Transparency data

DSA - Peer Review Group Minutes - Tuesday 26 September 2023 (HTML)

Updated 25 October 2023

Attendees

Members
Sue Bateman - CDDO - (Chair)
Claire Bell - ONS
Becky Russell - Environment Agency
Hannah Stace - ONS
Steph Hofmann - TPR
Penny Clarke - FSA
Lisa Allen - ODI
Nicola Mcllroy - MCA
Michael Poreba - DBT
Anthony Love - DBT
James M - NCSC
Aravindhan Rajasekar - CO
Laura Payne - ONS
Keiran Millard - CDDO
Matthew Webber - RPA
Nick Teall - DEFRA
Simon Worthington - DBT
Sarah Al-Adely - DfT
Tejinder Manik - DfE
Claire Laws - TPR
Hiran Basnayake - HMRC

Observers and speakers
Firoze Salim - CDDO (Secretariat)
Didac Fabregas-Badosa - CDDO (Secretariat)
Ria Sanderson - ONS
Suzanne Fry - CDDO
Simon Worthington - DBT

Record of discussions

1. Chair welcome and introductions Sue Bateman, CDDO

• The chair introduced the agenda and welcomed attendees

2. Data Quality - Ria Sanderson, ONS and Suzanne Fry, CDDO

Summary of presentation:

• CDDO and DQHub have started work initially between the two teams to begin to shape how we meet the the data quality milestone within pillar 3 of of the cross-government Digital and Data Roadmap: “by 2025, all departments will ensure that 50% of ‘high priority’ data quality issues are resolved within the period defined by a cross-government framework”.
• Presenters shared and asked for initial feedback and support on
  • scope of the commitment (slide 9)
  • principles to the approach (slide 10)
• The presenters shared the next steps and future plans for this work:
  • Feedback from PRG (on outline approach)
  • Testing of initial thinking and high-level plan with departments (September/October)
  • Development of a detailed proposal for the approach (October)
  • Presentation of proposal to PRG members for comment (November)

Discussion

• No objections were raised on the approach taken.
• The chair highlighted the importance of bringing this item to the group at an initial stage of thinking and development but also pointed that engagement on the developed and more detailed proposals will be sought from PRG.
• Lisa Allen shared a resource (podcast) with the group that may be relevant to this work. The resource covers the value of data and the difference between data sets and data assets.

Actions

• PRG members were asked to provide initial feedback on the scope and emerging principles for this work by contacting Ria Sanderson (ria.sanderson@ons.gov.uk) and Suzanne Fry (suzanne.fry@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk) directly by Friday 20 Oct close of play.

3. Tariff Standard - Simon Worthington, DBT

Summary of presentation:

• Simon Worthington presented a proposal for an official UK Tariff Data Standard.
  • Simon shared that DBT’s plan is to go through the Open Standards Process and create a new standard via the Open Standards Board.
• Simon highlighted the importance of developing this standard by pointing out that it is crucial to have clear rules and import duties for trade with the UK, especially after leaving the EU.
• Simon informed PRG that there is an existing standard (TARIC3) used at EU-level which is being used because it is the widely adopted language in international trade, but that there are recognised limitations and reasons for change (Slide 19).
• DBT’s proposal for a new official UK Tariff Data Standard would:
  • recognise shared data language as an official government standard derived from TARIC3 and following the Open Standards Principles,
  • agree to manage it together as “one trade community” through an open governance group including government data architects and tariff data consumers (including industry),
  • document it at all levels, and store this as a repository of open content, and
  • NOT changing current trade operations or policy.
• Simon shared that the stakeholders involved to date in this work have been HMRC, DEFRA, GOV.UK services, DBT and the government of Jersey and Guernsey.
• DBT’s ongoing work includes documenting the standard, establishing an open stakeholder group, agreeing open governance arrangements, working with the DSA and writing weekly notes (hyperlinks available in slide 21).

Discussion

• No objections were raised on the approach taken.
• The chair supported the work and suggested DBT colleagues to look into the Open Government Playbook. The chair asked CDDO colleagues to facilitate introductions with Matt Donnelly and Ben Gittins, working on the Open Government Partnership.
• Keiran Millard also supported DBT’s work. Keiran suggested looking at standards around data product specifications to ensure that the scope of DBT’s work is clearly well defined.

Actions

• CDDO to share the presentation materials with the PRG members
• Didac Fabregas-Badosa to link DBT with CDDO colleagues working on Open Government.
• Keiran Millard to share supporting materials for Data Product Specifications. Added in Annex I

4. Reference and Master Data Guidance Development - Suzanne Fry, CDDO

Summary of presentation:

• Suzanne mentioned that the Reference and Master Data Working Group is developing a “Reference and Master Data Best Practice Guidance”, aligned with Mission 3 of the CDDO roadmap.
• Suzanne shared that background work and engagement has been done over the last few months to ensure that the guidance is useful and covers the needs for different government departments.
• The Reference and Master Data Working Group has:
  • agreed that the audience for the guidance should be wide, including Government digital and data professionals, end users and subject matter experts
  • agreed that the guidance should include four different topics/sections: (i) definitions and value (almost complete), (ii) Reference and Master Data Principles (main section), (iii) problems to avoid, a (iv) mapping to existing guidance and standards.
• Suzanne presented the timetable for this work:
  • A drafting stage following Working Group comments and a progress update to the DSA Steering Board (September)
  • further drafting and working group sign-off (October)
  • Cross government endorsement, through the DSA (November) and publication (December).

