AI-written complaints are swamping UK councils, courts and MPs' offices
Chatbots are letting anyone draft lengthy, formal-sounding complaints and appeals in seconds — and public bodies say the resulting flood is eating up staff time they don't have.
What happened: UK local councils, MPs' offices, Transport for London and employment tribunals report being swamped by a sharp rise in AI-generated complaints, appeals and information requests since 2024. Caseworkers say the volume has gone from a trickle to what commentators call "AI clog" or "agentic flooding." Complaints that once ran to two pages now often stretch to 20, with one reported case hitting 200 pages. MPs' staff describe casework doubling, TfL logged a record 4,769 Freedom of Information requests in 2025-26, and employment tribunal claims rose 28% year-on-year in spring 2026.
Why it matters: Public bodies have fixed budgets and legally required response deadlines regardless of how many complaints arrive or how long they are. Every extra hour spent untangling a bloated, AI-drafted request is an hour not spent on the underlying service, whether that's social care, planning or transport. Staff also describe exhaustion and unpaid overtime. Because much of this correspondence looks professional and cites legal language, it can't simply be dismissed, even when it turns out to be padded, repetitive or based on made-up case law.
How it works, plainly: Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini let anyone produce a formal-sounding complaint, FOI request or tribunal letter in minutes, complete with legal-sounding references, without needing expertise. The catch: AI tools tend to pad text, sometimes cite case law from the wrong country, occasionally invent details, and often skip the one thing a complaint needs most — a clear ask for what resolution the person actually wants. Staff say giveaways include excessive length, bullet points and oddly intimidating but vague phrasing.
How bodies are responding: Some ombudsman services are introducing word limits or restrictive online templates. Councils including Wiltshire and Stroud are testing AI itself to summarise incoming emails and draft replies, while the government has told civil servants to verify AI-provided facts, avoid entering personal data, and keep a human making final decisions. Researchers have floated tougher options too: application fees or blocking bots from government websites, though none of this is widely in place yet.