FOI Request - Artificial Intelligence
Request 101003851138
I am writing to request information under freedom of information legislation, regarding your organisation's use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology/technologies.
I would be grateful if you could provide the following detail:
1. AI Systems in use
a) A list of tools, platforms or systems currently deployed or being piloted/trialled.
b) The purpose and function of each of the above.
c) The departments or services where these are operational.
2. Procurement and development
a) Details of any contracts, tenders or partnerships with external providers for AI solutions.
b) Total expenditure on AI related technologies over the past three financial years, broken down by year.
3. Governance and Ethical Oversight
a) Copies of, or information relating to, any internal policies, frameworks or guidance documents relating to the use of AI.
b) Any ethical review processes or risk assessments conducted prior to deployment.
c) Details of any group responsible for the oversight of AI use within your organisation.
4. Impact on Workforce
a) Any assessments, reports or internal communications regarding the impact of AI on staffing levels, job roles or workforce planning (including recruitment, redundancy).
b) Information on any roles that have been automated, restructured or made redundant due to AI implementation.
c) Details of any training, redeployment or upskilling initiatives offered to staff in response to the adoption of AI.
d) Any consultations with trade unions or staff representatives regarding AI-related changes.
5. Performance and Evaluation
a) Evaluations, audits or performance reviews of AI systems, as referenced in section 1.
b) Evidence of how AI systems have affected service delivery, decision-making or operational efficiency.
6. Data protection and privacy
a) Types of data used to train or operate AI systems, including whether this data is synthetic or not.
b) Measures in place to ensure compliance with data protection legislation, including the DPA 2018 and UK GDPR.
c) Procedures for handling bias, transparency and accountability in AI decision-making.
Response 30-09-2025
1. a) Copilot for Microsoft 365 (pilot)
b) Improve productivity and efficiency working within the Microsoft 365 suit of tools. Drafting Emails/Reports/Presentations etc
c) The pilot contains users across all council services.
2. a) The Copilot for MS365 is part of the MS Corporate Licenses agreement, details of which can be found on the Council’s Contract Register which is published and available on the Moray Council website. This information is therefore exempt under section 25 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, information otherwise accessible. For ease of reference please find a link to the web page here: http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file101332.pdf
b) Copilot for Microsoft 365 licenses: £7,284 24/25 and £14,520 25/26
3. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) produced guidance to help organisations assess equality impact of AI-based technology:
https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/assessing-equality-impact-ai-based-technology-six-discussion-points
The guide helps inform potential procurement exercises, ongoing contract management discussions, review of use of technology helping support compliance with the public sector equality duty and specific duties in Scotland under the Equality Act 2010.
4. HR are not aware of any implication of AI as cited.
5. a) Following the initial three month pilot of Copilot for Microsoft 365, a survey was completed by pilot participants.
6. a) Operational Data
Copilot for Microsoft 365 operates on data already accessible within the Moray Council Microsoft 365 environment. This includes:
Emails, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and Teams chats.
Meeting transcripts and recordings (if enabled).
Training of Base LLMs
The foundational LLMs used by Copilot (e.g. OpenAI’s GPT models) are trained on a mixture of:
Publicly available data (e.g. books, websites, code).
Licensed datasets.
Synthetic data generated to improve model robustness and reduce bias.
However, our organisational data is not used to train these base models. Microsoft explicitly states that our content is not used to train the foundation models behind Copilot.
b) Our DPIA (Data Privacy Impact Assessment) process was completed to ensure appropriate guardrails are in place regarding the use of Copilot for Microsoft 365.
c) Currently we do not allow AI for automated decision making. The AI output can be used to inform but the responsibility and accountability for any decision remains with the staff member.