Tools

Your request was about the following information:

I would like to know more about how UK regulatory bodies are using Generative AI. Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I would like to know the following:

Q1. Are staff within your regulatory body under a general instruction to use AI or Generative AI tools to assist your work?

Q2. Is your regulatory body currently using AI tools or Generative AI tools to assist your work?

Q3. What is your regulatory body’s budget for Generative AI tools?

Q4. Can you name the AI tools that your regulatory body uses?

Q5. Does your regulatory body have an AI strategy?

Q6. If your regulatory body does not have an AI strategy, is it planning to have an AI strategy?

A1. Food standards Scotland (FSS) staff are not under a general instruction to use AI or Generative AI tools to assist their work.

A2. The generative AI being used are within FSS:

• The Decision AI powered App to improve meetings in Microsoft teams used for recording of meetings and development of draft meeting notes, tasks, and actions.

• A limited version of M365 Copilot

• The translation/speech to text function in Teams.

No other AI tool is currently being used in FSS. If FSS develop its own AI tools or commissions the use of other AI tools, they will be listed on the Scottish AI Register which is a publicly available list of all AI tools being used across Scottish Government.

A3. FSS does not have a budget for AI tools.

A4. Please see the information provided in our response to your question 2.

A5. FSS does not have an AI strategy.

A6. FSS does not have its own AI strategy however, it will align with the Scottish Government AI strategy. Please see Scottish Public Sector AI Task Force — Scottish AI Alliance for more details.