Guidance

Data Standards Authority Strategy 2020 to 2023

Sets out the role and approach of the DSA to improve the adoption of common data standards across government over the next 3 years.

• From: Central Digital and Data Office
• Published: 21 December 2021

Data is essential to good government. The National Data Strategy (NDS) describes the potential of government data. Data drives informed decision-making, beneficial policy and effective public services. Public bodies record, hold and process data to carry out a wide range of functions and deliver services for people. To realise the many benefits that data can provide, the government needs to change the way data is used, reused and shared.

Currently, it is common for different parts of government to adopt or create standards for recording, managing, using and sharing data according to their specific needs and challenges. This can mean that the ways different parts of government work are inconsistent and incompatible with data exchange and reuse. The government needs to take a more coordinated and centralised approach to fixing its data foundations. This is one of the five mission priorities in the NDS.

Background

Data standards are fundamental to improving how government shares, integrates and uses data. Data standards set a clear and common understanding of how the government must describe, record, store, manage and access data in consistent ways.

The government has recognised the need to improve data standards. The Data Standards Authority (DSA) was established in April 2020. It is led by the Cabinet Office in close partnership with the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The DSA leads cross-government work on data standards to support the sharing and interoperability of data in government.

There are complex fiscal, political, technological and operational challenges in government the DSA needs to balance to achieve a cultural shift.

Changing how government uses data is an opportunity for the DSA to strengthen existing processes, encourage the adoption of standards and build on existing standards. Responses to the NDS and the Civil Service Data Survey 2021 shows widespread support for a greater focus on data standards and an authority to lead government-wide adoption.

The DSA needs to make sure that proposed and implemented data standards fully meet user needs, and can meet future demands. The DSA does this by collaborating with experts from a wide range of organisations, including the public sector, private sector and academia.

Government uses data in many ways, so the DSA must make strategic decisions to prioritise which aspects to standardise. The DSA works closely with other related areas of work such as the Government Data Quality Hub, ONS Integrated Data Programme, the Digital Economy Act 2017’s data sharing powers, open data and data ethics.

This strategy sets out the role, vision and priorities of the DSA. It includes the:

• main deliverables

• cross-government collaboration

• change management for prioritised standards

• material and cultural change

These standards support departments and public bodies in improving outcomes for the public and efficiencies in how the government does business and provides services.

The role of data standards in improving data foundations

Data standards matter. Standardising the way government uses data leads to:

• better public services, decision-making and evidence-based policies

• reducing friction in finding, understanding, sharing and using data, for example managing links between data sets and joining data sets together to form new data sets

• improving interoperability to make data more comparable and easier to exchange

• better data quality, access and consistency

• fast and low cost collaboration between people in government, as well as between government and people

• increasing adoption and implementation of new solutions, so people can focus on high value tasks rather than administrative work such as data formatting, data cleansing or data reconciliation

• complying with data protection laws

• reducing technical barriers to improve the reuse of administrative data and decrease the need for costly data collections

• improving the speed and effectiveness of change management in existing data standards and the guidance that supports them

To realise the benefits of data standards, government needs to:

• improve the coordination of government data standards work by joining existing examples of good practice to share initiatives and knowledge, as well as reduce duplication of work 

• centralise the setting of data standards and increase their adoption to break down departmental silos, helping departments discover the right levers to ensure wider adoption of standards 

• develop and deliver a coherent strategy to tackle cross-government user needs on data standards, encouraging departments to plan rather than react and to coordinate priorities

The DSA’s role and scope

The Data Standards Authority was an important part of a cross-government proposal developed by the Cabinet Office, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to fix the government’s data foundations. The DSA secured funding in the Spring 2020 Budget and was established in April 2020.

The DSA’s vision is to use data standards to improve public services for the public through stronger policies, analysis and insights. The result should be data that can be easily found, accessed, shared responsibly and combined.

The focus of the DSA’s work is to mitigate data-linked risks and issues by adopting data standards when users need to share data within or between:

• public bodies

• government

• the wider digital economy

The DSA aims to help fix the government’s data foundations, as stated in 1 of the 5 missions of the NDS. The DSA works to understand the scale of this challenge in a wider government context.

The DSA works closely with other related areas of work such as the Government Data Quality Hub, as well as major data-enabled projects such as the Integrated Data Programme and GOV.UK Accounts.

The simplest definition of a data standard is a set of shared rules by which data can be described, recorded or transported. The DSA provides standards that support data interoperability. Data interoperability addresses how systems and services that create, exchange and consume data have clear, shared expectations for the contents, context and meaning of that data. Data interoperability is important to improve broader interoperability across government, or to allow one system to interact with another system within or across organisations. 

