Transparency data

Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation Minutes - Board Meeting 5

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This transparency data was withdrawn on 16 October 2023

This content is no longer current.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.

12 June 2019, 1.15pm - 5.00pm

Wellcome Trust, 215 Euston Rd, Bloomsbury, London NW1 2BE

Attendees:

• Roger Taylor (RT)
• Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft (SC)
• Edwina Dunn (ED)
• Prof Luciano Floridi (LF)
• Dame Patricia Hodgson (PH)
• Dr Susan Liautaud (SL) (dialling in)
• Baroness Kate Rock (KR)
• Dame Glenys Stacey (GS)
• Richard Sargeant (RS)
• Kriti Sharma (KS)
• Prof Lord Robert Winston (RW)

Apologies:

• Dr Adrian Weller (AW)

Observers (CDEI staff; for sections of the meeting relevant to their work):

• Nathan Bookbinder-Ryan (NBR)
• Jen Boon (JB)
• Ollie Buckley (OB)
• Sam Cannicott (SCa)
• Natalie Davis (ND)
• Benedict Dellot (BD)
• Stephen Dunne (SD)
• Alexander Lawrence-Archer (ALA)
• Ben Lyons (BL)
• Lara Macdonald (LM)
• Lisa Whiting (LW)

Item 1: Chair’s Welcome

The Chair (RT) welcomed the Board to the fifth meeting including SL joining on the phone. Apologies were given by AW.

Declaration of interests:

• There were no declared interests.

Minutes from previous Board meeting:

• RT asked the Board if they approved the minutes from the previous Board meeting.

Decisions:

• The Board agreed the minutes from the previous Board meeting.

Actions:

• CDEI to publish the minutes on gov.uk.

Chair’s update:

• RT provided an update to the Board on his recent activities including speaking at CogX as part of London tech week, speaking at the APPG on Rule of Law and attending Vivatech in Paris with the Secretary of State which included meeting Tristan Harris from the Centre for Humane Technology.
• RT also met with the Deputy Director of DG Connect, the European Commission department responsible for data, and the interim DG in DCMS.

Head of CDEI Team’s update:

• OB gave a recruitment update and welcomed BL who will be working on Reviews. Adverts are out for a variety of posts including a contractor with specific technical skills to support the Bias Review, and a secondee from Ofcom. Two more policy advisors will be joining the A&A team.
• OB gave an update on preparing for a move to statutory footing and informed the Board that a full item would be coming to the July board.
  • The Board discussed the move onto statutory footing and considered what could be done to support this work.

Item 2: Reporting

Forward Look

• ALA gave an overview of the 2019 lookahead.
• The three month lookahead will focus on research into moving to a statutory footing, progressing the reviews and publishing the first snapshot papers.
• Board members asked about international priorities and they expressed a desire to see a paper on the CDEI’s international strategy. The team agreed to bring a paper on international priorities to the next board meeting.
• The Board asked whether we were still intending to coordinate event invitations and how this would work. The team agreed to circulate details.

Action:

• CDEI to circulate details on how board members can collaborate on speaking requests.
• CDEI to bring board paper on international strategy.

Risk register

• No specific issues were raised.
• The Board expressed a desire to have a deep dive into the risk register at a future board meeting.

Action:

• CDEI to bring dedicated agenda item to deep dive into the risk register at a future meeting.

Budget

• The Board discussed the terminology used in relation to planning assumptions designed to ensure the CDEI uses its full budget allocation.. The team agreed to clarify the presentation of these assumptions.

Actions:

• CDEI to incorporate Board comments into the presentation of budget plans ahead of next Board meeting.

