Government Digital Service Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Government Digital Service

Lord Wills Excerpts
Tuesday 13th October 2015

(9 years, 1 month ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Bridges of Headley Portrait Lord Bridges of Headley
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My Lords, the noble Lord makes an extremely good point. During the previous Government a number of websites were shut down—scores indeed—some of which were competing against each other. I hope this is not a party-political point, but I think we have all learnt the lessons from the early days of digital. We need to make sure we continue on the approach we have set.

Lord Wills Portrait Lord Wills (Lab)
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My Lords, the previous Government had an excellent record in promoting the use of open data in government. Can the Minister give an assurance that this Government will be equally vigorous in its use in this Parliament?

Lord Bridges of Headley Portrait Lord Bridges of Headley
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Absolutely, my Lords, and we need to continue to use our data better. It surprises me that we still have silos of data that we do not use and do not mine, and we need to continue to make the data more open and more available.