This week, Chancellor John Healey delivered his first Budget, combining measures to ease living costs with plans to devolve more economic power. Household energy support and a roadmap giving mayors a share of business rates and income-tax receipts were among the headline announcements.
For technology, data and AI, the Budget sets out investment across security, sovereign capability and public-service adoption. Alongside this are measures affecting how data is published, shared and used across planning, tax and health, with several opportunities for the ODI to contribute as implementation develops.
AI security and sovereign capability
The Chancellor announced an additional £500m for AI security and resilience and £140m for sovereign capability. The written Budget includes £120m for the AI Security Institute, £70m for the National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre, £60m for Cyber Shield and £40m for a National Agentic Security Unit, alongside investment in public-sector defences and biosecurity.
Support for British AI capability includes an additional £60m for the Sovereign AI Fund, £80m for Sovereign AI’s challenge-led research and development procurement scheme, a £60m AI Pathfinder Fund and £20m for AI hardware. These commitments cover several programmes and should not be read as a confirmed breakdown of the speech’s £140m headline.
The government will also consult next year on tackling insecure technology, including where liability for cyber breaches should sit. This will be an important opportunity to examine responsibilities for the security of technology used across businesses and public services.
AI adoption and public-service reform
The Budget places considerable emphasis on using AI across the economy and government. Local AI partnerships will begin in West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and York and North Yorkshire, bringing together councils, businesses, universities and colleges to support locally led adoption, skills and service improvement.
A new £15m AI Challenge Prize, administered by DCMS, will begin with a competition focused on the NHS. The government is also providing £35m to establish GovAI and a £50m Civil Service AI transformation fund, supporting wider reforms intended to save a further £600m from back-office budgets. Alongside these measures, the AI Economics Institute will receive an additional £23m, and Mark Bailie will lead an independent review of NHS productivity and AI, reporting in early 2027. Belfast will receive £7.5m for AI and cyber capabilities.
Together, these initiatives will create new routes for public bodies and businesses to develop and adopt AI. Their delivery will require reliable data, the capacity to evaluate systems and clear arrangements for accountability, particularly where technology affects people’s access to services.
Data centres and compute infrastructure
The new Data Centre Covenant sets out the government’s approach to supporting compute infrastructure while securing benefits for communities.
All data centres are encouraged to meet its expectations, while strategic projects seeking enhanced government support must meet specific tests. These include contributing fairly to energy-system costs, agreeing a Local Benefit Plan with communities, meeting environmental standards, creating jobs and apprenticeships, supporting UK suppliers and providing secure compute for public services. Qualifying projects could receive support to accelerate grid connections and planning, overseen by a new Ministerial Control Centre. Temporary on-site generation would be available only for exceptionally strategic projects under a framework still to be developed.
The Covenant also includes expectations on publishing energy and water use. This gives data transparency a practical role in helping communities and local authorities understand infrastructure’s effects and assess performance over time. Further details on strategic-project eligibility and implementation will follow, while a draft Data Centre National Policy Statement is open for consultation.
Open planning data
One of the Budget’s clearest open data commitments is the requirement for Local Planning Authorities to digitise and publish key planning documents as open data by the end of 2027. The government also intends to make its PlanAssist AI tool available to all English councils by then, subject to further testing. Although linked to AI adoption, the publication requirement could have wider benefits for residents, researchers and businesses seeking to understand planning decisions and development patterns.
As with other open data initiatives, the practical value will depend on consistent standards, clear licensing and data quality, alongside support for the councils responsible for publication. Ongoing stewardship will be needed to keep information accessible and reusable beyond the initial deadline.
Tax data, Open Finance and health
The Budget advances work on digital tax infrastructure, confirming mandatory VAT e-invoicing from April 2029 and consultations on invoice data and property-income reporting. These changes will affect how businesses produce and share information, making common standards and implementation support important considerations. HMRC will also explore the feasibility of using its data in Open Finance, working with regulators and industry. This remains exploratory and does not establish a new right of access, but it is a relevant development for the wider Smart Data agenda and could create opportunities for services built around individuals’ and businesses’ financial information.
In health, £100m from the £300m NHS Transformation Fund will support the expansion of robotically assisted surgery, including a registry using data and AI to track outcomes. The registry will provide a way to assess results and support improvements as adoption expands.
The National Data Library and digital skills
The National Data Library is not named in the Budget, and there is no newly announced allocation or delivery plan for it. Its expert advisory group concluded in September, and the programme now sits within the Government Chief Data Officer’s wider work in DCMS. Its absence does not establish that existing funding has been withdrawn, although further clarity would help explain how the programme connects to the government’s expanding investment in AI and public-service transformation.
There is also no separately named digital literacy or inclusion programme. Relevant support includes AI skills within the local partnerships and the re-established Union Learning Fund, while broader questions remain about how people will be supported to understand and use increasingly digital services.
What comes next for the ODI?
As these commitments develop, the ODI will engage with the government on the Data Centre Covenant and draft National Policy Statement, bringing our expertise on transparency, community benefit and environmental accountability. We will also seek clarity from DCMS and the Government Chief Data Officer on the National Data Library’s role, funding and links to AI adoption.
The planning-data requirement provides an opportunity to contribute practical expertise on common standards, data quality and funded stewardship. We will make the case for councils to have the support needed to publish information that residents, researchers and businesses can use, alongside engagement on HMRC data in Open Finance and the e-invoicing and property-income consultations.
We will bring Citizen Query findings into discussions with the institutions supporting AI adoption, including the AI Economics Institute, GovAI and relevant public-service programmes. Building on our House of Lords roundtable (read more about this next week!), we will also assess how the forthcoming consultation on insecure technology and cyber liability can advance relevant recommendations on responsibility, correction and redress.
Across this work, our focus will be on helping the Budget’s commitments translate into reliable data infrastructure, responsible innovation and better outcomes for people and communities.