The benefits of data interoperability include:

• enabling delivery of more joined-up digital services for public and businesses

• boosting efficiency, for example interoperable data in the cross-government property, commercial, HR and finance functions helps to identify waste and make back office functions more efficient

• enabling better analytics and business insights, which can drive continuous improvement

• reducing the time it takes to have meaningful conversations between providers and consumers of data

• increasing engagement with citizens and the private sector for better policy outcomes

• reducing silos of work and increasing reuse of data and services teams and departments have in common

• presenting data on a consistent basis no matter where it was sourced, making it easier for practitioners to quickly understand issues and make informed decisions

• improving transparency and public trust that personal data is used ethically

• less effort and manual intervention needed to share useful information, making it quicker and more cost-effective to share using open data standards to reduce vendor lock-in, allowing government to procure technology based on value for money and relevant features

• better search and extraction of information to meet Freedom of Information (FOI) requirements, which is critical to government’s efforts to build transparency and public trust

To improve data interoperability, the DSA builds cross-government consensus on defining and agreeing standards. This improves collaboration, encouraging experts across sectors to consider problems and risks in detail. This helps the experts identify the right data standards and provide the right levers, as well as support, to encourage consistent and wide adoption across government.

These levers include spend controls managed by the Cabinet Office, as well as service assessments and business reviews.

The DSA also considers how to implement new controls to make sure data standards are adopted and supported by an assurance process. The DSA looks for opportunities and incentives to increase adoption of standards across the wider public sector. This can lead to simpler integration of data from central government sources, or for departmental data to integrate more easily into central government.

To assess and articulate the benefits of adopting data standards, the DSA forms processes to help identify and showcase implementation of standards, or pilots of new standards to demonstrate the value of adopting them.

The DSA works closely with the devolved administrations and international governments to make sure there is alignment on standards, share best practice and tackle common problems together.

Because of limited resources and the breadth of aspects of data that could benefit from being standardised, the scope of the DSA’s work needs to be focused on areas of greatest cross-government priority and user need. The DSA focuses on data standards that relate to and support data sharing and multi-agency cooperation, as well as linking data. This leads to producing new data insights across government, and new products and services to make use of them.

Objectives

The DSA has 2 main objectives:

1. Setting cross-government data standards by identifying which areas benefit most from standardisation and developing standards for wider adoption. The DSA does this by consulting with relevant experts and user groups, before sign-off by the DSA Steering Board. Adoption of a standard is monitored by establishing an appropriate government ‘owner’ to manage each standard across data life cycles, and over time.

2. Setting direction and best practice for data standards in government. This means developing best practice guidance to make sure there is a common approach to issues that might not be addressed with technical standards. Examples of this include guidance on data formats such as spreadsheets and CSV files, recommended use of Ordnance Survey Addressbase to access address data, and a reference architecture to support the implementation of data standards.

The foundation work for these two objectives includes:

• establishing strong governance

• improving data standards literacy

• building capability through communities of practice

• fostering effective relationships with organisations and initiatives such as the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

• better communication through different channels

• setting clear processes for nominating, consulting on and setting common data standards for government

• building tools to support coordination, for example the Data Standards Authority Workbench

• setting and encouraging best practice in project and programme governance to ensure data standards are factored from the start, which strengthens compliance levers and drives sustainable change

Priorities

The DSA team has engaged with users and stakeholders across government to understand the problems they face and how to tackle them through the adoption of data standards. As a result the DSA’s governance has agreed and established a set of priority areas for the team to focus on. There are currently 4 priority areas:

APIs

Low interoperability between government systems means it is currently difficult for data to move across departmental boundaries. APIs are an efficient and practical way to address this, but departments are at various stages of maturity in using them. The standards and best practises the DSA produces allow departments to develop API strategies, build systems that can interoperate more easily and encourage the use of APIs and best practice around using them in communities and networks.

Data standards

To improve data interoperability, the DSA is focusing on setting standards that relate to:

• metadata

• personal and business identifiers

• reference data

• geospatial data

Common standards in these important areas have the potential to link a wide range of data and services, as well as raise shared understanding of them.

Data sharing governance

As well as the technical issues around data sharing across government, there are also non-technical elements the DSA can address to make processes faster and easier for users. The DSA is creating and implementing a shared framework for data sharing governance to:

• set good practice for data sharing documentation

• better understanding of resource implications

• agree a shared language of terms for creating data sharing agreements

Increasing adoption of data standards

To improve the adoption and use of data standards across government, the DSA is involved in work to strengthen the existing spend controls process and its associated assessments and assurances. This work also considers how to incentivise the adoption of data standards through better analysis and articulation of the benefits of data interoperability and standardisation.

These 4 priority areas relate to use cases or real-world, data-enabled projects. For example One Login for Government, GOV.UK Accounts, Starting and Sustaining a Business and the Integrated Data Service.

