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On 26 April, the Government’s response to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee “Big Data Dilemma” report was published. techUK provided both written and oral evidence to the Committee inquiry, links to which can be found below. The Government response echoes many of the key points made by techUK and the Committee on the importance of big data to the UK and the need to address the big data skills gap. The response also supports the establishment of a “Council of Data Ethics” within the Alan Turing Institute to address legal and ethical concerns relating to data privacy and security.

Sue Daley, Head of Cloud, Big Data and Analytics welcomes the Governments response:

“The creation of a Council of Data Ethics is an opportunity for the UK to lead the world by establishing an independent body that can consider the legal, social and ethical issues raised by the big data revolution. As we move quickly towards a future driven by data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, it is vital that we have way to ask, discuss and consider questions about how data is used if we are to build a culture of data confidence and trust across the UK. These are big issues that neither Government, industry or academia can tackle alone. techUK looks forward to working together with Government, the Alan Turing Institute and others to build a UK Council of Data Ethics that brings people together to address data issues of today and tomorrow.”

For more information on techUK’s input to the Big Data Dilemma inquiry click below for a copy of the techUK written submission to the Science and Technology Committee. A link to the video of techUK’s oral evidence to the Committee can be found here.