 Hyddech chi fawr i'r gael ei wneud i mi gael. Felly dyna'n gweld y ddweud, ond yn fawr i'r ystafell a phrydau'r ddweud, mae'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio yn fawr i'r preidysesol, yn fawr i'r llai, dweud, ond mae'n gweithio, mae'n fawr i'r gweithio gael, mae'n fawr i'r gweithio. Mae'n gweithio gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio. I'm here because we in government care deeply about getting this right and getting the data agenda right. Government has been in the data agenda for a very long time. The earliest known examples are over 5,000 years old, and if you come with me to the British Museum, you can see the clay tablets from ancient what is now Iraq about the size of a computer tablet, like the one you're using to take a photograph of me with. I think it's very interesting that they record the daily beer ration paid out to workers on big public projects like temples and irrigation systems, and in one way we've come a long way since then, 5,000 years ago, but in those thousands of years the essential property of government data has remained the same. Government data is a record of what's happened, of what is, and from ancient times it's often recorded how much you've spent and on what, and the same is true today, but while the data and the principles of the data may have stayed the same, what it's recorded on of course has changed, and we've evolved from clay to parchment to paper to the printing press and now to the pixel, and each time the recording technology has changed, the cost of storing and replicating data has fallen, and this has always, through history, had profound implications. Parchment records meant secure property rights for the first time. The printing press brought down feudalism and now in the switch from paper to pixel, the cost of what it's stored on has fallen dramatically, and I think that means we are in the foothills of this data revolution, and listening to some of the presentations this morning, you can see just what opportunities there are. It's no longer just a record either. Over the last few years data has required a very new set of characteristics. It is a mineable commodity from which value can be extracted. It's also the unseen infrastructure of the digital economy, and it's also a new form of property. It matters hugely who owns the data, and the more decentralized the ownership of the data, the more democratized the power that comes with it. Crucially, big data of course has a network effect, and its value increases the further that it spreads, and it is now almost infinitely replicable at almost no cost. This brings about huge changes, and I think we need to be clear-eyed about the changes, secure about the risks, and also alive to the opportunities, because the role of data frankly is changing the nature of government and the nature of the economy. When information was low, top-down decisions were inevitable. What do I mean by this? The minister in Whitehall always had more data than anyone else. It had more information, and so ministerial decisions carried disproportionate weight. Real-time performance data was limited, so the easiest way to manage a service was often by setting a target, and so a government agency then had to periodically check in with Whitehall to show that they'd hit their targets. It's a bit like judging a worker's productivity by solely by whether or not they've punched their timecard. By contrast, we're moving to an open data world where we're no longer constrained by this data scarcity, and instead can use data to drive continuous improvement, and we now have performance metrics for all 800 transactions between the citizen and government in the UK, which anyone can see on gov.uk. For digital services, these are incredibly useful tools. We can see how long each transaction takes to complete at what cost and whether the user is happy with the service, and this is bringing a huge change in the way that government itself is run. It isn't so that ministers can micromanage from on high, but so service managers on the ground who deal directly with citizens can look for constant incremental improvement. It's part of this broad shift. Instead of telling people what to do, we see our job in government as unleashing human ingenuity, both in the public sector amongst those who are delivering these services and beyond. The truth is that civil servants and the public servants who deliver these services want to be entrepreneurial. They want to create, and they want to find better ways of doing the things they do. There's a huge mission to working in government, and we've got to make sure that using data sensibly we can unleash this entrepreneurialism inside as well as outside government. Here's the thing, data means that we can. In the last parliament, we focused on getting as much data as possible out in the open. We began by putting together data.gov.uk as an inventory of data sets, and so far we've published over 20,000 data sets covering about 200 billion of public spending. One has plenty of plaudits, and we've talked about the plaudits a bit this morning. We've topped the World Wide Web Foundation's Open Data Barometer. Last year we were number one in the Global Open Data Index, but frankly, I think there's much, much more to do, and I want us to go further. It's not enough just to be open. Openness is a means to an end, and the end is to make the government work better for the people of this country and to provide data to the citizens that we use in ways unforeseen. I think we'll get better policymaking within government based on data and evidence, not on dogma and theory, and this incremental constant improvement, not because someone on high said something must be done, but because we're capturing those constant marginal gains, and also outside of government supercharging the UK's nascent data economy. I was really pleased to hear the feedback, the constant feedback I get about the place of the UK and in particular London as a place to start businesses in this space. I come from a small business background. When everybody put their hands up saying that you only employ five people or fewer, I almost put mine up and then remembered that we've got 440,000 civil servants and I'm responsible for them these days. The spirit of changing government through data but also supporting an economy of open data business and entrepreneurs drives us on this agenda. I thought I'd go through a couple of examples of recent changes that we've made that are exciting and interesting and then just set out some of the things that we want to do next. Let's say LIDAR, the LIDAR data recently published by DEFRA, about to go further in publishing more data sets. It's elevation data that's collected by the environment agency. It maps the height of things by flying around and firing lasers at the ground. It is not a part of the plot of the latest James Bond movie. It is just an arms length government body going about its daily business. The scanning allows us to create a digital 3D map of the landscape and now this is being opened up. It means for instance that flood risk assessments from insurers and planners can be based on real data cutting down on validation time and it also cuts costs because the agency itself is a buyer of these LIDAR derived products and by creating a sort of ecosystem of businesses that do interesting things with the data we in government use them ourselves. In the past only a few players could afford to play in this space but now because the data is open no one can break in. So it's about efficiency and savings but also about driving improvements in the way that we do business. For me as a politician the most exciting thing about open data is the stuff that you can't foresee. It's the innovation that you don't know is going to take place. So one local authority is using this data to make the case for new flood defences physically 3D printing the local area and then fashioning blocks to show where the flood defences need to go and then filling up the model with water to see how it works and also by doing this engaging the local community so that they can see the impact of the flood defences