The DSA reviews these priority areas regularly, along with use cases, to reflect the lifespan of projects and the changing strategic priorities of government.

The DSA might also endorse other standards submitted by public bodies as long as they meet requirements such as appropriate consultation and documentation to support implementation.

How the DSA is working to achieve its objectives

As the number of departmental and cross-government data initiatives increase, the DSA needs to provide leadership and coordination in government data standards to improve:

• a shared understanding of activities

• a shared understanding of priorities

• how to deliver collectively

• how to identify and adopt best practises

Taking this approach helps reduce the risk of further siloed work and fragmentation, or duplication of effort. Developing frameworks can help government departments benchmark and determine their maturity in using and complying with data standards, and plan improvements.

The DSA is committed to:

• building strong collective leadership in cross-government data standards

• establishing efficient, consistent and effective processes and ways of working

• developing a shared understanding of data standards work and priorities for people across government

Leadership and governance

To support strong leadership and collaboration across the public sector for data standards, there needs to be good governance to set direction and pace. The DSA reports to Cabinet Office Ministers and is overseen by the Data Standards Authority Steering Board. The Board is chaired by the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) within the Cabinet Office and membership is composed of senior data or digital leaders from across government.

The DSA Steering Board is a decision-making body that sets data standards for government. These standards are added to the Technology Code of Practice, Service Manual and Service Standard. These standards are enforced through Cabinet Office controls and service assessments.

The DSA Steering Board is supported by the Peer Review Group. The Peer Review Group acts as an advisory group and draws together senior data experts from across the public sector and the devolved administrations. Other governance bodies involved in governance for the DSA include the Open Standards Board, which is responsible for reviewing the adoption of open standards, and the newly-established Chief Data Officer( CDO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Councils.

The DSA uses communities of experts to make sure user needs are fully considered. These communities include the Government Data Architecture Community, the Government API Community and the Data Sharing Practitioners Network. Individual workstreams of the DSA have also established working groups for more focused attention on specific issues. The DSA also works in close partnership with the ONS Government Data Quality Hub. The DSA and the Government Data Quality Hub have joint chair responsibility for the Peer Review Group, due to shared interests in the Group’s activities.

The DSA also consults with external expertise such as:

• major change programmes such as the Digital Twin Programme

• standards organisations such as the BSI, ICO and Open Data Institute (ODI)

• other external industry organisations who are facing similar challenges

The DSA requires all standards going through the endorsement process are subject to consultation with relevant stakeholders and experts across sectors.

Efficient, consistent and effective processes and ways of working

The DSA’s work is based on collaborative delivery. It brings together and empower public authorities to identify needs and align efforts to set standards themselves. The governance provides support where necessary, to ensure the adoption of identified standards.

The DSA works to establish strong foundations and encourage the adoption of standards in six clear ways.

1. Set and assure standards. The DSA establishes processes for setting and reviewing proposals for standards. It creates and employs levers for the adoption of standards through spend controls, service assessments, relevant assurance processes and business reviews.

2. Set cross-government policies and strategies. The DSA develops policies and strategies that relate to the setting or adoption of standards to improve the discoverability, access, sharing, quality and use of government data.

3. Develop capability. The DSA strengthens understanding of data standards and how to implement them through content such as frameworks, guidance, tools and networks, communities and cross-government engagement.

4. Give expert advice. The DSA’s small, multi-disciplinary team provides advice and sets best practice in specific areas, but also looks to establish the communities, forums and channels to link practitioners with domain experts.

5. Drive continuous improvement. The DSA is working with the Government Data Quality Hub to develop a single data maturity model for government. This helps benchmark and determine the maturity of government departments’ use of and compliance with data standards, and helps them improve. The DSA makes sure the impact of its work is measured and it carries out engagement, provides feedback loops and user research to review and iterate its approach, services and outputs.

6. Develop and deliver relevant services. Where needed, the DSA develops and delivers products such as the API Catalogue and DSA Workbench to address cross-government user needs. 

Setting data standards, direction and best practice in government

The DSA sets direction in cross-government data standards. Across the full range of its work, the DSA makes sure to:

• use existing standards and where possible open standards, which follow open standards principles, to improve interoperability across sectors and internationally 

• work towards identifying and addressing user needs in real world situations, taking the view that context is essential for the effective development and application of standards

• support the government’s strategic priorities

• work collaboratively with experts from across sectors and domains to develop solutions for the problems government is looking to address, for example the FAIR Principles for managing and stewarding scientific data

• collaborate with international partners to set data standards that would have benefits across government

• develop meaningful and measurable change by improving cross-government compliance with data standards and best practice, for example by strengthening spend controls or developing wider government data maturity with ONS 

• measure cross-government compliance with data standards, aligning with a proposed single data maturity model for government which is currently being developed

The DSA sets direction in data standards through policy and core frameworks, and sets out ways to make sure organisations follow directives and best practice. This includes working with HM Treasury to promote the adoption of data standards and best practice as conditions of funding agreements with departments and subsequent monitoring of compliance.

