iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

17 posts

Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I see that Data Mill North is now a publisher in the National Data Library directory (i.e. the Data.gov.uk catalogue) www.data.gov.uk/search?publi... Confusing – Data Mill North was started by Leeds City Council but publishes data from numerous public bodies datamillnorth.org #govtech #opendata

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Transcripts of last week's evidence session on Machinery of Government changes have been published by the Commons Science and Technology Committee committees.parliament.uk/work/9978/ma... (UK) Various think tank people, mainly hedging on whether the breakup of DSIT makes sense #govtech #techpolicy

Q17 Freddie van Mierlo: I want to ask about the role of DCMS. Under the previous Government, it was rumoured that there was even a proposal for it to be scrapped. It is probably fairly acceptable to say that it is one of the weaker Departments, and it is also rumoured to have a Secretary of State who is not particularly interested in it.

Emily Darlington: I don't think that's true.

Chair: Certainly, that is not the impression that I've got—

Freddie van Mierlo: It has been reported. Do you think that moving responsibility for Ofcom, digital infrastructure and other important items into that Department strengthens it, or does it risk putting those things into a silo?

Alex Thomas: I do not think DCMS has been a weaker Department in terms of the quality of its personnel or anything else—well, I will leave the political debates to you.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Job – Senior Developer "building and improving the performance of the National Data Library platform" at the Government Digital Service (GDS) in Bristol, London or Manchester www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi... The librarian jobs are on another site, I think #govtech #opendata -ish

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The Scottish Government's harvester for sending metadata to the National Data Library is on the fritz again. New records for a set of 38 flood-related datasets have been created in duplicate every day since mid-August www.data.gov.uk/search?query... Will GDS notice at some point #govtech #opendata

Screenshot of a table showing a list of Scottish Government SpatialData.gov.scot metadata records for flood-related datasets published to the National Data Library directory 14/08/2026 - 21/09/2026, with counts of the number of records for each dataset

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

NHS executive lobbied data watchdog to rewrite criticism before Palantir deal www.ft.com/content/63bf... (£) Published version of Nicola Byrne's post in August 2023 www.gov.uk/government/n... Byrne's term as National Data Guardian ends in March #FOI #NHSdata #patientdata #datasharing #govtech

Emails from August 2023 obtained by the FT through a freedom of information request show Byrne delayed publishing the statement about the FDP after Ming Tang, NHS England's then chief data officer, warned it would "create significant problems" for her.

Tang raised concerns about what she argued was "inflammatory" language and a lack of balance in the statement after Byrne shared an advance copy.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Moving Share Homes for Ukraine data's code to open source mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2026/09/18/m... Shiny new GitHub repo github.com/communitiesu... This is the system that MHCLG built in-house instead of paying £10 million to continue using Palantir's Foundry software #govtech #techpolicy

Working in the open can be daunting! All your mistakes would be there for the world to see in a public code repository, with nowhere to hide... However, open source code is part of how we build software in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and a key part of the government Service Manual for digital services ("make source code open and reusable"). Sharing our code means that other government departments and people in outside organisations can benefit from our work, saving time and money.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Senior management structure at the UK Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), from a Nandy letter published today committees.parliament.uk/publications... Follows from the recent machinery of government changes / nuking of DSIT #govtech #techpolicy

Screenshot of a diagram showing the Senior Management Structure (Interim) at DCMS as of September 2026, with areas of responsibility under seven Director General posts (one of which is vacant). Susannah Storey, Permanent Secretary, is at the top of the diagram.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Select committee changes on the order paper for Monday commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/2026-09-14 SITC will become the Science and Technology Committee and will be principally concerned with GO-Science Other committees to cover DCMS & BIST including the digital bits #govtech #techpolicy #datapolicy

Standing Orders Etc. (Machinery of Government Changes)

Sir Alan Campbell

That the following amendments and related provisions be made in respect of Standing Orders:

A: Select Committees Related to Government Departments

(1) That Standing Order No. 152 (Select committees related to government departments) be amended in the Table in paragraph (2) as follows—

(i) leave out items 1, 3, 14 and 19;

(ii) insert, in the appropriate place, the following items:

"Business, Innovation, Science and Trade" : "Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade"
"Digital, Culture, Media and Sport" : "Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport"
"Science and Technology": "Government Office for Science"
"Women and Equalities": "Office for Equality and Opportunity"

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

The SITC Committee will become the Science and Technology Committee – and will be principally concerned with GO-Science, now that DSIT is defunct commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/2026-09-10 Seems like a radical descoping of oversight work done by Chi Onwurah MP et al? #govtech #techpolicy #datapolicy

31. Standing Orders Etc. (Machinery of Government Changes)

Sir Alan Campbell

That the following amendments and related provisions be made in respect of Standing Orders:

A: Select Committees Related to Government Departments

(1) That Standing Order No. 152 (Select committees related to government departments) be amended in the Table in paragraph (2) as follows—

(i) leave out items 1, 3, 14 and 19;

(ii) insert, in the appropriate place, the following items:

"Business, Innovation, Science and Trade" : "Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade"
"Digital, Culture, Media and Sport" : "Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport"
"Science and Technology": "Government Office for Science"
"Women and Equalities": "Office for Equality and Opportunity"

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

The National Data Library Expert Advisory Group has now concluded www.gov.uk/government/g... Well done everybody I like the gradient fills in particular www.data.gov.uk #govtech #opendata #datapolicy

Screenshot from GOV·UK:

National Data Library Expert Advisory Group: Terms of Reference

This transparency data was withdrawn on 2 September 2026
This page was withdrawn on 2 September 2026. The National Data Library Expert Advisory Group concluded in September 2026. The National Data Library was launched in June 2025 and now sits within the wider work of the Government Chief Data Officer within DCMS, drawing on expert input from external advisers and government Chief Data Officers.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#DataConnect26 on 6-7 October 2026, a GDS-fronted virtual event for the UK public sector: "Rather than issuing an open call for speakers, the programme has been curated around emerging cross-government priorities …" cddo.blog.gov.uk/2026/08/25/d... #govtech #datapolicy

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

"For the foreseeable future, FindMyAddress will only be available during business hours (08:30 to 17:30) Monday to Friday. The site will remain closed over weekends and bank holidays." www.findmyaddress.co.uk This wouldn't be a problem for anybody if the data was open. #govtech #openaddresses

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

The Single English County Saying No to Palantir www.wired.com/story/the-si... on the Analytics and Data Science Platform (ADSP) used by the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board #NHSdata #patientdata #govtech #techpolicy

The health care board for one part of England, Greater Manchester, has repeatedly declined to adopt Palantir's FDP, choosing to stick with a home-spun platform developed over the best part of a decade. The board claims it doesn’t need Palantir, that its own platform is functionally superior and more trusted by the public. "[Even] a technically strong platform will struggle to realize value if clinicians, data controllers, patients or the public do not trust it," Matt Hennessey, chief data and analytics officer at NHS Greater Manchester, tells WIRED. "If we were to fully adopt the FDP … it would be a retrograde step."

That claim—disputed by Palantir and other FDP advocates—has fed into a national debate over whether the government should seize an opportunity next February to terminate the NHS contract early, instead of allowing it to run until 2031.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

What are government's plans for science, innovation and tech policy? Committee seeks explanation committees.parliament.uk/committee/13... (UK) Letter from SIT Committee chair Chi Onwurah MP to whoever's in charge now #govtech #techpolicy

The Prime Minister announced his Cabinet members on 21 July, revealing that DSIT's responsibilities will be allocated to the Cabinet Office and two bolstered departments for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, and for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Writing to the three Secretaries of State, Dame Chi Onwurah, Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, asks if media reports detailing the destinations of former DSIT teams are accurate and when these details will be confirmed; when the transition of DSIT teams to their new departments will be finalised, and when the portfolios of all relevant ministers will be confirmed.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Chris Chambers has left the National Data Library www.linkedin.com/posts/chris-... End of an era (*looks to camera*) #geospatial #govtech #datapolicy #opendata -relevant

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Why it appears no crimes have been committed in neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester uk.news.yahoo.com/why-appears-... from the MEN Greater Manchester Police data for recorded crime incidents missing on the national #opendata platform data.police.uk/changelog/ #govtech #crimestats #datavis

Despite the grading, IT problems have left a black hole in neighbourhood crime data. The people of Greater Manchester are still unable to see accurate street-level crime figures routinely provided by every other police force in the UK.

When GMP launched iOPS, it was divided into two main components - 'ControlWorks' for call handling and officer dispatch; and 'PoliceWorks', a record management system containing intelligence, criminal investigations, custody records and files for court cases.

The majority of the issues related to PoliceWorks, which suffered from immediate, critical design flaws that severely disrupted crime recording and data extraction.

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Owen Boswarva @owenboswarva.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Closing science and technology department risks fragmenting vital policy areas, says Committee Chair committees.parliament.uk/committee/13... response from Chi Onwurah MP to the decision to close DSIT It sounds as if the SIT Committee expects to carry on with its work, anyway #govtech #techpolicy

"It will also take time and resources away from important policy work in fast-moving fields. My committee has heard the concerns expressed by many in the sector about this move, and in the autumn I expect that we will look into the impact of closing DSIT, and how science, innovation and technology can best be coordinated across government, in the absence of a dedicated department.

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