Improving UK Parliament's Open Data Platform

Our goal is to replace outdated technology with a modern, secure, data integration platform for procedural data (where data from multiple sources can be brought together and linked). Also, to introduce improved services for users to find and use procedural data.

Benefits of doing this are improved data availability, quality, and accessibility, along with providing more responsive delivery of digital services and more modern digital infrastructure that is flexible, secure, resilient, and fit for the future.

The current landscape is complicated, built up over more than a decade. What we are building is much simpler both from a technology perspective and for users.

There are three existing "data platforms" which we are seeking to consolidate. These bring together more than twenty procedural datasets, including questions, bills, and Hansard. It is expensive to support three platforms. The platforms include the tools used by librarians in the House of Commons to improve the data by managing quality, adding subject indexing and links between items. These tools will also need to be upgraded.

It is also difficult for users. As well as the three platforms, users can find procedural data on separate subdomains of the Parliament website. Our research has told us that this is confusing and difficult to navigate. Users value the existing search tools (Parliamentary Search and its external equivalent) because they bring different sources together in one place, but they find them slow and not intuitive.

We are working on introducing an improved search tool and building other ways for users to access data: a query service and APIs (allowing access to data by other tools; the cross-cutting APIs from the platform will complement the single-source APIs on developer.parliament.uk).

We are:

• bringing all data from the existing systems together in a single repository, with tools for users to access this data. This means that users will see some more immediate benefits, such as improved data availability, accessibility, and reliability.
• designing, testing, and approving future processes and systems for bringing data into the platform. It will take time to apply the new processes to all the existing data sources – some of this work will be taken forward through ongoing support.

The Open Data Platform will help us to:

• combine, integrate, and store procedural data.
• repackage the data
• remove legacy technology
• publish the data

The Open Data Platform will be a 'one-stop-shop' for procedural data which will enable scrutiny through high quality and reliable data.

As a result, you will be able to:

• use the enhanced data search
• view data from one central point
• analyse, filter and use the data

We are introducing ways of working for maintenance and improvement of these services in line with the Parliament’s Digital and Data Operating Model (DDOM). This will involve the Commons Library and Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) working together. The Library’s understanding of the data and user need will complement the technical expertise within PDS. There will be a steering group with stakeholders from across Parliament, who will work to set the vision and roadmap for services. This will ensure the platform continues to deliver value and benefit for the organisation and individuals for years to come.

The first job for the team will be to implement the new processes for bringing data into the platform so we can turn off the legacy systems.

In the long term we need to ensure there is capacity for continued maintenance and improvement. The ambition is that the ODP framework will support other data integration in Parliament. This should mean we can have a more resilient and efficient support model.

Closing the existing systems will be one milestone, but the long term ambition is bigger. We want users to be able to follow the full story of what happens within Parliament - where proceedings start, how they are linked, what might happen next. Once the new systems are in place, we will work to implement data models which can tell the detailed story. And there are other relevant data sources that could be added and made available to users through the flexible data platform tools. These tools will provide an efficient way of meeting general user needs to access procedural data and allow developers to easily build tools that meet more specific requirements.

We've come a long way: our users will see significant improvements and our work will not stop there. In the long term, by making procedural information easy to access, we will support scrutiny work within Parliament and increase public understanding of Parliament's work - both vital parts of our democracy.