Independent report

Centre for Data Ethics (CDEI) 2 Year Strategy

Updated 21 March 2019

1. Executive summary

The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) is an advisory body set up by the UK Government and led by an independent board of experts. It is tasked with identifying the measures we need to take ‘to maximise the benefits of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for our society and economy’^{[footnote 1]}. The CDEI has a unique mandate to advise government on these issues, drawing on expertise and perspectives from across society.

The opportunity

The UK can be a global leader in responsible innovation in data-driven technology that benefits society as a whole. In support of this aim, the CDEI will:

• Seek to build a policy and governance environment that enables data-driven technology to improve people’s lives

• Ensure the public’s views form the governance of data-driven technology

• Work to ensure governance of data-driven technology can safely support rapid developments in the technologies and their applications

• Foster effective partnerships between civil society, government, academia and industry

Our work

The CDEI will deliver our Terms of Reference through three primary functions:

1. Analyse and Anticipate will convene different communities and experts to provide an overview of opportunities and risks posed by data-driven technology. It will review existing regulatory and governance frameworks to identify gaps. It will publish analysis, thematic reports, commentary, and a regular ‘State of The Nation’ report.

2. Reviews will identify and articulate best practice for the responsible use of data-driven technology, making recommendations to the Government, as well as giving advice to regulators, creators and users of data-driven technology.

3. Strategy, Operations and Governance will work to ensure that the CDEI is effective, operates to the highest public standards, and develops productive relationships with stakeholders and the public, ensuring stakeholder and public views inform all our work.

Public engagement

The CDEI will work with members of the public to understand their priorities, hopes and fears around the use and development of data-driven technology. By giving the public a say in how data-driven technology and its governance develop, we hope to create a trusted and trustworthy environment for innovation in data-driven technology.

Collaboration

The UK has a wealth of relevant expertise and experience - world-class universities, a vibrant tech sector operating at the cutting-edge of data-driven technology, and a global reputation for good governance - that the CDEI will need to draw on to succeed

We will use the CDEI’s unique position as an official, but independent, adviser to the Government to bring people together to collaborate and challenge thinking; by working in this way we will aim to develop recommendations that are both practical and robust.

International

CDEI will engage globally to ensure our thinking is informed by the latest developments in data-driven technology and related ethical considerations and governance solutions. We will build our international profile to support the UK as a world leader in innovation in data-driven technology for public benefit.

Governance

The CDEI is funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). During its pre-statutory phase, the CDEI is not a separate legal entity and operates as an Expert Committee, working independently of the Government. The UK Government has committed to putting CDEI on an independent statutory footing, and we will use this early phase to test our working model and provide the Government with evidence and advice for when we are established on a statutory footing.

2. Introduction

The adoption of data-driven technology will affect every aspect of our economy and society. Its use is creating extraordinary opportunities to grow our economy and improve our quality of life, but it is also posing new ethical challenges. The CDEI will bring people together from across businesses, public services and society to shape practical recommendations for government - as well as advice for regulators, creators and users of data-driven technology - that support responsible innovation people can trust.

Our focus will be on the immediate issues that need addressing – where there may be barriers to realising the benefits of data-driven technologies because of uncertainty about governance and ethics, or areas where there are concerns about how safely AI is being deployed today or in the near future. At the same time, we recognise that the development of a data-driven society raises fundamental questions about how technology is used and the relationships between individuals, data, corporations and the state. Our work will be conducted with a view to the longer-term consequences of the decisions we are making as a society.

The CDEI was set up by the UK Government as the body specifically tasked with making recommendations to government to ‘maximise the benefits of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for our society and economy’. The government is then bound to consider and respond publicly to those recommendations. The CDEI has a cross-sector remit, a focus on both ethics and innovation, and is a key connector between government, wider society and sources of deep expertise. Our cross-sector perspective is valuable because it allows us to:

• share lessons between sectors;
• promote the understanding of impacts that cut across traditional sectors;
• identify regulatory gaps, or barriers to positive innovation; and
• equip regulators and policy-makers to meet the common challenges they face.

