Responsibility for 'govt use of data' has transferred from DCMS to Cabinet Office (after moving from CO to DCMS back in 2018).

Main thought:

Time for shuffling deckchairs is over - it's time for govt to set a direction, starting with the National Data Strategy later this year https://twitter.com/GavinFreeguard/status/1285877028668022785
We were a bit more open than most to data policy moving to DCMS in 2018.

Political energy had gone out of the agenda at Cabinet Office, DCMS had a Sec of State (Matt Hancock) who was clearly interested in it.

He was reshuffled to health 3 months later.
But there were clearly going to be challenges:
- DCMS had a wide-ranging & expanding brief
- Data was - & remains - fragmented across Whitehall
- DCMS not a traditional 'central' dept, not clear it had right skills/capabilities at the time

From April 2018 https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/dcms-becomes-department-data
DCMS becomes the department for data

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is now in charge of government data policy, taking over responsibility from the Government Digital Service (GDS).

https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/dcms-becomes-department-data
It's not entirely clear from the statement ( https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2020-07-22/HCWS417/) exactly how this will work.

What *exactly* has gone (back) over? Which bit of Cab Office will data sit in? Who will be in charge? etc
'Data' is an intimidatingly large brief, so some sort of division - between how govt uses data, and data for the wider economy/society makes some sense - though Cab Office and DCMS will obvs need to work very closely together
Enough about the deckchair shuffling/packet switching.

What comes next? https://twitter.com/jukesie/status/1285880805395435520
The National Data Strategy needs to be published this year and set a direction.

Delayed by #Brexit, politics and everything else, it was first announced in June 2018.

Here's what 11 civil society orgs want from it (July 2019) https://medium.com/@gavin.freeguard/joint-civil-society-letter-on-the-national-data-strategy-july-2019-1dd0f4bfebcc
Joint civil society letter on the National Data Strategy (July 2019)

As suggested by Andy, here’s a non-PDF version of the joint letter sent by the Institute for Government, Full Fact, Royal Statistical…

https://medium.com/@gavin.freeguard/joint-civil-society-letter-on-the-national-data-strategy-july-2019-1dd0f4bfebcc
Govt promised a chief data officer in 2017. Nobody has been appointed.

Govt advertised for a chief digital information officer in 2019. Nobody has been appointed.
There's clearly interest from No 10, but 10ds (e.g.) prompts as many qs as it answers https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/no10-data-science-unit-could-create-more-problems-it-solves

Somebody needs to coordinate the alphabet soup of an already-crowded govt data landscape ( https://twitter.com/GavinFreeguard/status/1276432883717156865)
Some hopefully positive signs about tackling difficult, longstanding problems #fixtheplumbing https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/1006/documents/7937/default/

But #coronavirus has obvs raised a lot of qs about personal data to the top of the agenda https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/government-use-public-data-coronavirus
Government use of personal data in the coronavirus response requires

Outbreaks and pandemics often focus attention on the conditions that helped them to spread. In the past, this has put sanitary conditions – overcrowding, water supply – under the spotlight, and that

https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/1006/documents/7937/default/
TL;DR

- National Data Strategy please
- Clarity on CDO/CDIO please
- A focus on fixing the plumbing and not being distracted by shiny things please
- More openness, discussion and engagement - especially about use of personal data - please

FIN

(for now)
Open government is part of the brief heading over to Cabinet Office https://twitter.com/OpenGovUK/status/1285909322015412225
(I'll let you make your own jokes about that not being entirely clear from the ministerial statement)
Downing Street takes back control of government data https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-10-takes-control-of-data-back-into-the-heart-of-government-ksq79rh33

Some quotes from me in @oliver_wright's piece on the DCMS -> Cabinet Office machinery of government change
Downing Street takes back control of all government data

Downing Street moved to take control of the government’s use of data yesterday in an effort to improve information sharing across Whitehall.In a plan announced before parliament rose for the summer

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-10-takes-control-of-data-back-into-the-heart-of-government-ksq79rh33
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