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Top civil servant boomeranged between government and Tony Blair Institute

Exclusive: Tech firms such as TBI are embedding staff in government, sparking fears AI policy is being ‘outsourced’

Top civil servant boomeranged between government and Tony Blair Institute
Tony Blair's think tank and consulting firm is proving to be highly influential with Labour in government | (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
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The Tony Blair Institute and the Ellison Institute of Technology sent senior staff members to work in the government department tasked with developing AI policy, openDemocracy can reveal.

UK tech firm Faculty, which has links to the TBI, also embedded a member of staff in the Department of Science, Information and Technology (DSIT).

In one case, the TBI hired a senior civil servant tasked with leading the government’s AI programme, then seconded them straight back to their old job in the department – a potential loophole in rules intended to stop former civil servants from using their connections to lobby old colleagues.