Algorithmic Accountability

The UK's clearest operational expression of algorithmic accountability is the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS), run by the Government Digital Service and the Central Digital and Data Office. Central government bodies are committed to publishing an ATRS record for any 'algorithmic tools' — products, applications, or devices that support or solve a specific problem using complex algorithms, covering different applications of artificial intelligence, statistical modelling, and complex algorithms — where the tool has a significant influence on a decision-making process with public effect and directly interacts with the public.

The commitment applies across ministerial departments, non-ministerial departments, and arm's-length bodies such as executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies that provide public or frontline services or routinely interact with the public, with a defined scope-and-exemptions policy setting out which organisations and tools are covered or excluded.

Where an algorithmic tool falls in scope, the organisation deploying it must complete a record using the ATRS template, submit it to the ATRS team for review, and — where the tool is going through the government's spend control process and has a high risk-and-importance rating — explain how it is meeting the transparency commitment as part of that approval process, embedding accountability for algorithmic decision-making into government's own procurement and spending controls.