Transparency data

Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation Minutes - Board Meeting 17

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This transparency data was withdrawn on 16 October 2023

This content is no longer current.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.

27th January 2021

Remote Board Meeting^{[footnote 1]}

Attendees (dialling in)

• Roger Taylor (RT)
• Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft (SC)
• Prof 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 1):

• Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (SoS)
• Phil Earl, Deputy Director, Data Strategy, Policy and Ethics, DCMS (PE)
• External consultants

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: Secretary of State

SoS praised CDEI’s hard work and commitment. He said tech is playing an ever greater role in our lives and will provide an opportunity for jobs and growth post-pandemic. He also recognised the value of work on ethics and the standards that regulate tech, particularly with regards to AI. He said that the CDEI sits at the heart of the UK government’s ambitious data agenda, as set out in the recent pro-tech, pro-innovation National Data Strategy (NDS).

In response, the Board:

• set out the role CDEI can play in helping to understand public attitudes and build trust in data-driven tech;
• highlighted CDEI’s capacity to engage with parliament and internationally;
• encouraged SoS to continue to support and fund CDEI, particularly because of the role CDEI’s expert staff can play in soft-testing new policy ideas. SoS saw a key role for CDEI in helping government to deliver its ambitions in line with NDS.

SoS left the meeting.

Item 2: NDS

The Chair welcomed the Board to the remote meeting.

• 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 3: CDEI input into strategic consultancy project

ED described work undertaken by external consultants to develop recommendations on the future role and structure of the CDEI in the context of proposals set out in the National Data Strategy consultation. This work is referred to as the ‘strategic consultancy project’ below.

The CDEI executive team noted that the strategic consultancy project will help provide options for ministers’ consideration. They set out results from a recent stakeholder survey which found CDEI is seen as an organisation that delivers good work but that there is some uncertainty about CDEI’s status and role as an organisation. They explained that the strategic consultancy project could help to clarify CDEI’s position.

Item 4: Initial findings of strategic consultancy project

Consultants presented their emerging findings. They explained that their role is to provide advice about the mission, scope, structure and functions of the CDEI. They noted the proposed shifts to CDEI’s role described in the NDS, particularly towards ‘responsible innovation’, operationalising policy and working in partnership. They also suggested that CDEI could have more impact by focusing on particular topics rather than attempting to cover the entire data-driven technology landscape.

In response:

• the Board expressed a need to strike the right balance between CDEI advising on data practices beyond Whitehall and advising government on the big issues in data-driven tech;
• some members of the Board emphasised the benefit they saw of CDEI becoming a statutory body in the future, perhaps answerable to parliament. They contended that this would provide permanency and authority.

Item 5: Projects/update

The Chair invited the Executive Director to update the Board on CDEI’s projects and corporate issues. He:

• explained there is a business planning process ongoing within DCMS. Ministers will make decisions on budget allocations for all of DCMS’s activities in the Spring;
• reminded the Board that their terms will conclude in May and that the appointment process for a new Board is being designed and owned by DCMS, with input from CDEI;
• invited the team to provide updates on projects across the Centre, including partnerships work, emerging work on AI assurance and CDEI’s monitoring function.

Item 6: Board Engagement & close

The team highlighted the variety of projects and strategy issues that CDEI is working on. They set out a proposal for Board involvement in those workstreams, which the Board accepted.

The Board’s response focused mainly on how they might best engage with the strategic consultancy project. In response the executive team noted:

• the aim of the project is to deliver recommendations to DCMS with consultants having been appointed through a fair and open CCS-run framework;
• the value of the project is that it will provide a clear decision point for DCMS to agree CDEI’s long-term future;
• the executive team and the Board will be able to engage closely in the project, ensuring that their perspective is clearly represented.

The Board discussed the possibility of collectively providing views to DCMS, to complement the final recommendations from the consultancy work.

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. ↩