AI Is Filling Britain’s Bureaucracy With More Paperwork

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A Sky News report published October 20 finds that complaints, Freedom of Information requests and employment tribunal claims have risen across several UK public-service channels since ChatGPT launched in November 2022. The pattern suggests that generative AI may be lowering the effort required to make formal submissions, putting pressure on systems that depend on staff reading and processing written cases; the figures do not establish that AI alone caused the increases.

Using data it reviewed, Sky News found rises across nine channels, including household complaints about water companies, local authority complaints and written complaints to GP practices. The reported increases since ChatGPT’s launch ranged from 23% for complaints about public services to 144% for household complaints about water companies. English local authority complaints rose 78%, written GP complaints 71%, complaints to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) 64%, and individual employment tribunal claims 62%.

Other channels also rose: complaints about legal services increased 49%, written complaints to the NHS 35%, and complaints about police forces 34%. Sky News describes a similar pattern across the different series: relatively little movement for years, followed by a rise from late 2022. The channels have their own possible causes, however, and the report notes that water companies, for example, have faced difficult years. A shared timing pattern is not proof of a shared cause.

Technology correspondent Rowland Manthorpe also tested 100 recent FOI requests with an AI-text checker. It labelled 89% as fully AI-written and 9% as human; a smaller sample from 2019 was labelled entirely human. Manthorpe cautioned that AI detectors are unreliable and that this test does not prove AI caused the increase. Separately, a civil-servant survey cited by Sky News found 58% said AI-generated material from the public significantly affects their work.

More Claims Test Public-Service Capacity

More written submissions can mean a heavier workload for agencies already responsible for responding to complaints, processing information requests and handling appeals. If routine processes rely on staff reading long, individually written accounts, cheaper AI drafting can increase the volume and complexity arriving in the inbox. That could lengthen waits or make it harder to identify urgent cases, although the source material does not provide nationwide figures for processing delays or staffing effects.

The rise also matters for people seeking redress. A formal complaint or appeal can require time, confidence and familiarity with bureaucratic language. If AI helps people make claims they are entitled to pursue, an increase in submissions may reflect previously unmet demand rather than fabricated complaints. Sky News reports that the share of DWP complaints upheld has fallen from the 50s to close to 40%. Even so, the report says the much larger volume means more complaints are upheld in absolute numbers than before. A lower success rate alone does not show that the additional submissions are baseless.

Public bodies face a policy choice: add barriers to reduce volume, or redesign procedures so staff can process claims without relying so heavily on essays. The choice affects both administrative capacity and public access to government services.

A Bureaucracy Built Around Writing

For more than a decade, the number of FOI requests to British public bodies had changed little, according to the account in Sky News. The reported rise began after ChatGPT’s November 2022 launch. The report’s central argument is that many public processes still depend on people writing letters, explaining cases and filling in narrative forms—and that AI tools have made producing that text easier.

The issue is not limited to Britain. A paper by researcher Chris Schmitz, reported by TechCrunch in September, describes 84 possible cases of “agentic flooding” across 11 jurisdictions. Most were roughly flat before 2022 and rose afterward, according to the source material. The UK Housing Ombudsman received about 2,600 complaints in 2022 and just over 7,000 last year. The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s complaints grew fivefold. These examples show similar pressures elsewhere, but do not by themselves establish why each agency’s volume changed.

In May, the Information Commissioner’s Office issued guidance after public authorities reported higher volumes of FOI requests and more complex submissions, including some that misquoted legislation or needed substantial clarification. The ICO’s position, as described in the report, is that AI-written requests remain valid: authorities do not need to determine whether AI wrote them, and may seek clarification when a request is unclear.

““It’s like being bombarded with correspondence at speed.””

— Civil servants quoted in the survey cited by Sky News

Cause and Scale Remain Unsettled

The figures show increases over the period after ChatGPT’s launch, but the source material does not establish how much of each rise was caused by AI. Changes in service quality, public awareness, rules, agency practices and other events may also affect complaint and claim volumes. The AI-text-checker exercise is a small test, and its results are limited by the known unreliability of detection tools; it cannot reliably classify all submissions or demonstrate causation.

The source material also does not give a consistent baseline period, annual series or methodology for every percentage in the reported table. Readers should treat those figures as the increases Sky News reported, not as proof that AI accounts for the whole change. The 58% survey result measures civil servants’ reported experience of impact, not the share of all submissions written by AI. It remains unclear how much time public bodies spend processing the additional material, how many cases are delayed, and how those effects differ between agencies.

From Drafting Tools to Agents

Today, much AI-assisted paperwork is produced by people drafting text with a chatbot and submitting it themselves. The report points to a possible next stage: AI agents that can take actions on a person’s behalf, rather than only prepare a letter. Manthorpe demonstrated an agent service from Meta and raised examples such as automatically appealing parking tickets or claiming rail delay compensation. The report does not establish how widely such tools are currently being used for those tasks.

That prospect increases the pressure to rethink processes, but making submissions harder could also deter people with valid claims. Loosemore argues for services based on structured information rather than essays. He warns that adding friction could prompt an arms race with technology companies and says he cannot see the current UK benefits system surviving without fundamental changes. Those are his assessments, not confirmed government plans.

The next test for public bodies will be whether they can adapt their forms, data systems and case-handling processes while preserving access to complaints and appeals. The source material does not identify a specific national reform timetable. For now, the ICO guidance sets out how authorities can handle unclear AI-written FOI requests, while the broader question of redesigning public services remains open.

Key Questions

What did the Sky News report find?

It reported increases in several written channels since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, including complaints to public bodies, FOI requests and individual employment tribunal claims. The reported rises vary by channel, and the report does not show that AI caused all of them.

Does the data prove AI caused the rise in complaints?

No. The timing and pattern are consistent with AI making written submissions easier, but the report says the evidence does not prove causation. Other factors may have contributed, and AI-text detectors are unreliable.

Are AI-written FOI requests valid?

According to the Information Commissioner’s Office guidance described in the report, an AI-written request remains a valid request. A public authority does not need to identify whether AI wrote it, though it may ask for clarification if the request is unclear.

Are the additional complaints mostly illegitimate?

The source material does not support that conclusion. It reports that the share of DWP complaints upheld has fallen to close to 40%, while the larger overall volume means more complaints are upheld in absolute numbers than before. Researcher Chris Schmitz also says most cases in his research involve people claiming something they are entitled to claim.

What change do critics of added barriers propose?

Tom Loosemore argues for redesigning public services around structured data instead of lengthy written accounts. The source material describes this as a proposed direction, not an announced government programme.

Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com