The proposal to establish the CDEI was widely supported in responses to the Government’s consultation in 2018.

The opportunity

The UK can be a global leader in data-driven technology that benefits society as a whole

The UK is currently in third place globally for published research about AI and the number of AI-driven businesses^{[footnote 2]}; we have a vibrant tech sector, world-class universities, a robust and active civil society and a global reputation for developing industrial and professional standards, managing risk, and for the rule of law. Building on these foundations, we have the opportunity to shape a policy, regulatory and cultural environment in the UK that supports beneficial innovation in data-driven technology that is worthy of public trust. We believe the UK can become a centre for the development of technology and AI systems that support and enable good governance.

While our starting point is the impact of data-driven technology’s use on the UK, we will play an active role in relevant global debates.

The CDEI will promote a policy and governance environment that enables data-driven technology to improve people’s lives

We aim to promote a governance environment for data-driven technology that ensures people benefit from these powerful innovations. If data-driven technology is used to make diagnoses, we must be confident that the result is a more accurate and timely diagnosis. If they are used to control vehicles, we must ensure it is safe.

The CDEI will ensure the public’s views inform the governance of data-driven technology

The volume and availability of information is changing what it is possible to know about individuals and the world, and making the interpretation of information more complex. Data-driven technology already affects every part of UK society; it can do immense good, but also involves complex trade-offs. How we respond will shape human life, culture and society. The consequences may only become apparent as data-driven technology begins to be deployed.

It is essential that the views and interests of the public are taken into account in determining how these systems are used and governed.

The CDEI will work to ensure governance of data-driven technology can safely support its rapid developments

Data-driven technology’s rapid development means the CDEI will not only have to address issues which have emerged in recent years but also be alert to new and emerging questions. Technology itself will play an important part in enabling the effective governance of data-driven technology.

The CDEI will foster effective partnerships between civil society, government, research and industry

Developments in the governance of data-driven technology must be based on shared values. The CDEI will work collaboratively and as a catalyst to the development, articulation and exploration of these values across society.

Our approach to ethics and innovation

Innovation

The scale and scope of the potential benefits of data-driven technology to the UK - be that in timely diagnosis of disease, as a means of creating a safer online environment, or as a driver of economic growth - mean we face ethical imperatives to enable responsible innovation, alongside imperatives to address potential harms.

The CDEI will seek to identify where development and adoption is being held back for lack of the right governance and guidelines, and recommend solutions. In doing so, we hope to enable the power of data-driven technology to be directed towards society’s challenges - both big and small.

Innovation in data-driven technology can also help address ethical challenges. Well-designed and governed, they can underpin new systems that can help us better allocate resources for the common good, reduce waste in the public sector and make decisions more objective and fair.

Technology itself will play an important part in enabling the effective governance of data-driven technology. We believe the UK has an opportunity to lead the world in the development of these technologies.

Ethical principles

The development of data-driven technology has the potential to reshape the world by changing how individuals, communities and societies relate to each other. These changes will require us to draw on the rich ethical traditions of the past and to engagein debate about the kind of society we want to live in by harnessing the opportunities, and addressing the hazards and harms, that data-driven technology brings.

The CDEI is committed to:

• encouraging the benefits of innovation in data use and artificial intelligence by promoting frameworks to evaluate opportunities, risks and competing interests;

• applying generally-accepted public values and principles when considering the risk of harm to individuals or the public arising from the use of data-driven technology, and to encourage its beneficial applications; this might include drawing on established standards in respect of security, privacy, fairness, consent, transparency, accountability and recourse; and

• highlighting where society is yet to develop relevant generally accepted values or principles, or where existing norms are challenged by the use of data and AI. In doing so the CDEI will also draw on lessons from around the world and be responsive to the evolving nature of data-driven technology

During its initial phase of work, the CDEI will draw on work by leading thinkers and organisations in the UK and beyond to promote a principled approach. Such approaches identify high-level principles which are reflective of public interest and against which judgements can be evaluated, whilst acknowledging that such judgements depend on the specific application of the technology. In helping to create a governance environment that drives innovation and engenders trust in the application of data-driven technology, the CDEI will identify tools and governance mechanisms that allow decisions to be made in ways that respect individual autonomy and reflect broader societal values.