Discussion

• No objections were raised on the approach taken.
• Lisa Allen asked if the DAMA Book of Knowledge has been used to inform the guidance. Lisa also asked if research on best practice/work by other international governments has been carried out. For example, the case of Estonia.
  • Suzanne confirmed that DAMA resources were recommended by the members of the working group and that definitions from the book will be used. Suzanne also confirmed that international examples will be included to showcase good practice.
• Claire Laws asked about the availability of artefacts on standardisation and standards for cross-government stakeholders.
  • The chair suggested Claire to have further conversations with Keiran Millard, Firoze Salim and Didac Fabregas-Badosa on this matter.
  • The chair mentioned that artefacts and resources have been developed by the DSA and that these are publicly available online.
  • The chair mentioned CDDO’s ongoing work on the Data Marketplace.
  • The chair mentioned that part of the work of the different governance groups is informed by the needs, requests or gaps identified by its members and encouraged Claire to raise this with the DSA team.

Actions

• nil

5. Data Ownership and Criticality - Firoze Salim, CDDO

Summary of presentation:

• Firoze Salim provided an update on the Data Ownership and Criticality Work.
• Firoze thanked all the departments involved in the Alpha Testing (HO, DEFRA, EA and DfE).
• Firoze shared that the testing is coming to an end in the coming weeks and that CDDO has been engaging with the departments to understand their experiences, which will inform the revision of the artefacts ahead of DSA Steering Board approval and publication for Beta phase.
• Firoze highlighted recent engagement with the Situation Centre (Cabinet Office) to ensure alignment with their requirements to identify datasets for resilience purposes to not create competing regimes/unnecessary burdens for departments.
• Firoze reminded the group that engagement with the Alpha departments has been accompanied by wider bilateral engagement with other government departments (including DfT, DBT, DESNZ, MOD and MoJ) to understand their views and concerns. Firoze shared that the engagement to date has been positive.
• CDDO is currently working to get illustrative lists of ESDAs as soon as possible for the Data Marketplace proof of concept purposes.

Discussion

• No objections were raised on the approach taken.

Actions

• nil

7. Standards Relating to Common Attributes - Didac Fabregas-Badosa, CDDO

Summary of presentation:

• Didac Fabregas-Badosa provided an update on the work around standards relating to common attributes.
• Didac shared that a first workshop happened on the 24th of August and that it was well attended by a range of cross-government stakeholders
• Didac pointed out that during the workshop ONS presented the IDS use case and that HMT presented the work delivered to date by the Functional Convergence Programme, all this, to flag the cross-government dimension to the issue and build on previous work
• A wide ranging discussion took place during the meeting where:
  • A problem statement was agreed
  • Potential outcomes for the working group were discussed
  • Conversations around the ownership of this work happened
  • There was a common view on the value of pursuing further work in this space
• Didac shared that as next steps, the group agreed to hold a follow-up meeting with an expanded invitee list and that CDDO will develop a draft work proposal based on the discussion during the workshop

Discussion

• No objections were raised on the approach taken

Actions

• Didac to share the note for the first workshop with interest members of the PRG

7. Any other business

• nil

Meeting closed

Next meeting: End of October

Annex 1 Data Product Specification

A data product specification is a specification of a dataset or dataset series together with additional information that will enable it to be created, supplied to and used by another party. In this context of creating, supplying and using data products, the specification thereof is of essence in a controlled and standardised process leading to interoperability.

The data product specification is the final product in a process that describes the conceptual formalisation of semantics and data structure related to specific requirements or use cases. It is a precise and full description of the data product in terms of the requirements that it will or may fulfil.

A data product specification is divided into sections. Each section covers and specifies a specific aspect of the data product. All sections are always included in the data product specification, even when there is no content. This provides a stable and recognizable structure across different data product specifications.

The example below is based on the requirements of ISO19131 for geospatial data products (e.g. Ordnance Survey Maps). These are typically more complex than most data in government, but the approach used provides a useful checklist

• title, abstract:
  • What is the purpose of the data being created
  • use case descriptions;
• scope section:
  • Are there any variations or different applications for how it will be used
  • different ranges within the data product;
• data content and structure
  • The core detail of how the datasets are to be built
  • feature concept dictionary
  • feature catalogue ,
  • application schema;
• reference systems section:
  • Reference data that may be required
  • coordinate reference systems ,
  • system using identifiers ,
  • temporal reference systems ;
• data quality section:
  • How to test that data is in compliance with the specification
  • data quality measure and threshold values for acceptance;
• data capture and production section:
  • How to the data can/should be created, including any 3rd party dependencies
  • processing catalogue;
• maintenance section:
  • Update frequency and any checks linked to quality
  • maintenance statement;
• portrayal section:
  • If the data needs to visualised in a particular way, e.g. standard tables or charts
  • portrayal catalogue
• delivery section:
  • Mechanisms by which datasets can be packaged and distributed
  • data media,
  • download services
  • view services;
• metadata section:
  • Metadata used to describe a dataset that complies to this specification
  • metadata standard,
  • metadata profile;
• additional information section, issues not covered by other clauses.