Defra confirms Data Services Platform 3 contract

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced that it has awarded the Data Services Platform 3 (DSP3) contract to Telespazio UK working with Agrimetrics.
 
The new data service will provide a next generation data marketplace to help improve the wider utility and reusability of Defra's extensive data for public use.

"This provides a fantastic opportunity for Defra to modernise its data sharing services platform, and expand the usability of our data across the government and the public data marketplace in line with government roadmap for digital and data,” said Chris Howes, Chief Digital Technology Officer, Digital Data and Technology Services at Defra.

The existing Data Services Platform 2 makes environmental data (including animal and plant health, farming, biosecurity) from across Defra group, available to a wide range of users. The platform is used to share data openly and/or with controlled groups of users in Defra's supply chain, or where data contains third party rights.

It is used by 650 Defra Group partners and 300 contractors, and supported 1.8 billion API calls in 2019-2021.

"The aim of the Data Services Platform is to deliver services that will be world leading in underpinning environmental improvements," explains Darpan Kaur, Programme Manager. "It enables Defra to meet legal and policy obligations, including the Flood Risk Regulations, the Freedom of Information Act, the re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations, the INSPIRE Regulations, Public Registers and open data and transparency commitments."

DSP3 will use the power of linked data to enable users and consumers to access and understand data from the entire platform in a manner that fits their use case. Linked data technology enables connections between related data sets to be managed and optimised.

This will ensure that all Defra data is truly discoverable and accessible, significantly enhancing the use and social value delivered by use of the data with an expanding set of user communities.

DSP3 will harness the existing Agrimetrics Data Marketplace platform to enable greater interoperability with other platforms and services to expand the usage of data and evolution of technical services. Combined with the service management and Agile development methodology experience of Telespazio UK, the team will bring a modern, resilient and intuitive linked data-centric offering to users.

By sharing its data, Defra hopes to influence decisions and actions of stakeholders to assess where they are today, measure improvements, and make progress. Quality data helps make better decisions, which will be critical in helping to achieve environmental improvements.
 
The Data Services Platform will be a national service, internationally accessed and will be the "data jewel in the Defra crown".