Transparency data

Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation Minutes - Board Meeting 16

Updated 12 October 2023

This transparency data was withdrawn on

This content is no longer current.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

© Crown copyright 2023

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/board-meeting-agendas-and-minutes/centre-for-data-ethics-and-innovation-minutes-board-meeting-16

26th November 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)
  • Prof Lord Robert Winston (RW)
  • Dr Adrian Weller (AW)
  • Richard Sargeant (RS)
  • Dr Susan Liautaud (SL)
  • Kriti Sharma (KS)
  • Edwina Dunn (ED)
  • Baroness Kate Rock (KR)

Guest speakers (for Item 2):

  • James Snook, Director of Cyber Security & Data Policy, DCMS (JaS)
  • Phil Earl, Deputy Director, Data Strategy, Policy and Ethics, DCMS (PE)

CDEI staff:

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

Item 1: Chair’s Welcome

The Chair welcomed the Board to the remote meeting.

  • The Chair congratulated ED for her appointment as CDEI’s Deputy Chair.
  • There were no new interests declared.
  • The Board was content with the minutes of the previous meeting subject to minor changes.

Actions:

  • CDEI team to publish last meeting’s minutes on gov.uk.

Item 2: NDS

The Chair introduced JaS and PE. They expressed their gratitude for CDEI’s contribution to the National Data Strategy (NDS), summarised the strategy’s objectives, and initiated a general discussion with the Board which focused on:

  • The NDS’s ambitiousness for a pro-growth agenda that addresses trust, safety and security;
  • The need to address challenges on data use and sharing within as well as beyond government;
  • The need for a well-managed programme of specific interventions to deliver the strategy’s ambitions, accompanied by a suite of metrics to measure its success;
  • The complexity of delivering the strategy in the UK given the influence of multinational tech giants;
  • The general omission of ‘ethics’ as a concept in the strategy, with the Board advising DCMS to consider a clearer focus and specific role for ethics in the strategy.

There was then a discussion on the aspects of the strategy directly relevant to CDEI’s functions and role. The team explained that alongside the NDS consultation, DCMS will work with CDEI to undertake a project with strategic consultants to further clarify CDEI’s role. DCMS ministers will be advised on the outcome of the NDS consultation, as well as the outcome of the strategic consultancy work. The Chair emphasised that CDEI’s Board, led by the Deputy Chair, will be appropriately engaged as part of this.

Item 3: CDEI Update

The Executive Director updated the Board on the outcome of the Spending Review. The executive team flagged that the Bias Review was due to be published the following day, noting AW’s role in the comms plan. The Board congratulated the team on the imminent publication of the final report.

Item 4: Projects

The team presented on the partnership project with Bristol City Council (BCC). The final report aims to make a number of recommendations that would allow the council to continue with its digital transformation, while strengthening its ethical data governance. The report and its findings will be presented at senior meetings with BCC and should also inform our future engagement with local government.

It was agreed that a revised version of the BCC report, with stronger recommendations and advice, would be circulated to the Board for comment before it is shared with BCC prior to the Christmas break.

In relation to the CDEI’s partnership work a discussion followed about whether partnering with an organisation amounts to an endorsement of all the objectives and methods of that partner’s projects. Board members discussed the need for CDEI to be robust in its advice and potentially even advise that particular projects should be halted if that is appropriate. Board members also recognised that much of our work will be focused on projects which raise challenging ethical questions and CDEI has a valuable role to play in helping organisations to address them through constructive challenge and rigorous advice.

Actions:

  • CDEI to consider and implement the Board’s proposed amendments to the BCC report.

Item 5: Public attitudes

The External Affairs and Insight team has recently been formed. Team members described their purpose as ensuring that CDEI’s work is informed by a deep understanding of public attitudes towards data-driven technology and that it also reaches the right audiences. The team summarised their emerging work to gauge public attitudes to various uses of data-driven technology. The Board:

  • Agreed that the team should research instances of technology being underused due to poor public engagement;
  • Agreed that using professional market researchers would help us capture authentically representative views.

Item 6: 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. ↩

Back to top