Award-winning Innovation at HM Treasury: how Hawkeye is transforming data management

HM Treasury’s recent TrIS (Treasury Information Systems) Innovation Awards celebrated cutting-edge ideas aimed at transforming government operations.

Among the standout achievements was Hawkeye, a groundbreaking data service designed to revolutionise how data is managed and used within the department. Developed by a team led by Molly Adamat, Head of Data Management, Guy Kendrew, Lead Data Engineer, and Sacha Banks, Data Engineer, Hawkeye 2 earned top honours at the event. We take a closer look at the innovation behind Hawkeye 2 and its transformative potential.

Addressing the data challenge

HM Treasury, like many organisations, faced significant challenges stemming from legacy technology and repetitive manual processes.

Guy Kendrew explained, “We have a huge number of analysts and economists who often perform the same tasks, such as downloading and transforming datasets like ONS inflation data. This creates duplication of effort, divergence in data sets, and inefficiencies.”
Hawkeye was conceived to address these issues. The goal was to centralise and automate data management, reducing repetitive manual tasks and ensuring consistency. 

Molly Adamat highlighted the importance of automation: “When you have hundreds of analysts working on recurring processes, why not create a central service to handle these tasks automatically? Once built, it only needs minimal maintenance.”

Bridging the accessibility gap

While the original Hawkeye platform offered powerful capabilities, it primarily served users with advanced coding skills.

“Hawkeye previously required users to know Python or R to access and manipulate data,” said Guy. “This created a bottleneck and limited its accessibility across the department.”
Hawkeye’s second iteration represents a major leap forward. The vision was to make the platform accessible to all Treasury staff, regardless of technical expertise. “We needed options for both code-savvy users and those with no prior experience,” Guy noted. “Using Microsoft Fabric, we introduced a range of tools, from no-code solutions like data flows to advanced features for data scientists.”

The result is a versatile platform that caters to diverse skill levels while enabling seamless collaboration. Molly described the innovation succinctly: “Hawkeye now automates the backend and offers a front-end interface where coding is optional. This eliminates the technical barrier and empowers all staff to engage with data.”

Quick wins & efficiency gains

One of the most compelling use cases for Hawkeye has been the automation of “flash briefings”. These summaries of key economic data, such as GDP and inflation figures, are essential for decision-making but were previously labour-intensive, and now create default comms lines on key metrics.

Sacha Banks explained, “Analysts used to get up early on data release days to manually download, transform, and compile reports. With Hawkeye, the process is fully automated. For instance, today’s briefing landed in inboxes by 7:05 am, saving analysts hours and allowing them to focus on deeper economic analysis.” This efficiency gain demonstrates Hawkeye’s potential to transform routine tasks, freeing up valuable time for high-value work.

The Treasury team has ambitious plans for the Hawkeye platform. “Our vision is to create a one-stop shop for data and analysis,” said Molly. “The platform will integrate  analytical products and dashboards, providing a centralised source of information for analysts, policy colleagues, and senior leaders.”

Key priorities include:

Broader Adoption: Expanding Hawkeye’s use across the Treasury and its Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs).
Enhanced Dashboards: Creating intuitive dashboards tailored to ministerial and Senior Civil Service needs, consolidating information into a single, user-friendly platform.
Upskilling Staff: Offering training to help analysts and economists make the most of Hawkeye’s capabilities. “Upskilling is a major ambition,” noted Sacha. “We’ve already trained dozens of staff in tools like Power BI, and we’re committed to growing this community.”

Winning the TrIS Innovation Award provided valuable insights for the Hawkeye team. Reflecting on the journey, Sacha emphasised the importance of experimentation: “It’s not just about failing fast but learning fast. We tried different approaches, learned from what didn’t work, and refined our solution.” Molly added, “Focus on big-ticket items. There are countless data problems you could solve, but addressing core issues like manual processes and integration delivers the greatest impact.”

A data-driven Treasury

Hawkeye exemplifies how innovation can address long-standing challenges in data management. By automating repetitive tasks, fostering collaboration, and empowering staff with user-friendly tools, the platform is transforming how the Treasury uses data to inform decisions.

HMT's data hub has an ambitious roadmap that will continuously improve Hawkeye alongside Plato their collective group of AI driven policy tools which form the cornerstone of the Treasury's digital transformation journey. As Molly aptly summarised, “Hawkeye isn’t just solving problems for one team; it’s creating scalable solutions that benefit the entire organisation.”

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the HM Treasury team for inviting Government Transformation Magazine along to be a part of their Innovation Day 24.