There’s a lot of hype around data – but it needs to be viewed by more people as an enabler within government, according to Sue Bateman, chief data officer at CDDO, Cabinet Office.
“It’s a means to something rather than the end,” she said. “From a government and public service context, that means it’s an enabler to better decision making, better research and ultimately better services for our citizens and users.”
Bateman was delivering the government keynote speech at the Think Data for Government event in London. There, she said there were still misconceptions and concerns around the use of data in the public sector.
“We’re still at the early days around how, even us as a data community, but certainly others beyond that data community are seeing the potential of data – particularly with the advent of emerging technology and all the excitement around AI and generative AI.
“I still get a feeling from people that they see data as a bit of a cure all: ‘If only we had that data, we could transform the world.’ Or the opposite of that: ‘We don’t really understand it; we’ve always done things in this particular way [and the] introduction of data might mean x y, y, z’, particularly in the context of service transformation skills and future roles.’”
Creating awareness around data
Bateman said there has been huge increase in the volume and variety in data in government.
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“There’s a volume that is increasing all the time the more that we digitise our work. But … if we think about the variety of data also, and the way that technology is being developed so that we can harness it, we’re talking about in in lots of areas now. Using sensors to harness the potential of data, satellite imagery from some of the [Civil Service] Data Challenge Competition that we’ve had, there are different things beyond what people might traditionally think of spreadsheets or CSV files or databases. So that’s the context that we’re in: how do we sift through that and prioritise that?”
Bateman also talked about creating understanding and awareness about the importance of data.
“We are seeing a lot of excitement from ministers and senior leadership positions in data. But increasingly also, an understanding from the people that we serve about how important data is. And with that, wanting to understand what’s happening to people’s data.”
The CDO also pointed out a trend of investment in data and having clear data strategies.
“Where I can see us going over the next couple of years is a combination of those things and [an] ever increasing amount of data, an ever growing appetite and awareness around the use of data. But also, around some of the nervousness around the use of data – so the need to be responsible. And then this trend around investment in the capability, extra investment in the tooling and resources that we have to take hand in hand.”