3. Terms of Reference

Our Terms of Reference are broad and reflect the wide-ranging and complex nature of the challenge facing society. This strategy sets out how we intend to deliver against them and establish the CDEI as an organisation that can continue to do so effectively.

Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation: Terms of Reference

The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation will help to maximise the benefits of data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for our society and economy. The Centre will:

Analyse and anticipate risks and opportunities

The Centre will identify the opportunities for strengthening ethical and innovative uses of data and AI by:

a. Commissioning and bringing together research and analysis into the ethical and economic implications of uses of data and AI

b. Reviewing the existing regulatory framework to identify gaps in response to the uses of data and AI and barriers to ethical innovation

c. Consulting regulators, industry, public bodies and civil society on specific issues relating to the use and governance of data and AI

d. Engaging citizens and consumers to understand the range of societal attitudes towards the use and regulation of data and AI

e. Horizon-scanning new and emerging data-driven and AI-based technologies and associated governance implications

Agree and articulate best practice

The Centre will identify best practice for the responsible use of data and AI. This might include:

a. Engaging industry bodies, public service providers and consumers to coordinate world-leading standards and codes of conduct in data and AI uses

b. Responding to, and seeking to shape, the international debate on standards

c. Working with stakeholders to identify and assess effective and ethical frameworks for sharing data

d. Advising on measures to build capability amongst data users, through training or organisational governance

e. Working with the public and the private sector to investigate the utility of technological approaches to key challenges

Advise on the need for action

The Centre will support the government to enable safe and ethical innovation in the use of data and AI by:

a. Identifying steps to ensure that the law, regulation and guidance keep pace with developments in data-driven and AI-based technologies

b. Publishing recommendations to government on how it can support safe and ethical innovation in data and AI through policy and legislation

c. Identifying opportunities to inform and influence international agreements and frameworks for the use of data and AI

d. Providing expert advice and support to regulators on the implications of data and AI uses and areas of potential harm

In carrying out the above functions, the government expects the Centre to:

• appropriately balance objectives for ethical and innovative uses of data and AI to ensure they deliver the greatest benefit for society and the economy

• take into account the economic implications of its advice, including the UK’s attractiveness as a place to invest in the development of data-driven technologies

• provide advice that is independent, impartial, proportionate and evidence-based

• work closely with existing regulators and other institutions to ensure clarity and consistency of guidance

In addition to this, as part of its initial, pre-statutory phase of activity the Centre will:

• explicitly review these functions to ensure the Centre’s resources are being deployed in the most effective way

• identify what additional functions the Centre may need to undertake to deliver its mandate effectively

• assess where these functions may need to be amended or augmented with specific powers when the Centre is established on a statutory footing

4. What the CDEI will do

The CDEI will analyse and anticipate the opportunities and risks posed by data-driven technology and will put forward practical and evidence-based advice to government to address them. We will do this by taking a broad view of the landscape while also completing in-depth policy reviews of particular topics.

Analyse and Anticipate

Aims: Convene different communities and expertise to provide an overview of current and emerging opportunities and risks from data-driven technology across government, society and the economy, informing government, stakeholders, the public and the CDEI’s own understanding and work. This function will also review the existing regulatory and governance frameworks to identify gaps in response to data-driven technology and barriers to responsible innovation.

Activities:

• Convening communities to share knowledge on the development of data-driven technology and understand and assess barriers to innovation and the ethical implication of their applications.

• Participating in networks of experts to collate, analyse and interpret the latest research and thinking.

• Tracking news and publications from academia, government, civil society organisations and industry to monitor developments in data-driven technology, its application and the ethical questions they raise.

• Carrying out and commissioning research into areas of particular priority for the CDEI.

