In January the government assessed what AI would do to British jobs. On Tuesday it promised the world a set of standards

This desk follows commitments. Set out in order, the record on measuring AI and work looks like this.

December 2025

The HR1 form, which employers must use to notify the state of large redundancies, goes digital. The question asking for an occupational breakdown is removed. The Insolvency Service has told this paper the form was replaced with a better one that asks fewer questions.

January 2026

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology publishes an assessment of AI capabilities and the impact on the UK labour market, written with the AI Security Institute. It is a serious document. It has not been repeated since.

July 2026

The ONS answers a freedom of information request: it holds no data on entry-level vacancies. In the same month the business survey reports that nearly thirty-nine thousand firms have answered questions including ones about AI.

Also July

The government opens its consultation on workplace monitoring technologies, which closes at 11:59pm next Wednesday, 30 September. It asks how employers should watch their staff. It does not ask what anyone should count about the jobs themselves.

Tuesday

The Prime Minister tells the UN General Assembly that AI will disrupt the way we live and work, that decisions are too important to be left to chance, and that they must be taken by elected governments who serve working people. He announces an AI defence partnership with the United States, and AI at the heart of the UK's G20 presidency next year, working towards a single set of global principles and standards.

What is promised, and what is instrumented

The promises are about the technology: safety, standards, transparency between governments, laws if needed. The instruments that would tell a British government what is happening to British jobs have moved the other way over the same period, from a question asked to a question dropped, from an assessment published to an assessment not repeated.

This desk will be watching three things: whether the January assessment is repeated, whether the occupational breakdown returns to the redundancy form, and whether the G20 agenda includes anything a worker could recognise as their own. We have put the first two to the department.