Transparency data

DSA Peer Review Group Minutes Friday 30 January 2026 (HTML)

Updated 24 February 2026

Attendees

• Jenny Brooker, Chair (DSIT)
• Olatunji, John (DSIT)
• Garley, Ginny (DSIT)
• Durrani, Umar (DSIT)
• Vourdas, Andrew (DSIT)
• Kohli, Shruti (DSIT)
• Salim, Firoze (DSIT)
• Chaloner, Tom (DESNZ – Energy Security)
• Robert Sadleir (DBT)
• April MacKenzie‑McQueen (DBT)
• Sophie Aujard (DBT)
• Szymon Walkowiak (DBT)
• James Strachan (MHCLG)
• Becky Russell – Environment Agency
• Peran Ainscliffe – DEFRA
• Matthew Webber – DEFRA
• Rachel Davies – DVLA
• Neil Cholerton – Home Office
• Wicks, Katie – MOD (UKStratCom)
• Mike Gunn – Planning Inspectorate
• Shona Nicol – Scottish Government
• Balint Csollei – The National Archives
• Hannah Mackenzie – UKHSA
• Tanita Barnett – ONS
• Marcus Stewart – TPR
• Andrew Newman – ODI
• Malachi Rangecroft – MoJ

Record of discussions

1. Welcome, introductions and agenda - Jenny Brooker JB, Chair  (DSIT)

• Jenny Brooker opened the session by welcoming attendees, confirmed recording/transcription, and set expectations for a quick agenda with questions encouraged.
• Jenny outlined the purpose of PRG: review standards going through the Data Standards Authority process and provide feedback and routes to involvement.

Jenny introduced the first item: ODI update and standards overview from Andrew Newman.

2. ODI update and standards overview, Andrew Newman, Principal Data Specialist, Open Data Institute (ODI)

ODI context and direction

• Andrew Newman introduced ODI as a not-for-profit, mission-led organisation working on data infrastructure and data standards, with a strategy review underway and a renewed focus driven by AI impacts on trust and data weaknesses.
• Andrew Newman described an “AI-ready data” framing: standardisation needs span dataset properties, machine-readable metadata, API/infrastructure patterns, and governance approaches such as “policy as code”.

Standards and projects covered

• OpenActive: funded by Sport England since 2016; standardises opportunity data for sport/physical activity from booking systems; core specifications include the modelling opportunity specification and RPDE transfer protocol (both being taken through the Data Standards Authority approval process), plus an open booking API and a routes specification. Andrew Newman noted the project is in an optimisation/maintenance phase and referenced scale (approx. 10m activities and ~4,000 providers at any one time).
• Social care data standards (DfE/DHSC): focus on social care case management systems; draft specifications published but not yet implemented; work includes key person attributes for unambiguous identification, exchange protocols based on FHIR, and early work on automating information governance using ODRL; next focus areas include life events, relationships, and service interactions, plus testing and implementation readiness with major vendors.
• Volunteering data infrastructure (DCMS-funded): initial focus on volunteering opportunity data with an ambition to extend to volunteer-related data, accreditations and certifications; ODI has developed an ontology and an API spec; work was tested at a pre-Christmas hackathon involving cross-sector participation, including use cases such as agentic search tools, crisis response with the Red Cross, and accessibility descriptions.
• Andrew Newman referenced wider activity across sectors (community services, housing, water) and noted ODI contributions to cross-government work on person-related standards and ODI stewardship of the “SADLEIR protocol”.

3. Discussion and Q&A

• Question (Jenny Brooker): best routes for PRG members to get involved?
  Andrew Newman noted OpenActive is not in active development but has an open working group; ODI welcomed government engagement on social care (especially existing models on life events and relationships); volunteering work is run as an open project with regular working groups.

• Question (Malachi Rangecroft): contacts in Ministry of Justice to avoid duplication?
  

Andrew Newman noted DfE is building relationships with MoJ and suggested using that route, with an option to follow up with Malachi Rangecroft if needed.

• Question (Malachi Rangecroft): what tooling supports standards work and adoption?
  

Andrew Newman described OpenActive tooling (central catalogue, validator, visualiser, test suites and reference datasets); social care work currently using GitHub for documentation/change control/issue management; volunteering work taking a web-centric approach using RDF.

• Question (Neil Cholerton, raised via chat): reflections on implementing standards vs creating standards?
  

Andrew Newman emphasised adoption is harder than writing the standard; OpenActive relied heavily on engagement and myth-busting in an unregulated environment; social care is moving in a more regulated direction (discussion referenced legislative powers and a plan to build consensus then mandate via DfE/DHSC), with open questions about the role of regulators.