• Reviewing existing regulatory and governance arrangements.

• Engaging directly with the public to understand their attitudes.

Outputs:

• Analysis of opportunities and risks: assessing the likely impacts of missed opportunities and risks. A comparative analysis approach will draw insight from a wide range of partners, with initial outputs published by Autumn 2019.

• Responsive thematic projects: focusing on specific issues or sectors to assess areas of opportunity or risk. These smaller-scale reviews will draw together lessons from work already done on these issues and set out the CDEI’s position on how it should be taken forward, including identifying best practice that should be adopted across industry or government. The first of these will be published by Summer 2019. Ongoing consultation and prioritisation will help the Board identify topics for the CDEI to pursue. Early areas of focus will include ethical frameworks for data sharing.

• 2020 State of The Nation report: detailing the use and governance of data-driven technology in the UK, the CDEI’s recommendations and the steps the government has taken to implement them.

Reviews Aims: Each review will identify and articulate best practice for the responsible use of data-driven technology within specific sectors or for specific applications of technology. They will consider any gaps in the governance of data-driven technology and make recommendations to the government, as well as advice to regulators, creators and users of data-driven technology as to how those gaps should be addressed.

Activities: In-depth reviews comprising research, public consultation, and working with partners to develop and pilot solutions will include:

• Publishing a review plan following initial engagement with stakeholders and the government. This will establish a clear focus for the review, identify the sectors, themes and technologies to be looked at, and the types of activity to be undertaken.

• Reporting after six months and one year to maintain consistent progress, whilst recognising that further reviews may be needed to continue the work.

Outputs: The output of each review will depend on the specific issue, ranging from guidance for purchasers or users of data-driven technology to recommending new regulation. All will include a report to the government setting out the findings and recommendations.

We have identified - and agreed with government - two priority areas for our first in-depth reviews:

Online targeting review: This review will investigate how data is used to shape people’s online environments via the personalisation and targeting of messages, content and services online.

By ‘online targeting’ we mean the identification of individuals or groups, using data about them (or about others who are like them) and their online behaviours and preferences, and the corresponding delivery of personalised messages, content or services to them online.

We plan to explore where, how and why online targeting approaches are used, identify current and potential benefits and harms - to individuals and society - associated with them, and consider alternative governance frameworks that encourage responsible innovation and mitigate harms and hazards. We will conduct public dialogue exercises to test levels of public understanding and acceptance of uses of online targeting approaches.

An interim report will be published by July 2019, and a final report by December 2019.

Bias review: Using a literature review, applied technical research and public engagement workshops, we plan to investigate the issue of algorithmic bias in various sectors, which may include: financial services, local government, recruitment, and crime and justice. These sectors merit exploration because: 1) there is potential for the use of algorithmic decision making in these sectors, 2) decisions made in these sectors have significant impact on people’s lives, 3) there is a risk of algorithms generating or worsening biased decision making and 4) there is corresponding potential for algorithms to address any existing bias in decision-making in these sectors.

We plan to engage with stakeholders across the chosen sectors to build an understanding of current practice. We aim to support the development of technical means for identifying algorithmic bias that have scope to be applied across the chosen sectors, and produce recommendations to the government, as well as advice for industry, about how any potential harms can be identified and minimised.

An interim report will be published by July 2019, and a final report by March 2020.

Strategy, Operations and Governance

Aims: To support and amplify the impact of the CDEI’s other functions to deliver its strategic objectives. This team will work to ensure that the CDEI is effective, operates to the highest standards, and develops productive relationships with stakeholders and the public.