Item 3: Reviews

Interim reports The Reviews Team updated the Board on the development of the interim reports. The Board discussed the proposed plans for the interim reports and made the following points:

• While the interim reports are specifically about the Reviews, it was seen to be important to frame them within the wider work of the Centre and use the reports to highlight the Centre’s overall role.
• There was a discussion on how ethical principles will fit within the interim reports including the utility of grouping the considerations into normative principles and principles for good governance. It was felt that the ethical principles working group were already considering these questions and will report back at the next meeting.
• The Centre should also make sure the reports are designed in a way that is accessible and clearly highlights the issues needed to be solved.
• There was a discussion about whether there should be two separate documents (one on each Review) or one document. The preference was broadly for two separate documents due to the different audiences but this could be finalised at the next Board meeting.

Actions:

• CDEI to incorporate Board comments into the development of the interim reports.

Bias review

The team updated the Board on progress made in the bias review including recent partnerships and development of outputs.

The Board discussed the bias review and made the following points:

• The Board suggested thinking about how to coordinate the publication of reports with events and wider sector activities.
• The Board emphasized the complexity of the policing sector and the need to work within the unique governance and decision-making frameworks.
• There was a discussion over the scope of the review and how the work on policing fits into the wider crime and justice landscape. The interim report needed to position the sector strands as part of a wider issue.
• A further point was made on the need to balance breadth of scope with depth, including emphasising the real world impacts of the issues identified by the review.

Actions:

• CDEI to incorporate Board comments into the bias review.

Targeting

The team updated the Board on progress made in the targeting review, including the upcoming public engagement on online targeting, and the plans for the regulatory review.

The Board discussed the targeting review and made the following points:

• There was a discussion about possible mechanisms for improving the governance of the use of online targeting. It was considered important that the right balance of solutions should be explored, ranging from measures focussed on improving individual access to information and controls to those focused on organisations undertaking targeting themselves.
• The Board emphasised the importance of considering the extent to which data protection law and regulations could be relied upon to govern online targeting, and further consideration of the changes that the CDEI was aiming to deliver through the review, and - in that regard - who the key audiences are for the interim report and final outputs of the review.

Actions:

• CDEI to incorporate Board comments into the targeting review.

Item 4: Analyse and Anticipate (A&A)

The A&A team gave an update on their draft snapshot papers and reminded the Board that the purpose of these papers is to clear up inaccuracies and assess the limits of current understanding. The first paper was on AI and insurance.

The Board discussed the first snapshot and made the following points:

• The paper should be clear on why the CDEI has chosen to explore this issue, and the value it adds in doing so.
• The paper should be visually designed to make the issues easy to understand. The team noted that this was explicitly being included in the design brief.
• The team will need to consider carefully how to distil a key message from the paper that captures audience interest.

The A&A team introduced the next draft snapshot on smart speakers.

• The Board discussed some of the issues raised in the paper including the way data is collected and shared.
• The group agreed that the paper needs to be well-evidenced and that the Centre should we clear on where we may be lacking information that can only be provided by the companies creating and selling the technology.
• This report could be an example of why we need powers to be able to access information on more opaque topics.

The A&A gave a brief update on our zoom-in project exploring the potential for data sharing in the public sector.

Item 5: Consultation responses

The Strategy and Governance team thanked the Board for their contributions to the ICO consultation. The team gave an update on upcoming consultation responses to (i) the Online Harms White Paper, and (ii) the Committee on Standards in Public Life AI Consultation, and the meetings being held with relevant stakeholders.

• The Board had no specific comments at this stage.
• The team agreed to circulate further drafts at a later stage.

Actions: The team to circulate further draft consultation responses for feedback at a later date

Item 6: AOB

• The Law Society recently published a report into algorithms in the justice system and the Board wanted to know if the Centre is aware and whether there are plans to engage. RT responded saying that they are regularly in touch.
• The team flagged that the register of interests was being refreshed so Board members would be contacted to fill in the relevant form.

Action: Team to send around register of interests form

• A board member asked if the CDEI has plans to engage with the new AI Council. The Board agreed that this is a good idea and RT agreed to meet with the Chair to discuss work.

Action: RT to meet with Chair of the AI Council to discuss work

• An update was requested on where the Centre got to on messaging and the team agreed to resend the relevant document.

Action: Team to resend document on messaging