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<p>All Government Departments are bound by the Public Sector Equality Duty, as mandated
by the Equality Act 2010. Across His Majesty’s Civil Service, Government Departments
are also equal opportunities employers. In AI specifically, there are a number of
initiatives that ensure the experiences of disabled people inform public policy, including
how we consider regulation.</p><p>The AI Procurement Guidelines published in 2020
recommend that teams within Government procuring AI are diverse and reflect the diversity
of society. In terms of implementing AI solutions in public service delivery, the
same guidelines also recommend that Equality Impact Assessment be carried out, so
that public services work for people regardless of disability status or any other
protected characteristic.</p><p>For the wider economy the Department is now working
at pace to develop a proportionate regulatory regime that will make use of our world-class
regulators’ expertise, which will be set out in a White Paper to be published soon.
Our approach will establish a framework based on a set of cross-cutting principles
to inform how regulators should tackle issues such as fairness, which would include
discrimination against disability. We had over 130 organisations in industry, regulation
and civil society respond to our policy paper call for views. Our AI regulation White
Paper will be open to public consultation and we will work to hear a wide-range of
perspectives through different activities. We would encourage all civic groups - including
and especially those by and for people with disabilities - to respond to the open
survey on our proposals.</p><p>Finally, in order to address the issue of underrepresentation
of disabled people in the AI industry, last year we expanded our diversity scholarship
programme for postgraduate conversion course Masters courses in AI, which are open
to disabled students, alongside encouraging more women, black students, and students
from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to study towards a career in AI. In the 2021
phase, over a quarter of students identified as having a disability. The Government
is now working with industry up to cofund 2000 more scholarships, and we would encourage
anyone with a disability who meets the academic criteria to apply.</p>
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