UK top for 'Data-Driven Government', says OECD

According to the OECD’s latest survey of digital government, the UK led the (rich) world in the use of data to support service design and delivery.

The UK was judged to perform “particularly well”, having adopted a holistic approach to leveraging data as a strategic asset “through dedicated overarching data strategies and leadership settings that enable ethical and effective access, and sharing and use of data across public sector organisations”.

This comes hot on the heels of the Open Data Barometer report finding the UK first for implementation and impact, and equal first overall alongside our Canadian friends.

The OECD describes data-driven government as one which uses data to design policy and services. It implies the development of sound data governance structures and related delivery mechanisms to capitalise on the value of data to anticipate and respond to the needs of users, deliver better services and policies, and promote data integration, access, sharing and use across the public sector.

A data-driven public sector is also reckoned to favour the use of innovative and alternative sources of data in the evaluation and monitoring of policies and services over time. This approach supports continuous improvement in response to feedback and usage data, and enabling public sector organisations to prioritise users’ needs.

The rapid evolutions of data-driven government was a key area of focus in the Gov Data sessions of GovX Digital last month, and are an area that we’ll be returning to at the next conference in May.

At the conference it was remarked by our panellists that over the last decade, awareness has increased of the important role of data in making governments more transparent, accountable and open to stakeholder participation - but that more still needed to be done to improve the impact of data on policy making, service delivery and ongoing performance management.

According to the OECD report, the results highlight the need for governments to shift their focus away from the external publication of data (eg. interactive dashboards) towards the creation of a skilled public sector that relies on data as a core component to effectively design and deliver its activities.