Whitespace has deployed a new AI capability to support one of the major operational challenges involved in Surrey’s Local Government Reorganisation programme.
From 1 April 2027, Surrey's 12 councils will be replaced by two new unitary councils, East Surrey Council and West Surrey Council, plus a Combined Fire and Rescue Authority and Surrey Pensions Authority. Instead of separate county, district and borough councils, one council in the East and one council in the West will provide all the services residents rely on.
Preparing for that transition requires the Surrey councils to review and understand a substantial contract estate, determining how individual supplier agreements should be treated and identifying the contractual provisions relevant to their transfer.
Working with Surrey, Whitespace has developed and deployed an AI-powered contract analysis capability.
The capability analyses individual contracts and identifies the clauses and information relevant to the reorganisation process, including termination provisions. Rather than returning an AI-generated answer alone, each finding is accompanied by a confidence level and a reference to the page and source clause from which it was derived, allowing Surrey's teams to quickly verify the underlying evidence.
A structured review workflow then records the professional judgement of Surrey's team alongside the AI-generated analysis.
This combination of AI analysis, source-level traceability, and human oversight is designed to accelerate a large and time-sensitive programme of work without removing accountability from the people responsible for the decisions.
For Surrey, this means they can work systematically through hundreds of complex agreements ahead of vesting day, while maintaining an auditable record of how each contract has been assessed.
The capability has been deployed through Collective, Whitespace’s decision OS, which provides the underlying environment for governed AI workflows, human review and auditable decision-making.
Darron Cox, Director of Procurement at Surrey County Council and Deputy Theme Sponsor for Procurement & Contracts within the Surrey LGR programme, said:
“Local government reorganisation is one of the most significant changes to local government in Surrey for a generation. As we work towards the creation of East Surrey Council and West Surrey Council in April 2027, we must have a clear understanding of our contract estate and the obligations, opportunities and risks it contains.
Working with Whitespace has enabled us to combine the expertise of procurement and contract management teams with AI-powered analysis, helping us review large volumes of complex contractual information more efficiently and consistently. Importantly, the technology supports rather than replaces professional judgement. By providing clear evidence, traceability and confidence levels, it allows our teams to make informed decisions and maintain accountability throughout the process. This gives us greater confidence as we prepare for a smooth transition that supports the future delivery of services across Surrey.”
Paul Jenkinson, CEO and Co-Founder of Whitespace, said:
“What makes this significant isn't simply that AI can read a contract. The important part is turning that capability into something people can actually use and trust as part of a live operational process. Surrey's teams can see what the AI has identified, how confident it is, exactly where the evidence sits within the original contract, and then record their own judgement against it.
That combination of AI, evidence and human accountability is fundamental to how we believe AI should be deployed in high-consequence environments. By deploying this capability through Collective, we are giving Surrey’s teams a governed and practical way to apply AI to a real operational challenge, while keeping evidence, oversight and professional judgement at the centre of the process.”
The work builds on Whitespace's approach to creating and embedding AI for clients by identifying a defined operational problem and combining AI, workflow design and governance to create a capability that can be deployed into the organisation's existing ways of working.
As Surrey progresses towards vesting day on 1 April 2027, the platform will continue to support its teams as they assess and prepare the contract estate for the transition to the two new authorities.
