The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) recently launched three important consultations that could significantly shape how data is accessed, shared and governed across the UK:
- Marginal Cost Restriction on Public Sector Data Re-use
- Data Flows You Can Trust
- Data Regulation in the Age of AI and other data-intensive technologies
The Open Data Institute is bringing together policymakers, data leaders and practitioners for a timely webinar offering direct insight into the Government’s thinking - and an opportunity to ask questions of the officials leading this work.
The session will focus principally on the Marginal Cost Restriction on Public Sector Data Re-use Call for Evidence. The consultation considers whether the current rules governing if public bodies can charge for data remain fit for purpose - and how any reforms could affect access, innovation, public trust and investment in the UK’s data infrastructure.
We will hear from Mark Rushton, Senior Policy Adviser in the Government’s Data Economy Unit, who will introduce the call for evidence, explain the questions on which the Government is seeking answers and discuss what an effective response should address.
Mark will be joined by senior government colleagues working on the other two consultations, Benjamin Nash and Oliver Tones, giving attendees a valuable overview of the wider policy landscape. They will explore how the Government is approaching trusted data flows and whether the UK’s existing regulatory framework remains effective as AI and other data-intensive technologies develop.
Together, these consultations could influence some of the most consequential choices facing the UK’s data economy: who can access valuable public sector data, on what terms, how data can flow safely and responsibly, and how regulation should respond to increasingly powerful AI systems.
Speakers
Mark Rushton, Senior Policy Advisor, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)
Mark Rushton is a Senior Policy Advisor at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), where he specialises in enabling the growth potential of data in the economy. He is currently the policy lead for a workstrand exploring how to better capture the value of public sector, which includes the Department’s ongoing Call for Evidence on the marginal cost restriction on public sector data re-use.
Benjamin Nash, Senior Policy Advisor at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)
Benjamin Nash is a Senior Policy Advisor at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). Working within the Data Protection Policy Team, his work focuses on understanding how the UK's data protection framework is applied to emerging technologies. He is leading the work around the Call for Evidence on the Data Regulation in the Age of AI and Data-intensive technologies.
Oliver Tones, Head of Multilateral and Future Tools policy in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
Oliver Tones is the Head of Multilateral and Future Tools policy in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, where he is responsible for the UK's approach and engagement with international multilateral forums with a focus on data privacy and governance, and the opportunities that alternative data transfer tools can offer UK businesses.
Chair: Resham Kotecha, Global Head of Policy, the ODI
Resham Kotecha is Global Head of Policy at the ODI where she leads public policy work, along with efforts to work with governments to improve data ecosystems and data policy. Prior to working at the ODI, she worked as the Head of Policy at Wise, a FTSE listed FinTech company, leading policy work across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Resham has been a policy specialist for over a decade, working as a Director at UK Anti-Doping, as an economic adviser to an MP and Minister, and as a researcher to a Baroness.
Resham was appointed by the Cabinet Office to be a Social Mobility Commissioner, holding the Government to account on social mobility issues and shaping the Commission's strategy. She serves as Head of Engagement for Women2Win, an organisation working to get more women elected to Parliament. Resham serves as a Trustee of the Fawcett Society, the UK's leading charity campaigning for gender equality, and a Board member at the John Smith Centre, working to promote the positive case for politics and public service.
Resham has written for The Times, the Centre for Policy Studies and Huffington Post and regularly speaks at policy conferences.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cambridge University and has been recognised as a ‘Global Shaper’ by the World Economic Forum for political work in trying to achieve a more representative Parliament.