At ParlyReply, we’re building an AI-native system-of-record software for Parliamentary offices. We believe the people running public institutions should have access to the best technology available. But in a setting as sensitive and accountable as Parliament, that technology must meet an especially high standard. These two principles shouldn't be incompatible though.
Parliamentary casework is often deeply sensitive. Offices deal with immigration problems, health issues, financial hardship, safeguarding concerns, and family crises. If AI is going to be useful in that environment, it has to be deployed in a way that reflects that reality.
We think MPs and their teams should be able to use the best AI features available, without compromising on the standards they apply to constituent data.
What we’ve put in place
That is why we have secured a Zero Data Retention arrangement with OpenAI for the AI features inside ParlyReply.
If your office would like to review the agreement itself, it is available on request.
In practice, that means casework sent to OpenAI is processed to generate a response, but it is not stored by OpenAI, kept in long-term logs, or used to train future models.
Why we cared about this
We pushed for this because we think the usual trade-off offered by AI tools is the wrong one for parliamentary work. Offices should not have to choose between useful software and careful data handling. Now they don't.
Zero Data Retention doesn't mean casework can be handled casually. Sensitive information still needs proper access controls, office-level separation, and a clear audit trail. But it does remove one important concern: the model provider is not retaining the underlying casework.
What stays inside ParlyReply
Inside ParlyReply, we still store the information needed to make the product work properly and to maintain accountability. That includes things like final drafted outputs, relevant metadata, and audit information needed to understand how work was carried out.
More broadly, this reflects how we think about AI in ParlyReply. We want to build tools that fit the standards already expected in parliamentary offices, rather than asking those offices to make exceptions for the sake of convenience. If your office wants to understand how this works end to end, we are happy to walk through the data flow in detail.