and from precision farming to archaeological digs to urban planning even the uploading the topography of England into Minecraft these have all been done on the basis of this open data. Let's take another example. Two years ago the land registry released the price paid data set tracking residential property sales in England and Wales. This data set is now used by RightMove and Zootla and others to bring up sales data to an audience of millions. Now we're enriching it as of last week and now include sales through repossession purchased by companies and by-to-lets and allow users to see the sales of non-residential property for the first time and the applications built on this include developing valuation software improving planning policy building apps that analyse market trends and for academic research and the point is that no minister even armed with the best possible policy advice could possibly dream up all of these things that we can do with the open data and instead we capture the ingenuity of our whole society. The only way to find out what is possible is to open up the data but I would say this and it's a note of caution really opening up data for my friends in government is only the first step it is no use putting data out just with a link to a PDF file the data has to be usable it has to be mashable it has to be open to all or it isn't really open at all think back to the printing press the printing press took off not just because printing was faster than scribing but because people started printing books in English rather than in Latin because people could actually use them so what are the next steps from the point of view of the government and the government data program first we need to modernise our own data infrastructure we need to get better at standardising and maintaining our own data we need to move away from reliance on bulk data sharing and create an economy of APIs and as with every other aspect of government we need data services built around the needs of users not the internal logic of Whitehall it starts with the dogfooding principle dogfooding of course means using your own product I was astonished to find that it's actually named after the legendary pet food CEO who was so committed to the quality of his product that he edited in front of his shareholders I didn't know that was a true story but in short dogfooding is one of the best ways to make sure that our open data when we open it up is of high quality and usable if we use it in our own day to day operations so we're going to be focusing much more closely on how data flows into government how it's collected, how it links together who uses it and how it's made available for wider use the national information infrastructure developed in collaboration with the ODI gives us a good base on which to build and I'm very grateful for the work of the ODI in this space helping us drive this agenda across Whitehall it is critical to get it right for the future of digital government in the UK now these digital platforms we're building led by the brilliant GDS they all depend on strong data foundations and by the way Blair, you've got ten people and you're hiring, we're hiring too and that's not the only reason that I'm here but I just thought I'd place it out there in order to build these digital platforms the core datasets must talk to each other and be built on high quality registers instead of lists of data replicated in different silos of government so that's the first thing getting our own data infrastructure in order second, we've got to keep building capability right across the civil service in the last parliament we set up a cross-government data science accelerator programme to train analysts in cutting edge tools and techniques we need everybody to understand the power of data and it's now in its fourth cohort and it's helping embed this expertise across Whitehall but to be truly data driven we also need policymakers and managers to be alive to this transformational power of data so we're setting up a programme of lunchtime co-clubs to develop opportunities for civil service to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in this isn't about turning everybody into a data scientist it's about making sure that people are intelligent customers of their own data inside government third, we need to put trust at the heart of the process it is our duty to keep data safe and secure and we will always treat personal and sensitive data with the utmost care by securing data assets that doesn't just mean making them harder to steal it also means safeguarding their integrity because inaccurate and corrupted data means citizens being lost between the cracks and it's vital we've got to ensure our data is well managed and of high quality and fourth and finally we need to strengthen our collaborative approach to data policy in government that's why data is at the heart of our Open Government National Action Plan and that in itself is an exercise in collaborative policymaking I want to pay tribute here to Paul Maltby who's been instrumental in this process last week he was in Mexico helping confirm the UK as the lead steward on the international open data charter and he's leading this data work across Whitehall supporting the new data leaders network it's a group that comes together to review both the legislation on data sharing making sure that supports our goal of open and effective data driven government and also to make sure our work is genuinely pushing the boundaries of digital and data visionaries inside government and I'm delighted to be able to say that we're going to have a steering group including Senaigel Shadbolt from the ODI and Mustafa Suleiman Fran Bennett, Xavier Role, Mark Thompson and the former chair of the National Information Government Board for Health and Social Care Dame Fiona Culdercock all on the steering board to really drive this agenda and they have agreed to serve their nation and I would, I hope that they will ensure that we remain at the cutting edge at the forefront and keep pushing the boundaries I just want to end on the role of the ODI this is a organisation that is a crucial and critical friend of government and of the cabinet office it's got a huge role to play but I end on this request to you keep challenging us keep pushing us make sure that you are holding us to account so that we are striving for the same thing which is a data driven government to help create a data driven economy so I've asked the ODI to help keeping us connected with businesses and start-ups and innovators and those on the leading edge right across the whole data spectrum because knowledge on this agenda is dispersed and decentralized and we will only realise its full potential when it's networked and it's interlinked and I'm absolutely reliant on the ODI to do this but I want everybody engaged to make sure that we keep pushing this as a national agenda and I know that Jenny Tenninson from the ODI is going to make sure that this can be coordinated and effectively communicated into government and I'm very grateful for her support on doing that. I'll finish on a busy road opposite Westminster Abbey where there was once an enterprising merchant called William Caxton he opened a bookshop there back in 1476 to get the printing press and the products of the press to the people and many of the oldest printed books in English come from Caxton's printing press and these books were the opening shots of an earlier data revolution centuries ago one that changed the world and I think it is fitting that the site of Caxton's shop is now the department for work and pensions one of the most data intensive government departments because government data is no longer a forgotten filing cabinet locked away in some dusty corner of Whitehall but it's the raw material with infinite possibility waiting to be unleashed no longer just a record of what's happened but a map of what might be I shouldn't really call it government data because for me there is no such thing as government data because it belongs to all of us as citizens and open data is the way to bring it back and I want to work with you to make this happen thank you very much