Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to make nationally owned public-sector data available for ethical and secure use in AI development to support innovation and public service delivery.

As set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Modern Industrial Strategy, the Government is committed to treating public sector data as a strategic national asset and unlocking high-impact public datasets for AI use.

The Government recently published an update outlining the significant progress made on the Action Plan with 38 of its 50 commitments delivered against in 12 months.

This update demonstrated that 6 of the 7 data recommendations have been delivered – this includes the publishing of best practice guidance on how to make public sector datasets ready for AI (R09), and details on the delivery of ‘kickstarter’ projects making high-impact datasets available to AI researchers and innovators (R07).

DSIT have also launched an open call to understand the opportunities for public sector data among businesses, researchers and public bodies.