Proactive Investors - Jeremy Hunt is set to deliver an £800 million package for technology reforms in Wednesday's Budget aimed at freeing up NHS and police time, the Treasury has announced.
Speaking over the weekend, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt called it part of a “public sector productivity drive”.
Under the plans, artificial intelligence technology will be used to attempt to cut down NHS waiting times by a third, and drones will be deployed by the police services to attend to road collisions.
Speaking to reporters, Hunt said it will be a Budget “where we stress... the importance of being responsible with the country's finances because it's fundamentally unconservative to fund all the things that you would like to do by borrowing money for future generations”.
Additionally, tens of thousands of civil service workers could be at risk of losing their jobs as part of the reforms, which are attempting to cut costs by as much as £1.8 billion by 2029.
"There is too much waste in the system and we want public servants to get back to doing what matters most: teaching our children, keeping us safe and treating us when we're sick," Hunt added.
"That's why our plan is about reaping the rewards of productivity, from faster access to MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) for patients to hundreds of thousands of police hours freed up to attend burglaries or incidents of domestic abuse."
Other rumoured topics for the Budget on Wednesday include scrapping support for 99% mortgages, ending non-dom statuses and lowering national insurance.