How the ONS data-sharing dream ended in budget cuts and three rival platforms

Analysis In 2020, the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS), which provides data vital to form public sector policy and allocate resources, launched a plan to integrate government data and provide "high quality analysis that reflects the diversity of economic and social experience in our country."

Five years later, an independent review revealed that the budget of £240.8 million had been used – with approval from His Majesty's Treasury – to fund more general tech and data costs as the ONS struggled to get off legacy IT systems. In the spring spending review, the Treasury cut the rope.

The muddled plan and missed objectives left the government with three different platforms for data sharing, just as it faces seemingly insurmountable policy challenges in tax, spending, borrowing, housing, healthcare, social care, education, immigration, policing, planning, and more. It has also launched ambitious plans for AI, which will depend on data ...