Activities:

• Allocating resources, including budget management and prioritisation
• Building strong relationships and partnerships, including with government and other stakeholders
• Designing and managing a public engagement programme to be used across all of our work
• Planning and delivering communications
• Providing a Board secretariat
• Assessing CDEI’s functions and planning for being established on a statutory footing
• Designing and monitoring KPIs to track the CDEI’s progress

Outputs:

• Reporting to the government including evidence on the role and functions for the CDEI when established as a statutory body

• Board meetings and events

• Online presence, social media activity and publications

• KPI scorecard

Prioritising our work

The areas in which we are focussing our work have been identified through a set of pragmatic questions to capture the value, urgency and rationale of potential issues:

1. Is the work aligned with the CDEI’s mission and Terms of Reference?
2. Is there a recognised need for immediate action?
3. What is the potential or likely impact of the issue,including long-term risks?
4. How is the issue developing or likely to develop?
5. What is the degree of public concern about the issues?
6. Are there other actors who are – or should be – working on the issue?
7. Does the CDEI have capacity - including potential partners - to tackle the issue and reach an effective solution?
8. Would the work be amenable to being done in combination with other possible work streams?
9. To what extent does the work align with DCMS and wider government priorities?

There will not be a clear, affirmative answer to each one of these questions for every piece of work the CDEI carries out. The questions will be used as a guide to develop a balanced research and policy agenda for the Centre.

We will continue to use these questions when considering research and proposing future priority areas for the CDEI’s work programme - in particular for thematic projects delivered across the year. We will regularly check we are covering the right issues with key stakeholders, including government and the public.

5. How the CDEI will work

Collaboration

Across the UK there is a wealth of expertise and experience, from world class researchers to world changing startups, that the CDEI will need to draw on to succeed.

The CDEI will take advantage of its unique position as an independent but close adviser to government. We will bring people together from across different sectors, including industry, civil society, the public sector and academia, to share knowledge, collaborate and inform our work, ensuring we are accounting for the latest developments in technology.

We see working with others as core to how the the CDEI operates:

• We work with stakeholders in all aspects of our work

• We will build on the work of others where appropriate by collating and interpreting research and analysis, as well as carrying out our own research

• We connect and convene within and between civil society, industry and government

• We are close to policy-making; we have a view on future developments but are primarily focused on policy responses to current and near-term challenges

• We are collaborative and accountable, but independent - crucial to develop credible and objective advice

Our principal categories of stakeholders include:

Stakeholder category	Stakeholders
Public	Individual citizens
Non-Governmental Organisations and civil society	Civil society, advocacy groups and think tanks
Non-Governmental Organisations and civil society	Academia and independent experts
Private sector	Businesses who create data-driven technology for use by themselves and other organisations.
Private sector	Businesses who use - or could benefit from- data-driven technology developed by others in their day to day work.
Private sector	UK startups and small businesses focussing on data-driven technology, and the investors that support them
Public sector	UK Government
Public sector	UK Government agencies
Public sector	Parliament
Public sector	UK regulators
Public sector	Devolved administrations
Public sector	Local authorities
International	International governments and agencies
International	Relevant international NGOs, civil society, businesses and innovators

Championing and sharing successful approaches, promoting and identifying areas for effective partnerships, and avoiding unnecessary overlap of efforts drive how we will work with other organisations. This will include, but is not limited to:

• Convening relevant experts: From workshops and seminars, to one off events and online engagement.

• Representation on review contact groups: Where stakeholders are working closely with us to deliver specific reviews they may be represented on review contact groups to feed into the review’s development.

• Co-production and commissioning: We will look for opportunities to collaborate with delivery partners, in some cases commissioning or seconding external expertise.

• Calls for evidence: We will invite stakeholders to take part in formal calls for evidence as well as encourage stakeholders to feed in their expertise on an ongoing basis, including through informal contact groups.

• Partnerships: For some stakeholders, more formal partnership arrangements will be appropriate, with the terms of the partnership set out and published in an agreed Memorandum of Understanding.

• Outreach to businesses and innovators: We will reach out to businesses - in particular startups and SMEs - to include their perspective in our work.

Working with the public sector

UK Government

The CDEI’s role is cross-sector and we will therefore work across government and the public sector. Our work and recommendations will be aimed at those bodies that have the levers to affect change.

