Transparency data

Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation Minutes - Board Meeting 14

Updated 12 October 2023

This transparency data was withdrawn on 16 October 2023

This content is no longer current. The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) Advisory Board closed on 9 September 2023.

29th July 2020

Remote Board Meeting^{[footnote 1]}

Attendees (dialling in)

• Roger Taylor (RT)
• Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft (SC)
• Luciano Floridi (LF)
• Dame Patricia Hodgson (PH)
• Dame Glenys Stacey (GS)
• Prof Lord Robert Winston (RW)
• Dr Adrian Weller (AW)
• Richard Sargeant (RS)
• Dr Susan Liautaud (SL)
• Kriti Sharma (KS)

Apologies:

• Baroness Kate Rock (KR)
• Edwina Dunn (ED)

CDEI Staff:

• Ollie Buckley (OB)
• Mark Durkee (MD)
• Louise Pakseresht (LP)
• Benedict Dellot (BD)
• Sam Canniott (SC)
• Alex Lawrence-Archer (ALA)
• Ben Lyons (BL)
• CDEI Team Members

DCMS:

James Snook, Director of Cyber Security & Data Policy (JS)

Item 1: Chair’s Welcome

The Chair welcomed the Board to the remote meeting. Apologies were given by ED and KR.

• There were no declared interests.
• The Board approved the minutes from the previous Board meeting.

Actions:

• CDEI to publish the minutes on gov.uk.

Item 2: CDEI Update

The Director presented the Board with updates on CDEI’s work noting feedback from ministers that they are happy with the Centre’s direction of travel and the wind-down of the Centre’s engagement with NHSX. RW was asked to share insights from the THIS Institute report he had contributed to.

The Director updated the Board on the CDEI Chair’s appointment to one of the Global Partnership on AI’s expert working groups and a range of recent publications including the FRT paper, the data sharing report, the AI Barometer launch, the COVID-19 repository, as well as a number of blogs. He also reported on work the CDEI is doing to better understand public perceptions of data-driven technologies by establishing a public attitudes observatory.

The Director also noted the draft Conflict of Interest policy for the Board’s attention, and noted that the Board’s approval would be required for the interim report of the Active Choices project.

The team provided an update on progress with the Bias in Algorithmic Decision-Making Review, setting out how they had responded to the Board’s comments on an earlier draft, as well as the approach to pre-publication stakeholder engagement. It was noted that the intention is for the review to be published as soon as CDEI is able.

The Board suggested that CDEI should consider whether there is a larger role for it to promote algorithmic fairness, given that there is appetite for this across Government and the private sector.

Actions:

• CDEI to publish the Conflict of Interest policy.

Item 3: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The Director introduced the CDEI’s draft Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, noting its two main purposes. The first is to ensure that the CDEI is an inclusive place to work and builds on the strength that diversity brings us. The second is to ensure that EDI issues are taken into account as the CDEI develops recommendations in our substantive work.

The team presented the strategy noting a range of commitments under four themes (How we approach our work, The culture of our workplace, Building a diverse organisation and Accountability, accessibility, delivery and monitoring progress). The objective is to strike a balance between what is practical and ambitious, and to focus on actions capable of bringing meaningful change. The Board welcomed the strategy and provided a number of comments:

• CDEI should continue to engage with community group stakeholders both on the strategy and on our substantive work.
• It is important that the strategy should aim to make meaningful change and that CDEI may wish to engage with the Race Commission on aspects of our work.
• CDEI may wish to consider the issue of regionalisation and the benefits of a ‘hub and spoke’ model.
• There was support for establishing an annual EDI reporting mechanism, taking into account any existing reporting framework that DCMS already has.

The Board approved the strategy. The Chair invited Board Members to get in touch with the team to indicate interest to volunteer for a role championing EDI at CDEI.

Actions:

• CDEI to implement the strategy.
• Board Members to volunteer interest to be Board-level Champions of EDI.

Item 4: Partnerships

The team presented the current approach to partnership work, which presents opportunities to apply the tools CDEI has developed and to enable responsible innovation. The team reflected on lessons from past experiences working with organisations and how to best mitigate risk, and provided an outline of planned partnerships. The Board commented that:

• CDEI should assess the competence and openness of organisations it intends to work with, especially where partnerships are higher risk, before committing. It should also retain the capacity to speak about projects externally and be able to voice concerns.
• It is important to identify a clear objective for any partnership.
• CDEI should ensure it is able to advise on issues meaningfully, rather than just provide comment after the fact.
• CDEI should ensure our partnership programme is inclusive of all sectors, whilst ensuring the set of partnerships are coherent as a whole.

The team provided an update on one of CDEI’s yet to be announced partnerships. It was noted that there is a commitment between both parties to establish a dialogue on difficult issues. It is likely that the partner will establish an expert advisory panel that CDEI Board members may be invited to join. The Board’s discussion noted that this is an important project but acknowledged there were risks to be managed. The CDEI should be clear that its role is to provide advice on the governance structure used to make decisions.

Item 5: Governance

The team presented a proposal for more structure to governance processes to take into account changes to the breadth of work and quantity of outputs. The proposal included creation of Steering Groups which are more inclusive of external expertise and a more strategic role for Board Members. The Board was generally supportive, but asked for more opportunities to engage with CDEI work in between Board meetings.

Actions:

• CDEI to establish updates to Board members between meetings.

Item 6: Future of CDEI

James Snook (DCMS) joined for this item.

James Snook updated the Board that DCMS intends for CDEI to perform three core functions: AI monitoring, partnership working and piloting and testing potential interventions in the tech landscape. He said that the Government plans to consult on this as part of the National Data Strategy. The publication of forthcoming Government strategies and the Spending Review will provide further detail on CDEI’s role and status.

DCMS emphasised the value the government places on having an expert institution that can build partnerships with organisations to drive responsible innovation. The Government’s focus on economic recovery and growth and the recognition that data-driven technology and innovation can play was highlighted.

Board members reflected on DCMS’ update and discussed how these functions could be operationalised. There was a call for a clear statement from the government about CDEI’s role and the Board expressed a strong desire to see the CDEI retaining ‘ethics’ as a key aspect of its remit. The upcoming National Data Strategy was referred to as a vehicle to clarify CDEI’s role and status further.

Item 7: AOB and Closing

1. The Board meeting happened remotely via online video conference due to Government guidance to work from home, in response to Covid-19, coming into effect from 17th March. ↩