Geospatial Commission: Board of Commissioners meeting 25 January 2021
Published 19 April 2021
© Crown copyright 2021
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/geospatial-commission-board-of-commissioners-meeting-25-january-2021/geospatial-commission-board-of-commissioners-meeting-25-january-2021
Minutes of the thirteenth meeting of the Geospatial Commission board of commissioners
25 January 2021
Tele-conference
Commissioners
Nigel Clifford (Interim Chair)
Thalia Baldwin
Dame Kate Barker (from 12.30)
Kru Desai
Edwina Dunn OBE
Steve Unger
Karen Hanghøj
Steve Blair
Commission Unit
Sam Arnold
Maria Christodoulou
Jamie Clark
Ruth Cookman
Liz Conn
Joe Cuddeford
Rosalind Goodfellow
Catherine Carter-McGrath
Callum Irving
Bomi Okuyiga
Catherine Young
Kevin Yue
Observers
Glyn Jones (Welsh Government)
Albert King (Scottish Government)
Jim Lennon (Northern Ireland Executive)
Mark Wardell (VOA, replacement for Jonathan Russell)
External Speaker
Professor Sandra Wachter, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University
Apologies
Jonathan Russell (VOA)
1. Minutes and Matters Arising
1.1. The minutes of the November meeting were agreed and approved for publication.
1.2. No other matters were noted.
2. Report from Nominated Commissioners
2.1. Karen Hanghøj and Steve Blair provided an update from the Partner Bodies in their capacity as Nominated Commissioners. They updated on key recent activities across the Partner Bodies including the continued challenges they face delivering during a pandemic.
2.2. The Nominated Commissioners reiterated the Partner Bodies’ desire to support the Commission on matters relating to Net Zero and climate change. Thalia welcomed working level engagement with the GC unit on the environmental location data policy agenda, a key area captured in the UK Geospatial Strategy, through established regular engagement.
2.3. Partner Body closer collaboration was recognised as a common theme for all. The Nominated Commissioners added that whilst appropriate harmonisation is desirable, it should take account of the necessarily different organisational models.
2.4. The Partner Bodies gave positive feedback on the papers, which were discussed in greater detail during items 5, 6 and 7 below.
3. Report from the Director of the Commission
3.1. Thalia provided an overview of work that has taken place across the Commission since the November board meeting.
4. External Speaker: Mission 1, Data Ethics, Professor Sandra Wachter, Oxford University
4.1. Professor Sandra Wachter, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, joined the meeting. Sandra delivered a presentation on the ethics of geolocation data.
4.2. Sandra outlined the need to address ethical concerns in order to maximise the wide benefits of location data for the economy, and society. Sandra gave an overview of the inferences that can be made from location data that is collected about people’s day-to-day lives, and the data privacy issues that may arise from this. Sandra’s research focuses on the safeguards required when dealing with identifiable data, to ensure benefits can be realised, and the challenges that come with preventing direct, and indirect, discrimination with AI algorithmic decision making.
4.3. Sandra noted that geospatial considerations are important in the context of her research, given the power of and sensitivities around geospatial data.
5. Mission 1: Data Ethics
5.1. Ros Goodfellow gave an overview of the Commission’s location data ethics strategy, updating the board on progress towards the UK Geospatial Strategy commitment to publish guidance on the ethical use of location data and technology.
5.2. Ros outlined the Commission’s partnership with Sciencewise, to deliver a public engagement programme, exploring public perceptions of location data ethics, by engaging in dialogue with a representative sample of the public.
5.3. This jointly-funded programme will include the creation of an advisory Oversight Group, chaired by John Pullinger (previously the UK National Statistician), with representation from across society, including academia, the public sector, private sector and civil society. The Oversight Group will provide expert advice on the development of the dialogue process, including approach and content.
5.4. The board agreed that the publication of ethical guidance presents a key opportunity for the Commission and that the specificity and practicality of the guidance will be important to ensure it has desired benefits.
6. Mission 2: Partner Body Strategy
6.1. Catherine Carter-McGrath gave an overview of how the Commission plans to report on the alignment of Partner Body work with the UK Geospatial Strategy, as part of the Geospatial Commission’s annual report. This included a proposal for a framework to enable the commission and the Partner Bodies to take a view on that progress towards making the Partner Body datasets more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) and high quality.
6.2 This assessment will be a way to showcase current and future work that the Partner Bodies are delivering to support the UK Geospatial Strategy, and will support the identification of key strategic gaps where the Commission or members of the Partner Bodies can provide additional focus.
6.3. The board discussed the range of standards, domestic and international, that already exist, which could be drawn upon. The board noted the intention to identify the benefits of Data Improvement investments of the Partner Bodies, led by the GC over the last two years.
6.4. An early view of the framework will be presented at the next board meeting.
6.5. Mark Wardell from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) joined the meeting for a discussion about access to property attribute data, building on the VOA’s work to date to improve access.
6.6. The board asked the Commission and the VOA to explore the extent to which geospatial data held by VOA is of sufficient quality for identified use cases, including emergency response, together with any risks arising from broader sharing of VOA data. The board encouraged the Commission and the VOA to continue to explore the art of the possible in this area.
7. Mission 1: Value of data
7.1. Ros Goodfellow gave an overview of the Commission’s work programme to develop guidance to measure the social, economic and environmental value of location data, highlighting how this is crucial to drive investment in its access and quality. Developing a consistent approach to attaching a value to data could also incentivise the underpinning cultural change required to greater realise the value of the data organisations hold.
7.2. The board noted the need for the guidance to cover both the incremental and indirect value of making improvements to data, as well as the total value of data that is currently held. The board also discussed potential qualitative and commercial methods to account for the value of data.
8. AOB
8.1. The next Board of Commissioners meeting will take place virtually on 23rd March 2020.