Giving communities a powerful say in public sector data and AI projects

Communities are affected daily in both positive and negative ways by data governance decisions made by local and national governments. These arise through interactions with public services such as health and care; schooling; policing and justice; tax and benefits, as well as in more pervasive ways through government’s collection and dissemination of data, statistics and evidence to inform policymaking.

The use of data and AI within the public sector is essential for effective, evidence-based policymaking and for the efficient delivery of digital public services. Among other things, increasing use of data and AI promises opportunities to provide more joined-up healthcare; personalise education; tackle the courts backlog; and make it easier for citizens to access public services.

However, uses of data and AI can also be damaging to and contentious with the public. According to a recent survey, over half of people don’t trust local or central governments to keep their data safe, including being concerned about that data being shared or sold to the private sector. People may be made the target of damaging or biased policies as a result of profiling; miss the opportunity to benefit from cutting edge research by being absent or underrepresented in key datasets; or feel caricatured and disenfranchised through the way data is collected about them and their communities. This is intensified through the increasing use of AI and automated decision making built on this data, where a lack of transparency, accountability and redress has the potential for even greater harms.

Research on public attitudes on data finds that deliberation enables the public to navigate these tensions between risks and benefits with the necessary nuance. Citizens are generally happy for data to be used for public benefit, as long as safeguards are in place, and research by ADR UK and the Office for Statistics Regulation has found that “the public want to be involved in making decisions about whether public good is being served”. Public engagement exercises are already being run by the public sector, such as the £2m investment by DHSC for large scale public engagement. But these need to be scaled at the same rate as governments develop the use of data and AI to improve public services.

Our approach

This programme aims to develop narratives, practice and policy around the public participation in public sector data and AI projects through the following activities.

• Identifying and creating case studies about the ways in which communities are affected by public sector uses of data and AI – similar to our existing Data Stories reports on Work and Health – and about how public bodies are engaging with the public around data and AI.
• Running a series of partnership-driven practical design labs to explore, collaboratively develop and catalyse practical guidance and support for public participation in a range of different scenarios, such as during data/digital/AI policy development; public sector tech procurement; the development of new AI systems; or the creation of national statistics.
• Convening a peer network of practitioners across the public sector who are interested in public engagement around data and AI, providing a mechanism for them to learn from each other and external experts on topics of their choosing.
• Running a series of events and meetings with a wider set of stakeholders inside and outside the public sector, to raise awareness of this work and increase adoption of the recommendations emerging from it.

We are particularly grateful to The Mohn Westlake Foundation for their generous help and support for this work.