🔍 Read the full analysis: AI Is Bringing A New Paperwork Burden To British Bureaucracy on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
Sky News reported on October 20 that written complaints, Freedom of Information requests and employment tribunal claims have risen across several UK public-service channels since ChatGPT launched. The pattern is consistent with AI making formal submissions easier to produce, but the data does not prove AI caused the increases—and many complaints may reflect valid claims.
Written complaints, Freedom of Information requests and employment tribunal claims have risen across multiple British public-service channels since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, according to a Sky News report published October 20. The report links the pattern to the lower effort required to draft formal submissions with AI, while noting that the figures do not establish that AI caused the increases.
Sky News technology correspondent Rowland Manthorpe reviewed data showing growth in complaints and claims across services including water companies, local authorities, GP practices and the Department for Work and Pensions. The report says the increases followed years in which the number of FOI requests to British public bodies had changed little. It describes a similar pattern across otherwise unrelated channels: a long period of relative stability, followed by a rise from late 2022 and faster growth afterwards.
Among the reported changes since ChatGPT launched, household complaints about water companies rose 144%, while complaints to English local authorities increased 78%. Written complaints to GP practices rose 71%; DWP complaints, 64%; and individual employment tribunal claims, 62%. The report also lists increases in complaints about legal services, the NHS, police forces and public services. These are reported growth figures for each channel; they do not, by themselves, show the number of complaints or establish a common cause.
Manthorpe tested 100 recent FOI requests with an AI-text detector. It classified 89% as fully AI-written and 9% as human-written; a smaller 2019 sample was classified as entirely human. Sky News cautioned that AI detectors are unreliable and the test cannot prove AI caused the wider rise. A survey cited in the report found 58% of civil servants said AI-generated material from the public significantly affects their work.
Infographic 01 · The paperwork curve
Flat for a decade. Then ChatGPT made paperwork cheap.
Across almost every channel where people write to the British state, volume has risen since November 2022. Much of it is justified.
Growth since ChatGPT launched
Change per channel since November 2022, as measured by Sky News. Bar length on a 0–150% scale.
Each channel has its own causes. The repeated shape, flat then accelerating from late 2022, is the signal.
Not just Britain
Other measurements of the same trend.
- UK Housing Ombudsman: about 2,600 complaints in 2022, just over 7,000 last year (TechCrunch).
- US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: complaints up fivefold over the same period.
- 84 cases in 11 jurisdictions of possible “agentic flooding”, most flat before 2022 (Chris Schmitz).
- ICO guidance, May 2026: AI-written FOI requests are valid; authorities may ask for clarification.
Schmitz: “The vast majority of cases we find are people who are entitled to claim for something, claiming for that thing.”
Sources: Sky News, Why AI could break Britain’s bureaucracy (20 Oct 2026); TechCrunch (10 Sep 2026); ICO (May 2026).
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More Claims Reach Public-Service Inboxes
The reported growth matters because British public services handle many requests through written forms, letters and appeals. If AI lets more people prepare those submissions, public bodies may face more correspondence and more complicated requests without a corresponding increase in staff or processing capacity. That could slow responses for people seeking decisions or assistance.
But a higher volume is not the same as a wave of fabricated claims. Sky News reported that the proportion of DWP complaints upheld has fallen from the 50% range to close to 40%. The lower rate still means a substantial share succeeds; because the total number of complaints has grown, the number upheld may also be higher. The report does not give enough figures to calculate that total precisely.
The policy choice is consequential: authorities could add barriers to submissions, or redesign services so people provide structured information rather than essays. If new submissions include people with valid claims who previously struggled to write them, deterring AI use could restrict access as well as reduce workload.
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How AI Changed the Paperwork Pattern
The timeline in the report starts with the public launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Before then, FOI request numbers had changed little for more than a decade, according to the data reviewed by Sky News. The report compares this shift with rises in several other forms of written contact, while noting that individual sectors have their own pressures. Water companies, for example, have faced difficult years, so AI is not the only possible explanation for more complaints.
In May, the Information Commissioner’s Office issued guidance after public authorities reported higher volumes of AI-generated FOI requests, including requests that misquoted legislation or needed clarification. The ICO said AI-written requests remain valid, authorities do not need to determine whether a person or AI wrote them, and they can seek clarification when a request is unclear.
A study by researcher Chris Schmitz, reported by TechCrunch in September, identified 84 possible cases of what he calls “agentic flooding” across 11 jurisdictions. The supplied account says many cases were roughly flat before 2022 and rose afterwards. It also reports that the UK Housing Ombudsman received about 2,600 complaints in 2022 and just over 7,000 last year. These examples suggest the issue extends beyond Britain, but they do not establish that AI explains every increase.
“It’s like being bombarded with correspondence at speed.”
— Civil servant responding to a survey cited by Sky News
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AI’s Exact Role Remains Unproven
The reported time pattern is not proof that AI caused the rise. The data covers channels with different rules and circumstances, and other developments may have contributed. The AI-detector test involved just 100 recent FOI requests, used a tool Sky News described as unreliable, and cannot show how much AI use changed overall request volumes.
The source material does not provide full underlying datasets, all comparison periods or a detailed account of how the reported growth rates were calculated. It also does not quantify how much extra staff time AI-generated submissions require, or how many additional complaints and claims are upheld in absolute numbers. The relationship between easier drafting, genuine unmet need and pressure on services remains under investigation.
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Services Face a Design Choice
The immediate issue for public bodies is how to process rising volumes without treating AI use itself as grounds to reject a request. The ICO’s guidance says FOI requests remain valid regardless of whether AI helped write them, while allowing authorities to seek clarification when wording is unclear.
The next pressure may come from AI agents that submit requests or claims on a person’s behalf, rather than tools that merely draft text. Sky News demonstrated an agent service and raised examples such as automated appeals of parking tickets or claims for compensation after rail delays. The report does not establish how widespread such automated filing is now.
Loosemore’s proposed direction is to replace essay-heavy processes with services that collect structured data. Whether government departments will adopt that approach, and how quickly, is not clear. Public bodies will also need to determine how to handle growing volumes while preserving access for people with valid complaints or claims.
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Key Questions
What did the Sky News report find?
It reported rising written complaints, FOI requests and employment tribunal claims across several UK public-service channels since ChatGPT launched in November 2022. The report said the pattern is consistent with AI making formal submissions easier, but does not prove AI caused the increases.
How much have complaints increased?
Sky News reported growth of 144% in household complaints about water companies and 78% in complaints to English local authorities since ChatGPT launched. It also reported increases across GP practices, the DWP, employment tribunals and other services. The figures have different channel-specific contexts and do not establish a single cause.
Can public bodies reject an FOI request because AI wrote it?
The Information Commissioner’s Office said AI-written FOI requests are still valid. Authorities do not need to determine who or what wrote a request, though they can ask for clarification if it is badly formed or unclear.
Do the higher volumes mean most complaints are false?
No such conclusion follows from the reported figures. The source material says the share of DWP complaints upheld has fallen to close to 40%, while also noting that more complaints overall could mean more upheld in absolute terms. The exact totals are not provided.
What could change as AI agents become more common?
Agents may be able to submit appeals or claims on a person’s behalf, increasing the volume of automated filings. The extent of that shift is not yet clear. One proposal raised in the report is for public services to use structured data instead of relying heavily on written essays.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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