At our roundtable on 15th June, before the King’s Speech, we welcomed nearly 100 people from lots of different sectors and organisations, including regulators, civil servants, technology professionals, SMEs, and civil society groups. They presented a rich diversity of views.
During the event, we held two sessions as breakout groups, concentrating on:
- What Labour could/should do first
- Impressions from the opposition campaigns and manifestos
After each breakout session, we came back together to discuss the thoughts and ideas that had been shared in the groups, and have a wider conversation about what should happen next – and this is what the groups thought the new government should do first.
These thoughts from members and civil society will inform a soon-to-be-published update to our ODI Policy Manifesto following what we now know of the UK Government’s new legislative agenda from the King’s Speech.
What Labour could/should do first
The success of the Government's agenda will hinge on trust, transparency, and high levels of accountability in data use. As outlined in our Policy Manifesto, we need a robust and future-proofed legislative and regulatory regime that is cohesive, comprehensive, and has people and society at its core.
Roundtable participants highlighted a lot of topics they believed the new Government could and should prioritise, including:
- Digital prison services: Implementing digital reforms in prison services to improve efficiency and outcomes
- Statutory AI principles: Placing AI principles on a statutory footing to ensure ethical AI use
- Data sharing in health: Enhancing data sharing between health and other sectors, moving beyond secure data environments for research. At the clinical level, using data to enable a focus on prevention
- NHS digital reform: Prioritising digital reforms within the NHS to increase productivity and improve patient care
- Diverse clinical trials: Looking at how technology can be deployed - and communities engaged - in efforts to ensure clinical trials reflect diversity of the populations the drugs are targeting
- Creating tech jobs outside London: Focusing on creating jobs and development opportunities outside of London to foster regional economic growth
- New organisational structure: Clarifying the details of the new organisational structure in Government, where various data and AI-related entities have been grouped together within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
- Cybersecurity: Strengthening cybersecurity measures to protect against malicious attacks
- Public awareness of data and AI: Increasing public awareness and understanding, including about benefits and ethical concerns
- Digital identity: Developing interoperable and reusable digital identity solutions
- AI Regulation: Regulating AI in the private sector to align with government objectives for ethical and responsible AI, preventing it from becoming a vector of inequality
- Generative AI regulation: Considering regulation and government use of generative AI technologies
- Infrastructure sovereignty: Ensuring sovereignty over digital infrastructure to maintain national security and data integrity
- EU equivalence in data regulations: Maintaining alignment with EU data and digital regulations during any potential upcoming UK-EU treaty negotiations
- Data as AI feedstock: Recognising that data is the essential feedstock of AI and understanding the political, environmental, and social implications of this
- Digital divide: Addressing the digital divide to ensure equitable access to technology and digital services
- Open finance: Promoting open finance to foster innovation and transparency in financial services
- Workers' rights: Ensuring workers' rights around data access and privacy are protected
Note: Both digital ID and cybersecurity were featured in the legislative agenda set out this week at the King’s Speech, more details of which can be found on our blog here.
You can read the full report here