Jenny Brooker closed the item and thanked Andrew Newman.

4. Open Regulation Data Standards (ORDS) overview, Robert Sadleir, Data Policy Advisor, Regulation Digital, Department for Business and Trade (DBT)

Background and problem statement 

• Robert Sadleir outlined the fragmentation of regulatory content across 100+ regulators/arm’s length bodies, inconsistent formats (PDF/HTML), and challenges for users locating current and legally binding content and understanding whether content is up to date.  

• Robert Sadleir highlighted the burden on small businesses compared to larger organisations with specialist compliance/legal teams, and the labour intensity of publishing regulation content.  

What ORDS is

• Robert Sadleir described ORDS as open-source metadata designed for consistent, machine-readable regulatory documents, supporting compatibility across regulatory bodies.  

Robert Sadleir referenced use of existing standards and vocabularies (including Dublin Core, DCAT, Crown Legislation Markup Language, and OASIS legal document approaches adapted for regulations) and governance via GitHub and working groups, with an aim to reduce technical barriers for regulators with fewer resources.  

Concept, adoption and ecosystem 

• Robert Sadleir described a simple framework approach with mandatory metadata elements (including topics, status and upload timing, and related legislation), with scope to expand over time.  

• Robert Sadleir outlined regulator implementation options: manual metadata tables, workflow automation via CMS/DMS/extraction tools, embedding metadata within documents, or providing metadata as separate files (spreadsheets/JSON).  

• Robert Sadleir described ORDS as part of a broader ecosystem including of projects from the Reguation Digital team (DBT) aimed at using technology to improve the regulatory landscape, Find Business Regulations, Gov.uk regulatory content transformation, regulatory language processing/LLM-based tooling (with a focus on quality assurance), publishing integration, plus guidance and training to support uptake.  

• Robert Sadleir referenced engagement with bodies including the Health and Safety Executive, British Standards Institute, The National Archives, publishing partners, RegTech developers, and wider Whitehall initiatives around digital libraries.  

• Robert Sadleir proposed a technical working committee model for ongoing stewardship and quality assurance, initially quarterly, with DBT as interim chair and longer-term chairing to be agreed.  

• Robert Sadleir gave adoption examples: improving access/compliance for small businesses using HSE material; longer-term linking of regulatory/tax/company obligations into more coherent journeys (investor/business use cases).

5. Discussion and Q&A

• Jenny Brooker shared context on related internal work and the importance of structure/context for effective AI use, and opened the floor to questions.

• Question (Jenny Brooker): how much did implementation drive changes between mandatory vs optional fields; did the standard change?
  

Robert Sadleir described an approach aimed at consensus on a minimal set (80/20), with differences primarily in regulator readiness and resourcing; Robert Sadleir discussed a strategy of landing adoption with larger regulators first, then using use cases to support medium/smaller regulators, and referenced BSI as a potential strategic partner for training/embedding standards.

• Question (Jenny Brooker): sustaining momentum and resourcing behind the standard
  

April Mackenzie-McQueen described DBT investment as focused on creating something that works for the broader regulatory landscape; pilots help understand what is being asked of regulators of different sizes; both larger and smaller regulators have shown interest, including small regulators seeing ORDS as a route to justify internal investment.

• Comment (Tanita Barnett): implementation is often overlooked; interest in barriers and lessons learned across different regulator sizes

• Action agreed (Jenny Brooker): DBT team (Robert Sadleir / April Mackenzie-McQueen and colleagues) to share lessons learned and progress at “Data Connect” in October–November.

6. Data Standards Authority update, Andrew Vourdas, Data Architect, GDS, DSIT

• Andrew Vourdas provided a brief recap of three key Data Standards Authority workstreams, referencing a paper circulated earlier in the week, and invited questions/suggestions from the group.

  • Data Asset Management Policy (DAM)
  • Domain Expert Group on a Person (DEGoP)
  • Vulnerabilities Working Group (VWG)

• Jenny Brooker confirmed updates would continue to be shared in papers for reference, and invited any further feedback or comments from working groups.

7. AOB and Close, Jenny Brooker, Chief Data Architect, Government Digital Service, DSIT (Chair)

• Jenny Brooker introduced Ginny Garley as joining the team as data governance lead, heading secretariat functions for the Data Standards Authority and reviewing governance to improve how information is shared.
• Ginny Garley noted plans to contact PRG members in coming weeks for views, and referenced a future PRG session planned to cover additional topics (as flagged in the meeting).
• Jenny Brooker closed the meeting, encouraged attendees to review the circulated updates paper, and thanked everyone for their time.