Guidance

RAP implementation plan: financial years 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025

Published 8 January 2024

Good analysis should be reproducible, transparent, trustworthy, auditable, efficient and high quality. Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP) is a cross-government movement promoted by the Government Analysis Function. It is a way of doing analysis so that it meets these principles, making processes more open and robust, enabling better quality assurance, improving knowledge management and business continuity. This ultimately increases the quality and trustworthiness of our analytical publications and facilitates innovation and collaboration within and outside government.

The Government Analysis Function published their RAP strategy in June 2022, outlining their vision for the greater uptake of RAP across government over 4 years from 2022 to 2026. The strategy also gives more detail on what is meant by RAP and what the main benefits of it are.

The RAP strategy presented 3 main goals that each government department should work towards:

• having the right tools
• having the right capability
• having the right culture

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is committed in working towards these goals, increasing the uptake of RAP across our analytical and scientific community.

Working towards these goals will help us meet our strategic plan for 2023 to 2026, enabling us to further build our analytical capacity, helping us further prepare for and respond to health security hazards.

This will also help in the implementation of our data strategy, further increasing our ability to use data in a way that is responsible, accessible, trustworthy, efficient and innovative.

The purpose of this document is to outline how UKHSA intends to work towards these goals in the 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 financial years. We will produce an updated document towards the end of this period to outline plans for the 2025 to 2026 financial year.

UKHSA context

UKHSA, an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care, is responsible for protecting every member of every community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and other health threats. We provide intellectual, scientific and operational leadership at national and local level, as well as on the global stage, to make the nation’s health secure.

We are a relatively new agency, formed in April 2021 from a combination of what was then the health protection functions of Public Health England, the Joint Biosecurity Centre and NHS Test and Trace.

The nature of this merger has meant that UKHSA has a diverse community with a range of skillsets (including the use of different software) and working cultures. The timing of the merger coincided with the immense pressures posed by the pandemic, which limited our capacity to implement improvements at that time. However, we believe that it is now a good time to draw from the breadth of knowledge and expertise across different areas and to progress our vision to transform our analytical processes and make them more efficient.

We have a great depth of expertise and understanding in science and analysis across the organisation. However, current levels of understanding and implementation of RAP are variable. In light of that fact, our main focus for the 2023 to 2024 financial year in particular is on promoting a greater readiness for RAP across the agency where that readiness is needed.

The following sections outline what UKHSA is planning in relation to the 3 goals set within the Analysis Function RAP strategy. This work is currently being championed by the Data, Analytics and Surveillance group in UKHSA but affects a number of different areas across the agency.

Goal 1: the right tools

Those working with data require access to the right software that will enable them to deliver RAP. This includes open-source analytical software such as R and Python, and version control and collaboration software like GitHub or GitLab.

Currently, UKHSA is well set up in terms of making these tools available. R and Python are both readily accessible, with direct access to repositories (CRAN for R and PyPI for Python) to obtain packages of code and documentation. Git, GitHub and GitLab are all available for use.

To support the use of the right tools, in the 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 financial years, UKHSA plans to:

• promote and support an increased uptake of open-source programming tools (for example R, Python) in favour of proprietary tools
• promote and support an increased uptake of Git and GitHub or GitLab
• expand the user base of the new cloud-based Enterprise Data and Analytics Platform to all internal UKHSA users and enable secure access to some assets for external users
• fully develop our policies and procedures for enabling code to be safely open sourced, keeping these under regular review

Goal 2: the right capability 

Ensuring that we have the skills and confidence in using the relevant tools and techniques is essential for the effective implementation of RAP.

To help further develop analytical capability, in the 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 financial years, UKHSA plans to:

• deliver talks and written materials (such as blog posts) to promote RAP across the agency, to increase the awareness and understanding of what RAP is, and to encourage greater and better uptake
• develop and promote frameworks for RAP and quality assurance to provide colleagues with clearer knowledge of where they are now and what they can develop next
• develop and promote written resources and training to support colleagues in their implementation of RAP, focussing on coding skills, version control, good documentation and good quality assurance; keeping these resources under regular review and filling gaps in knowledge as needed
• provide hands-on assistance as and when needed, to help accelerate teams’ implementation of RAP
• periodically gauge levels of implementation across the agency, to identify areas requiring further support
• support colleagues in applying our policies and procedures for safely open-sourcing their code, where appropriate to do so

Goal 3: the right culture

Ensuring that the organisation is ready for RAP is a key part of encouraging greater uptake. In line with the Analysis Function RAP strategy, we aim to promote a culture of “RAP by default”.

To help promote the right culture, in the 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 financial years, UKHSA plans to:

• set up and promote an internal RAP network, championing RAP across the agency and providing space for colleagues to ask questions and share knowledge and support
• promote RAP to teams, team leaders and senior leaders across the organisation through presentations, workshops and case studies to build awareness and understanding of the benefits of RAP and to encourage a RAP by default mindset
• promote and champion a culture of learning and development, through the delivery of training sessions and associated written materials

For more information, please contact: UKHSA_HOPSTATS@ukhsa.gov.uk