The UK Government Digital Service (GDS) has published new guidelines to help public sector organisations prepare their datasets for use with artificial intelligence. Alongside a four-pillar framework, the guidance includes an AI-ready data action plan and a self-assessment checklist.

The document states that: “The United Kingdom is at a critical inflection point in its adoption of artificial intelligence across sectors. While advances in machine learning, generative AI capabilities, and agentic AI capabilities continue at pace, the effectiveness, safety, and legitimacy of AI adoption remain fundamentally constrained by the quality, structure, and governance of underlying data.”

The guidelines, which were shaped by input from public sector bodies, departments and expert organisations, set out four pillars of AI-ready datasets to address these issues: technical optimisation; data and metadata quality; organisational and infrastructure context; and legal, security and ethical compliance.

The document states that: “AI readiness is inherently socio technical. Infrastructure modernisation, metadata fitness, and unstructured data pipelines are essential, but insufficient without clear accountability, sustained skills, and explicit legal and ethical decisioning at dataset level.”

GDS positions the guidance as a practical tool for public sector data and digital teams, and policy leaders and decision-makers.

It concludes that: “By adopting the principles, pillars, and action practices set out in this document, UK government organisations can move from opportunistic AI experimentation to a sustainable national capability for responsible AI.”

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National Data Library

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has also published a progress update on the National Data Library (NDL).

The forthcoming NDL is envisaged as a tool to make it “easier to find and reuse data across public sector organisations”. Its goal is to support “better prevention, intervention and detection, [and open] up data to industry, the voluntary sector, start-ups and academics to accelerate AI-driven innovation and boost growth”.

The creation of the NDL is backed by over £100m (US$138m) as part of a £1.9bn (US$2.6bn) total investment allocated to DSIT for cross-cutting digital priorities.

Following a discovery phase, the latest update includes the launch of five ‘kickstarter projects’ that aim to deliver high value use cases while testing innovative ways to address challenges related to data access.

These include data initiatives to target energy bill support; help people with long-term health conditions find or stay in work; ensure adult social care services match demand; enable AI-powered legal guidance for businesses; and improve the use of weather and climate data for decision-making.

DSIT also highlighted existing data initiatives such as the National Underground Asset Register; the Department for Education Content Store; the Health Data Research Service; and the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme.

The DSIT progress update said: “The public sector holds and creates a vast amount of data, generated from interactions between individuals, businesses and public services, research conducted directly or funded by the public sector, and specific data capture activities. This data is already improving the lives of people across the UK, but we can go much further.

“There is the opportunity to ensure that the UK has the right data sharing infrastructure across all parts of the economy, that respond to geopolitical and technical developments, whilst building and maintaining the trust of the public in the use of its data.”

DSIT said it will set out more details on the National Data Library this spring.

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