There are key parts of government that the CDEI will work particularly closely with:

• The UK AI Council: an expert committee of independent members providing high-level leadership, advice and prioritisation on implementing the AI Sector Deal^{[footnote 3]}. It brings in industry, academia and the public sector organisations to work with the government on AI adoption, including within the public sector, and promote the growth of the sector.

• The Office for AI: a joint team in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, responsible for overseeing implementation of the AI Sector Deal.

These organisations are responsible for pursuing and promoting the development of the AI sector as a whole. We share the objective to promote innovation in AI. Our focus on ethics and governance determines how our collaboration will work in practice. We will be involved in advising the AI Council and Office for AI on the promotion of innovation in AI with specific governance and/or ethical dimensions. For example, the CDEI is advising the Office for AI on the ethical and governance issues engaged by its pilots of data trusts.

Regulators

Regulators will be both sources of insight and important partners for the CDEI to provide tailored advice on areas where data-driven technology and governance issues intersect with their work.

The CDEI will work with regulators to (i) understand and help develop the clear policies, powers and technical solutions they need to meet their regulatory duties in relation to data-driven technology, (ii) work with them to ensure public views on data driven technology within their sectors are accounted for in their work, and (iii) identify regulatory gaps.

We will work particularly closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office - the regulation of data access is a key part of any effective governance of technology driven by it.

Devolved administrations

The CDEI is a UK-wide body and its activities are nationally relevant. Many of the issues we will work across play out in much the same way across the nations of the UK, and it is therefore important for the CDEI to work closely with the devolved administrations, engaging and building effective relationships.

Working internationally

Our work must be grounded in an understanding of global developments to be effective, and the recommendations we make must take account of international dynamics and standards.

Our Terms of Reference also expect that the CDEI will influence the international debate and global standards. At the same time, we are conscious that we need to build our profile and expertise for our international leadership to be credible and effective, and that international engagement is resource-intensive.

For its first two years of operation the CDEI’s international engagement objectives will be to:

• Keep abreast of global developments in data-driven technology, related ethical challenges and governance solutions: building the CDEI’s research and policy agendas on international developments, and grounding recommendations in their international context.

• Contribute to the debate by participating in existing international forums: in particular promoting a core agenda of the importance of governance for the ethical development and application of data-driven technology.

• Build our international profile: potentially to include hosting or contributing to events for global stakeholders, hosted in the UK. The CDEI will lay the foundations to take on a larger role once on a statutory footing with more resource, including convening the CDEI’s own forums.

*Contribute to the promotion of the UK as a leader in governance of emerging technology: where this aligns with the CDEI’s core agenda and is proportionate in relation to the CDEI’s resources.

The CDEI’s international relationships will be both direct and mediated through the UK Government, in particular where this touches on the promotion of the UK’s governance regime, or government policy.

Public engagement

Effective public engagement will be crucial to the CDEI’s success; giving the public a greater say in how data-driven technology and its governance develop is essential to public trust.

The CDEI will work with members of the public to ground our recommendations in an understanding of people’s attitudes, expectations and priorities. Further, we intend to involve the public in addressing the issues data-driven technology and its applications are raising.

We are committed to high standards of public engagement and we aim to work with others, including civil society organisations and representative groups, to ensure diverse input and views. Our public engagement activity will enable the CDEI to:

• Identify issues that are likely to be contentious and explore ways of approaching them.
• Develop and test possible approaches through deliberative workshops.
• Ensure the inclusion of marginalised groups and those most affected by technological developments in this debate. In doing so, we will liaise closely with civil society organisations that promote the views of underrepresented groups, and will commit to working with participants from a range of backgrounds (with consideration of age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, education and region, among other characteristics).

Public engagement techniques often involve relatively small numbers of people. We are therefore keen to work with experts in this field and explore ways in which digital technology may enable us to scale up this activity. We will also ensure that our public engagement work involves people from across the UK.