To address user needs and the impact of a wide range of policy or public service delivery issues, the DSA acts as a trusted coordinating centre. It works with organisations to identify solutions for the whole of government.

The DSA is committed to:

• coordinating data standard use across government to improve wider adoption and empowering organisations to enforce standards beyond their own domains, wherever data relevant to them needs to be captured or used, for example when health data extends beyond NHS domains

• making sure the DSA prioritises and targets its cross-government work on standards based on user need and areas of greatest impact 

• providing clear, consistent and accessible data governance, definitions and standards

The DSA team focuses on standards that enable interoperability and other areas, such as analysis-based data.

The DSA works through use cases to understand particular data interoperability problems and potential standards that can address them. Use cases are identified according to their strategic cross-government priority. The CDDO and DSA engage with a wide range of public sector bodies to understand current or upcoming data-enabled projects which the DSA team could work with.

The DSA considers any cross-government programme or project involving 2 or more public organisations, so long as the project or programme can make a case for how potential standards work could improve outcomes for people, businesses or the public sector.

The DSA uses a multi-disciplinary approach. It works with project leads across government to carry out extensive user research into problems with data interoperability.

DSA policy, technical and engagement experts then work with project leads to analyse and understand their business processes and objectives, allowing the DSA to create options for setting standards that address the issues they discover.

Once the DSA has identified a standard, content and communications experts develop content so that organisations can understand, consult on and implement the standard. The DSA uses agile methods to build an iterative, open and collaborative approach to standards development that they can review and improve on a regular basis.

Communities of practitioners and subject matter experts are important to the DSA’s work and provide a valuable way of testing DSA products and getting insights on the challenges around implementation of data standards and best practice.

By developing and delivering a content strategy the DSA can make sure there is content such as case studies and benefits analyses to support practitioners when they implement standards.

The DSA works with communities to identify further content it can produce to support implementation. The communities of practice also provide a channel to share knowledge, experiences and best practice so that experts can support each other on implementation challenges. The content strategy is supported by a communications strategy to make sure the work of the DSA and requirements around data standards are understood by the wider public sector.

This strategy primarily sets out the DSA’s strategy until 2023. The work of the DSA, including this strategy, will be reviewed annually to check alignment with wider government strategic priorities.

The work of the DSA and data interoperability is only one part of a wider issue of data standards and architecture and how it is approached at an enterprise, domain or cross-government level. The DSA will work with departments to make sure data standards and best practises are fully involved in their enterprise data strategies.

A summary of the DSA’s work in its first year 

The DSA published its first set of metadata standards in August 2020 and is currently assessing further metadata standards for consideration.

The API Catalogue was created. This helps people understand data flows in government while supporting the reuse of APIs. The Catalogue helps consolidate and improve interfaces for publishing and consuming data across government and provides a simple, reliable, secure and accessible list of available APIs that stays up to date. Over 200 APIs from a range of public bodies are available in the catalogue.

API work is broadening to an ‘API offering’, with API guidance covering topics such as standards, domain management and community leadership.

Work with key cross-government data-enabled projects such as One Login for Government and Starting and Sustaining a Business to develop standards for identifiers and attributes for businesses, or verifying who they are in government transactions. Specific standards being proactively considered include the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard and Global Legal Entity Identifier.

The DSA has been working closely with the Geospatial Commission, Ordnance Survey and other stakeholders to support the adoption of geospatial standards within government. It has developed guidance on the use of AddressBase as a way to make sure recommended UPRN and USRN standards are adopted across government.

The DSA is working with ONS and the British Library to pilot government use of Digital Object Identifier standards, as well as with HM Treasury officials to build compliance into departmental settlements and into the assessment of bids under the Shared Outcomes Fund. With DCMS, the DSA has been working to analyse responses to the NDS related to data standards, assessing specific standards or aspects of data interoperability recommended by respondents for future DSA work.

The Data Sharing Governance Framework, which is the first content product from the DSA’s work to coordinate cross-government policies and standards to strengthen data sharing governance across the public sector, is due to be published in early 2022.

Guidance on publishing reference data, using CSV file formats and creating and sharing spreadsheets were published in 2021. A reference architecture to help departments across government to develop their data and API estates was also published in 2021.

The DSA is taking part in cross-government and cross-sector data initiatives to influence and encourage alignment. These include the BEIS Digital Regulation Navigator Project and the Digital Twin Programme to make sure the DSA’s reference architecture and data work is developed from the perspective of the whole UK.

The DSA is working with international bodies such as W3C and governments to influence data best practice and standards development.

Published 21 December 2021