The government has announced a set of new public sector data initiatives aimed at improving citizen support, reducing administrative burden and helping more people access the services they need.
The plans, published by the GDS and DSIT, set out five exploratory kickstarter projects that will test how better use of public sector data can deliver practical benefits for people and businesses. They address long-standing challenges in areas such as energy bill support, social care planning, legal guidance and weather-related planning.
One project will bring together data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs to make it easier to identify households eligible for energy bill support. The aim is to reduce the administrative burden on individuals and ensure support reaches those who need it without delay.
Another initiative will partner with the Department for Health and Social Care to create the Get Adult Social Care Data service. This will collect and analyse essential social care data in standardised, accessible formats, helping organisations such as the NHS and research bodies to plan better and respond to care needs.
The programmes also include work with authoritative legal data from the National Archives to explore how artificial intelligence could help small and medium-sized businesses access legal guidance more easily, for example on employment contracts or international procurement. This is part of broader testing on how AI can boost the effectiveness of public services.
Other projects will look at reducing repetitive administrative tasks for disabled people and those with long-term conditions, and converting Met Office data into formats suitable for AI and other technology to help organisations plan for local weather and climate impacts on operations.
To support these efforts, the government is investing an additional £16 million in the AI Research Resource supercomputing capacity at the University of Cambridge. When combined with the new National Compute Resource funded by UK Research and Innovation, this will increase compute capacity sixfold by spring 2026 and support UK researchers, start-ups and small businesses in developing advanced AI tools.
Digital Government and Data Minister Ian Murray said: “Technology is at the heart of our mission to build better public services - from making sure vulnerable people get the support they are entitled to without needless admin, to backing businesses with tools they need to grow.
“By taking a common-sense approach to public sector data and investing in our world class AI base, we are seizing the UK’s potential, unlocking opportunities for growth and delivering for working people.”