Transparency data

Steering Board Minutes - Wed 2nd August 2023 (HTML)

Updated 25 October 2023

Attendees

Members

• Sue Bateman - CDDO ( Chair)
• Rachel Davison - DWP
• Ben Daniels - DLHUC
• Hiran Basnayake - HMRC
• Nicholas Oughtibridge - NHSX
• Neil Cholerton - Home Office
• Charles Baird - ONS
• Christophe Prince - Home Office

Observers and speakers

• Firoze Salim - CDDO
• Didac Fabregas-Badosa - CDDO
• Ian Manson - CDDO (Secretariat)

Apologies

• Joy Lincoln - HMRC
• Tom Smith - DLHUC

Actions and Decisions

Ref No:	Action/Decision	Owner	Deadline
AUG23/1	Hiran Basnayake (HMRC) to provide department contact points for the Vulnerabilities WG.	Hiran Basnayake	-
AUG23/2	Didac (CDDO) to report back to the Board in 2 months on progress with the Vulnerabilities WG	Didac Fabregas-Badosa	-
AUG23/3	Members to provide department contact points for the Common Attributes Workshop	Members	-
AUG23/4	Firoze (CDDO) to report back to the Board in 2 months on the progress with the Common Attributes work.	Firoze Salim	-

Record of discussions

1. Chair welcome and introductions

Sue Bateman, CDDO

• The chair introduced the agenda and welcomed attendees.

2. Vulnerabilities Working Group

Didac Fabregas-Badosa, CDDO

• Didac provided an update to the board following the first meeting of the vulnerabilities working group.
  • The meeting was well attended with representatives from key departments across government and local government.
  • The meeting included a productive interactive session which explored a number of vulnerability use cases and the potential for multi-agency cooperation.
  • The working group reviewed draft Terms of Reference and discussed the potential purpose and outputs of the group including specific artefacts.
• The working group meeting will be followed up with further engagement with other departments, unable to attend but who had expressed an interest, along with a revised Terms of Reference for the group.
• The next meeting will be scheduled for September and Didac asked for support from board members to ensure their departments are engaged with this working group.

Discussion

• Ben Daniels (DLHUC) asked if the BOLD ( Better Outcomes through Linked Data) project had been represented. Didac responded that they had been invited but were unable to attend this first meeting but will be engaged to ensure their future participation. Ben followed up with a suggestion that the HMRC Debt Management team would be an appropriate contact for the group. Hiran Basnayake (HMRC) agreed to follow-up this with Didac.
• Charles Baird (ONS) provided additional comments on the work in progress on the data linkage hub at ONS as a potential touch-point for the initiative and coordination on a vulnerability taxonomy with the TOG (Taxonomy Oversight Group) where the contact is Suzanne Fry (CDDO).

Actions

• Board members to encourage their colleagues to engage with this working group.
• Hiran Basnayake (HMRC) to provide department contact points for the group.
• Didac to report back to the Board in 2 months on progress with the working group.

3. Data Ownership and Criticality - Update

Firoze Salim - CDDO

• Firoze presented an update on progress with the Data Ownership and Criticality Work
  • Firoze mentioned that CDDO is currently working with Home Office, DEFRA and the Environment Agency on the alpha testing of the ownership and criticality artefacts. The purpose of the alpha testing is to understand how departments work with the artefacts for the designation and reporting of ESDAs and to make any changes/clarifications to the guidance before it is published.
  • Firoze pointed out that there was an Ownership and Criticality Working Group meeting on the 22nd of June. The main item in the agenda for the working group meeting was a Show and Tell by the departments involved in the alpha testing to share their progress, challenges and lessons learnt while designating and reporting ESDAs. Firoze highlighted that there was a lot of engagement and good comments that CDDO will take on board and reflect on the final artefacts.
  • As part of the update, Firoze shared with the group members that CDDO is expecting the first ESDA returns result of the alpha testing by September 2023. Firoze clarified to the Board that the timeline for the rest of departments not involved in the alpha testing to send in their returns will likely be between three to six months from the publication date of the artefacts (expected by October 2023)
• As next steps, CDDO will start engaging bilaterally with departments to make sure that they are up to date and have good knowledge of the ownership and criticality artefacts. Part of the engagement will also cover any foreseeable issues for the ESDA returns.

Discussion

• Sue Bateman asked the members if they were (or will be ready) to action the requests for the ESDA returns once the guidance is published within the established time frame of three to six months.
  • No issues were raised by the members

Actions

• Rachel Davison (DWP) to follow-up within the department on progress with the ESDA reporting.

4. Standards relating to Common Attributes

Firoze Salim - CDDO

• Firoze provided a contextual overview of work currently being undertaken to look into the potential of defining data standards for a range of common attributes including “data primitives”.
  • This review has been in part prompted by the ONS in their identification of data standards for IDS.
  • A workshop is being organised with participants invited from the Peer Review Group and other expert groups. The main goal of the workshop will be to explore the issue of standardisation of cross-cutting data attributes and agree a problem statement and discuss the opportunities and risks for tackling it
• Firoze welcomed comments from the board to aid the creation of a problem statement and any guidance members could offer on the scope for the initiative.

Discussion

• Overall members recognised the importance of this work and showed interest in being involved (at departmental level) in this work going further.

• Nicholas Oughtibridge (NHS) listed a number of such attributes that are characteristics used in equality monitoring but cautioned on the need for accurate classification. He also referenced the need for clarity of purpose such as use of information for statistical purposes versus use in operational categorisation.

• Hiran Basnayake (HMRC) commented on the definition of these attributes as primitives, referencing designatory data use in HMRC, and it was agreed that more details on the description and scope of this initiative is required.
• Sue Bateman (Chair) invited comments from Charles Baird (ONS) on the background of the paper looking at this standardisation from the IDS programme. In response Charles felt that the origin was based on reviewing some of these as basic data elements which may need disambiguation during data ingestion from varying sources without some standardisation. The concept was to look at a way of socialising a range of these elements to define standard forms.
• The Chair summarised the discussion as being broadly in support of the basis for this initiative and the board will review the results of further work through the workshop and further engagement.

Actions

• Members to provide department contact points for the Common Attributes Workshop
• Firoze Salim to report back to the Board in 2 months on the progress with the Common Attributes work.

5. DSA - New Online Content

Didac Fabregas-Badosa - CDDO

• Didac shared the news that the Data Standards Authority (DSA) has now published a new landing page and content on its operational model and processes on GOV.UK. This will now enable better promotion and transparency for the activities of the DSA and improved access to information. Didac invited members to review the content and provide feedback so that we can make improvements.
• Sue Bateman added that this forms part of a larger piece of work, including the Knowledge Hub for the Data Marketplace, and will inform work on the wider promotion of this as a cross-government resource.

Actions

• Board members to provide any feedback on the new landing page to Didac.

6. Any Other Business

• Firoze informed the group that Ian Manson is retiring.
• The chair summarised the meeting

Meeting closed

Next meeting: 27 September 2023, 15:00-16:00. Microsoft Teams.