As part of our commitment to engaging the public in every part of our work we will:

• Provide opportunities for the Board to engage directly with the public and civil society

• Regularly publish our plans and work in engaging formats to invite input

• Collect views from different communities as part of our Analyse & Anticipate function, to inform the prioritisation of our work

• Build public engagement into each policy review to:

  • Listen to and understand public attitudes to different applications of data-driven technology

  • Better understand how to communicate complex information about data-driven technology to inform public debate.

  • Explore public responses to different policy and regulatory approaches

• Run wider public consultations where appropriate

Communicating with the public

As distinct from direct engagement with members of the public, the CDEI will also have an outward-facing public communications capability. The government’s response to the consultation states that the CDEI must have a role in “influencing an informed public debate on data ethics”, but should not engage in large-scale public education or data literacy campaigning. In our pre-statutory phase, we will communicate in order to:

• maintain transparency and accountability;
• establish the CDEI as an authoritative and credible body;
• inform public debate on data ethics; and
• demonstrate the CDEI’s role in giving the public a stake in the governance of data-driven technology

Talking about our work

We are not a promoter of data-driven technology or industries, but we seek to promote the application and adoption of responsible, sustainable and innovative uses of those technologies. We will help build trust in the governance of data-driven technology by identifying how to make that governance more trustworthy. But it is also important that we communicate openly about the opportunities and risks we identify, and the impact our work is having.

Over the next two years, we hope to develop understanding of what large-scale public communication is needed to improve governance of data-driven technology and which institutions should be responsible for it.

We will also establish the extent to which resources for larger-scale public communication by the CDEI are required to effectively deliver our Terms of Reference.

6. Governance

The CDEI is funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). During its pre-statutory phase, the CDEI is not a separate legal entity and operates as an Expert Committee, working independently of the Government. The Government has committed to putting CDEI on an independent statutory footing. Full governance arrangements are set out in a Framework Agreement between CDEI and DCMS.

Board

The CDEI benefits from an independent Board comprising expert and influential individuals from a range of fields relevant to its mandate. The Board has oversight of - and is accountable for - the CDEI’s work and recommendations.

Executive

We are building a core team with a policy focus, reflecting the CDEI’s role as a convening organisation, and its mandate to deliver practical and actionable policy recommendations to the government, as well as best practice recommendations to industry. This team will be able to bring in the specific expertise and commission the research it needs to deliver an evolving programme of work.

The CDEI will leverage its role at the interface between academia, civil society, industry and government and its unique mandate to allow a flexible approach to accessing the skills needed to fulfill its work. This will include secondees, loans and expert advisors to support review and research work. Given the fast-changing environment, where the CDEI’s work programme shifts year to year, this approach allows flexibility in ensuring the CDEI has the right skills and capabilities^{[footnote 4]}.

Our executive team is drawn from civil society and the wider policy-making sphere, academia, the tech sector and government. This will help the CDEI flexibly deliver its wide-ranging mandate.

7. Evaluation

Over the next two years, the CDEI will develop metrics to track the full range of activities as set out in our Terms of Reference and mechanisms to evaluate our progress. This will help us to test the assumptions implicit in our Terms of Reference and to understand both the extent to which our activities are contributing to our long-term goal, and the statutory powers and funding the CDEI may require to deliver its Terms of Reference in the long-term.

Developing outcome metrics will require a longer-term research effort. In the meantime we will track progress through our pre-statutory phase, and monitor:

• The extent to which government, industry and regulators adopt our recommendations and advice, and the extent to which they change their behaviour; and
• The extent to which key stakeholders believe that we are having an impact on the issues we have been set up to address.

We will monitor these internally and will publish our own assessment of our work in our first annual report in Spring 2020.

Keep in touch

We look forward to working with the public, stakeholders and partners to deliver the CDEI’s hugely important and challenging mission. If you would like to get in touch or to receive updates on CDEI, please email cdei@cdei.gov.uk.

1. Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation: Government Response to consultation, 2018 ↩

2. Deep Knowledge Analytics ↩

3. Artificial intelligence sector deal policy paper ↩

4. The model is a common best practice among comparable organisations, including e.g. GO Science and the National Infrastructure Commission. ↩