Ivan - stock.adobe.comNewsState of Open Con 25: Why public sector needs an open approachOpenness, open source and open data were among the topics discussed at OpenUKs State of Open Con 25 in LondonByCliff Saran,Managing EditorPublished: 05 Feb 2025 15:15 Earlier this week, people attending OpenUKs State of Open Con were presented with a vision of open government that has the potential to improve efficiency and transparency.Given Channel 4s recent study that found young people are democratically disengaged and increasingly shifting towards authoritarianism, speakers in government and the civil service discussed the importance of open data to improve transparency in government.Lord Nat Wei said he was not surprised that young people in the UK want to vote for dictators, who he said show them they can cut through what seems to be many of the annoyances people face in day-to-day life when dealing with the public sector.We need to go upstream, both in the way we execute current government functions and how we participate [with the people public policy affects], he said.An example of an open approach is the Caddy AI large language model (LLM) assistant, which came about through a collaboration between i.AI and Citizens Advice Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale and Trafford (Casort).The implementation of Caddy at Citizens Advice uses a range of public resources from Gov.UK and Citizens Advice, as well as the latters proprietary advice content.It has been designed as a scalable framework, suitable for integration across government and into existing chat environments. From a technology implementation perspective, Caddy AI uses open-source technologies for backend operations.Opening up the UK governmentEmily Middleton, director general for digital centre design at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) used her opening remarks to discuss the benefits of joined-up government, which works when there is more openness. Ministers have been clear that a modern digital government should have joined-up services that are easy to use, she said.People shouldnt have to work out what benefits they should apply for and they shouldnt have to remember what steps the government needs them to take, said Middleton. Its still too difficult to collaborate and responsibly exchange data across public sector organisations. She added that the benefits of addressing a joined-up government go far beyond improving the system experience.One of the areas the government is set to make more open is in procurement. Lindsay Maguire, deputy director of procurement reform at Government Commercial, described the challenges procurement teams around the country face as quite rigid, which she said creates problems for marketplaces. According to Maguire, open procurement is more flexible and offers greater levels of transparency, which benefits public sector purchasing.Drawing on the success Ukraine has achieved in open procurement, she said: Ukraine is a great case study on opening up transparency.This requires open data and legislation for the procurement process. Without legislation, Middleton said: Were not going to be able to encourage all of the procurement teams across the UK to provide us with their procurement data.From 24 February 2025, open data standards will be embedded in public sector procurement legislation. Maguires team collaborated with the Open Contracting Partnership to develop the Open Contracting Data standard.Discussing the collaboration, Gavin Hayman, executive director at Open Contracting Partnership, said: Were really helping the government to understand whom theyre buying from, how much and what kind of outcomes theyre getting for their money.Read more open government storiesConservative peer urges government not to limit open source AI: The chair of the Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee calls for greater support for SMEs, competition and economic dynamism as artificial intelligence policies are developed.The challenges of open source in government: Public sector bodies may find their policy decisions are stymied due to the inflexibility of the software they deploy. Is open source the answer?Hayman believes this level of understanding needs to be part of the workflow of planning and delivering public contracts. The most important stage is actually not the procuring stage, where you have an idea of what you want to buy, but in planning.The process, according to Hayman, needs to start at the point a public sector organisation decides what it needs to do or the problem it needs to solve.Maguire pointed out that there are over 1,000 procurement frameworks in the UK, which all cover what she described as slightly different sectors, with slightly different suppliers.Publishing this data enables people working in public sector procurement to see where similar items are being purchased and query differences in prices for the same product.According to Maguire, the new open approach to procurement, which involves publishing data on what the public sector wants to buy, enables small businesses to engage in the process. Thats good for economic growth, she added.Another benefit is that the data can be used to achieve commercial outcomes. For instance, when several departments appear to be buying very similar products, a procurement team can use the data to negotiate the best price. Maguire also believes an open procurement process can enable procurement teams to identify supply chain risks far easier and root out potential corruption.Government as an open systemDuring the opening keynote at the conference, Wei proposed that if the government could be treated like an open system, it would be possible to simulate government departments, enabling policymakers to trial alternative approaches. As a technologist, investor and legislator, Ive often asked myself, what if we treat our own government like a system? he said.Wei added that such an approach would allow citizens and civil servants to contribute ideas and code to improve these digital departments. This goes beyond code and includes broadening the diversity of ideas policymakers can draw on.Treating the government like a system may seem a radical idea, but mapping workflows and processes so they can be managed through a system is fundamental to how most businesses operate. For the speakers at Open Con 25, it needs to be an open system with open data.In The Current Issue:Forrester: Why digitisation needs strong data engineering skillsLabours first digital government strategy: Is it dj vu or something new?Download Current IssueData engineering - Stack Overflow: Building the foundations of AIintelligence CW Developer NetworkAmazefit T-Rex 3 Inspect-a-GadgetView All Blogs