Data Bites #52

This month’s Data Bites took place in the context of a mixed month for data and openness in government - on the one hand, the Trump administration taking down datasets and websites; on the other, the UK government publishing details about how the digital centre would help drive better use of data. We even had a quiz on the latter to kick us off.

This was the third Data Bites at Public Digital, since the series moved from the Institute for Government in 2024. 

You can watch this session just below on YouTube or listen via SoundCloud. 

Data Bites is a monthly meet-up designed to showcase interesting data projects in and around the public sector. Four brilliant speakers each get eight minutes to present – there are eight bits in a byte, hence eight minutes in a Data Bite – followed by eight minutes of Q&A. You can sign up for the next one – join us in person in London or online at 6pm on Wednesday 5 March (and then Thursday 3 April).

Luke, Advanced Analytics Team Lead at the UK Health Security Agency, was first up. He looked at how public servants can benchmark, evaluate and validate the use of large language models in their work. While he focused on public health and the UKHSA’s work, these are challenges many teams will be facing across and beyond the public sector.

See Luke’s slides and highlights from his presentation.

Our second speaker was David, Head of Digital Knowledge and Information Management at the Cabinet Office, who spoke about using AI in digital records management. Specifically, to solve problems stemming from ‘The transition from paper-based working to email and electronic documents [which] undermined the rigour of information management across much of government’, creating the digital heap.

See David’s slides and highlights from his presentation.

Joining us from Edinburgh, Shona (Head of Technical Data Policy) and Joyce (Data Innovation and Change Lead) from the Scottish Government presented a vision for public sector data. This was designed to give more confidence to staff who need to talk about the importance of data, and support the public sector to be more strategic through shared ambitions. They talked about their engagement across and beyond the public sector, which includes future events as part of the Better Data Community and through the Public Sector Data Innovation and Change community.

See Shona’s slides and highlights from her presentation.

Our final speaker was Matt, Senior Data Analyst at the Blavatnik School of Government (who previously presented at Data Bites in September 2022). This time round, he spoke about the new Blavatnik Index of Public Administration, including the data behind it, the scores on data and digital government, and how government leaders might use it.

See Matt’s slides and highlights from his presentation.

If you’d like to present at a future Data Bites, or would like to recommend someone, please get in touch!

Photos by Paul Clarke.