The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is implementing a three-phase roadmap to improve its data, covering prototyping, learning by doing and scaling by empowering others.
Deputy director Sarah Blake has outlined the approach in a blogpost, saying this follows up the launch of the MoJ data strategy in August 2022, and responds to a perception that its data is fragmented and difficult to share.
The strategy involves three broad themes: to improve justice outcomes through data driven insight and innovation; to ensure data meets user needs; and to build a data culture within the ministry.
The first stage of the roadmap follows discovery work and involves the development of prototypes of processes and tools to improve the quality of, access to and skills around data.
Steps over the next few months will include testing data management policies, supporting the electronic monitoring team in accessing and collecting high quality data, hiring data architects, improving internal data skills and setting up an MoJ data board that will report to its executive committee.
Plan for pilots
The learning by doing phase is scheduled to begin in the middle of this year and will involve a series of pilots on data management, literacy, culture and stakeholder engagement. These will include rolling out the MoJ data governance operating model more widely, deploying procedures for data standards and cataloguing, and automation processes for electronic monitoring data.
Other efforts in the phase will include setting up a data sharing team and framework, providing more visualisaton and data journalism training and tools to analysts and leaders, developing a minimum viable product for a data catalogue, and deploying a new tool for better access to key performance indicators.
The third phase, expected to begin in the middle of next year, will involve the data improvement team supporting others in providing leads in their own areas.
“As with any roadmap, we have most confidence about the activity that’s coming up in the near future, and our work in the next few months will inform our work over the coming years,” Blake said.
