Public Sector Transparency Board
The role of the Public Sector Transparency Board became part of the Data Steering Group in November 2015.
The Public Sector Transparency Board was set up by the Prime Minister to drive forward the government’s transparency agenda. It was chaired by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, and its members were a mix of public sector data specialists and data experts.
Minutes of the Public Sector Transparency Board
Members of the Public Sector Transparency Board
Andrew Stott
Andrew Stott was Director for Transparency and Digital Engagement for the UK government. He led the work to open up government data and create data.gov.uk and after the 2010 election he led the implementation of the new government’s commitments on transparency of central and local government including delivery of the Prime Minister’s personal pledges to release key finance and staffing data within the government’s first 6 months in office.
His role also included responsibility for increasing the government’s capability to use new media to communicate and collaborate with the public through:
- the crowd-sourcing of ideas for spending reductions and increasing civil liberties
- the greater use of major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter
Following his retirement in December 2010 he continues to advise UK ministers on the release of government data and other parts of their e-government programme as a member of the UK Public Sector Transparency Board, as well as advising other governments and contributing to the international development of the open data agenda.
Between 2004 and 2009 Andrew Stott was UK Government Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chair of the UK Government Chief Technology Officers Council. He joined the civil service in 1976 and subsequently worked in a variety of UK public sector bodies including the Department for Transport, the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Prison Service, the Post Office and the Cabinet Office in policy, finance, programme management and in both strategy and implementation roles in information technology. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge with a MA in both Mathematics and Law.
Dame Fiona Caldicott DBE, FRCPsych, FRCP, FRCPI, FRCGP, FMedSci
Fiona Caldicott is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and was Principal of Somerville College, Oxford. She was a Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Personnel and Equal Opportunities, of the University of Oxford and chaired its Personnel Committee.
She is Chair of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and past President of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy and of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dame Fiona has recently led an Information Governance Review into confidentiality and the sharing of health and social care information.
Sir Mark Walport FRS FMedSci
Mark Walport is the Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government and Head of the Government Office for Science. Previously, Sir Mark has been Director of the Wellcome Trust and Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London. He has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology since 2004, a member of the India UK CEO Forum, the UK India Round Table and the advisory board of Infrastructure UK and a non-executive member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He has undertaken independent reviews for the UK government on the use and sharing of personal information in the public and private sectors ‘Data Sharing Review’ (2009); and secondary education: ‘Science and Mathematics: Secondary Education for the 21st Century’ (2010).
Mark was also a member of the Data Strategy Board.
Steve Thomas
Steve is Managing Director for Strategic Development, Experian Plc and leads their Industry Sector Businesses including public sector. He is also responsible for strategy and the development of Experian’s go to market capability.
He has previously served on the UK board of IBM as Vice President of the Communications and Industrial sectors for UK, Ireland and South Africa. While at IBM Steve led a number of multi-billion technology, software and consulting businesses in the UK and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Steve was also a member of the Data Strategy Board.
Bill Roberts
Bill Roberts is CEO and co-founder of Swirrl IT Ltd. Swirrl works with public sector organisations to help them share their data as ‘5-star’ linked open data. Recognising that the benefits of open data are only realised when the data is used is the guiding principle of Swirrl’s approach.
Bill spends much of his time engaging with re-users of public sector data - in central and local government, the third sector, academics and private sector companies. Bill hopes to bring this hands-on experience of the open data economy to bear on the work of the Transparency Board.
Bill was formerly a member of the Data Strategy Board. He has a PhD in Fluid Dynamics from the University of Edinburgh.
Professor David Rhind CBE
David Rhind is Deputy Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority and is Chairman of the Nuffield Foundation and of the Advisory Panel for Public Sector Information. He was a Non-Executive Director of the Bank of England until summer 2009 and was Chairman of the Statistics Commission for five years until March 2008. Until July 2007, he was Vice-Chancellor of City University, London and before that he was Director General of Ordnance Survey Great Britain. Awarded the CBE in 2001 for services to social and geographical sciences, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society and an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy.
Stephan Shakespeare
Stephan Shakespeare is CEO and Co-Founder of YouGov plc, the international online market research agency. He also founded PoliticsHome.com and ConservativeHome.com. Stephan is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. He was chair of the Data Strategy Board for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 2012-2013 and led the Shakespeare Review of Public Sector Information.
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FREng
Nigel Shadbolt is a Professor at the University of Southampton where he leads the Web and Internet Science Group. He has made significant contributions to Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science and the emerging field of Web Science. He has founded successful technology companies one of which, Garlik, won the BT Flagship IT Award in 2008 and was acquired by Experian in 2011.
He is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Open Data Institute (ODI). Launched in December 2012, the ODI focuses on unlocking supply and stimulating demand for open data. It promotes the creation of economic, environment and societal value from open data releases.
He was appointed in 2009 by the Prime Minister to transform access to public data, work that resulted in data.gov.uk – he currently advises the coalition government on open data and chairs the Local Public Data Panel for the Department of Community and Local Government, is a member of the Information Economy and is also leading the UK’s midata programme aimed at given individuals control of their data.
In 2013 he was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to science and engineering.
Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee OM KBE
Tim Berners-Lee is a British engineer and computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in 1989. He is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a web standards organisation, and also a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, which furthers the potential of the web to benefit humanity. Sir Tim is a Professor of Engineering at MIT as well as a professor in the Electronics and Computer Science department at the University of Southampton.
In 2009 he began to work with the UK government to help make data more open and accessible. He and Professor Nigel Shadbolt are the 2 leading figures behind data.gov.uk, the online portal designed to open up almost all public sector data for free re-use. Sir Tim is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the recipient of several international awards.
Heather Savory
Heather Savory is a successful executive with a solid commercial track-record and extensive board and senior management experience in entrepreneurial and high technology businesses, consulting and central government. She has strong expertise in all aspects of high growth business development and large-scale change environments.
Heather is Chair of the Open Data User Group. She also sits as a member of the Public Sector Transparency Board and on the Regulatory Board of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Previously Heather has worked at 3Dlabs as Vice President of Engineering and Operations, eComData as Managing Director and at the centre of UK government, spending 2 years in HM Treasury and 3 in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills at the Better Regulation Executive.
Dr Rufus Pollock
Rufus Pollock is a Founder and CEO of the Open Knowledge Foundation. He has been a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and the Mead Fellow in Economics at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. He has been an adviser on open data to many governments and organisations and has worked extensively as a scholar, developer and activist on the social, legal and technological issues related to the creation and sharing of knowledge.