Source · Select Committees · Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
Recommendation 35
35
Rejected
Paragraph: 113
Jointly review varying data ethics frameworks for greater consistency and accountability mechanisms across government.
Recommendation
It is now time to consolidate the excellent exploratory work that has been done on data ethics, and to embed it more formally into the collection, analysis, and communication of evidence in the UK. We recommend that the Cabinet Office’s Central Digital and Data Office and the Office for National Statistics jointly review the varying data ethics frameworks available to analysts across the UK; considering opportunities for greater consistency, and possible accountability mechanisms, to encourage a wider adoption of data ethics across government.
Government Response Summary
The government rejects the recommendation for a joint review of data ethics frameworks, citing existing close collaboration and the need for flexibility over consistency. They plan to update the CDDO data ethics framework by the end of 2025 and assess the scope of work to consolidate cross-government guidance.
Paragraph Reference:
113
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
The Government rejects the Committee’s recommendation. The CDDO data ethics team already works closely with the UKSA data ethics team, which includes sharing learnings around the UKSA data ethics self assessment and the CDDO data ethics work, and the recent landscape review around the responsible use of data-driven technologies in the public sector for which the UKSA participated in an interview. As part of the recommendations that came out of the landscape review, the CDDO team suggested work to consolidate and harmonise cross-government data and AI ethics guidance. We will work with cross-government stakeholders, including the UKSA, to assess the scope of this exercise. CDDO will update the data ethics framework by the end of 2025 While harmonisation is desirable in some instances and we have discussed shared opportunities with UKSA, there is also a need for flexibility and context-specificity in guidance. With the UKSA’s objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics and its specific remit of providing guidance to researchers (from within and outside of government) around the ethics of their research, much of the guidance material it produces must be discrete from general data ethics guidance produced for central government.