Eight project proposals have been longlisted for the Civil Service Data Challenge, aimed at enhancing the use of data in central government.
They have been chosen from nearly 200 submissions in a competition organised by NTT Data and sponsored by leading officials from the Cabinet Office, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
The eight projects chosen for further review by a panel of Civil Service and industry experts are:
- Automating vehicle excise duty discounts and driving licence approvals for PIP claimants – DWP and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
- Creating a Civil Service geographical capability map – Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
- Gathering better statistics on the distribution of UK citizens abroad – Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
- Deploying AI to protect and enhance our peatlands – Defra.
- Tracking medicine stocks and movements to safeguard future supplies – Department for Health and Social Care.
- Improving levels of prisoner social contact to support rehabilitation – Ministry of Justice.
- Using synthetic data applications to improve policy making and service planning – DWP.
- Improving detection of benefit and tax fraud through richer data exchange between DWP, HM Revenue and Customs and UK Visas and Immigration – DWP.
NTT Data and a group of leading civil servants will provide technical advice and development support to the best ideas from four projects to make it to a live presentation in December.
Demonstrating value
Alex Chisholm, the Civil Service’s chief operating officer and permanent secretary to the Cabinet Office, commented: “The competition so far has clearly demonstrated how valuable our civil servants’ ideas are and highlights the importance of bringing different minds together to explore how current business practices can be improved.
“We’ve seen extremely innovative ideas submitted that have a real chance to improve and influence staff tools, policy making, and enable us to deliver a greater service to the public.”
Image from iStock, Linda Steward
