Laying the data infrastructure foundations for smarter, faster, AI-ready government

Modern government runs on data. Whether delivering essential frontline services or shaping national policy, the ability to collect, understand and act on data is central to effective public services. But while the value of data is widely recognised, the infrastructure supporting it is lagging behind. 

Despite years of ambition to transform public sector data, this year’s State of digital government review found that only 27% of survey respondents believe their organisation’s current data infrastructure provides a comprehensive view of operations. And 70% say their data landscape is fragmented, with poor coordination, limited interoperability and no single source of truth.

This isn’t a new problem. But as pressure on public services grows, investing in data architecture, pipelines, and sharing mechanisms has become more urgent than ever. 

Why now?

Strengthening the UK’s public data infrastructure is one of the six core priorities outlined in the Government’s blueprint for modern digital government. To deliver faster, smarter and more connected public services, organisations need resilient, interoperable data systems built on secure, reusable data.

Departments can no longer afford to make do with slow, siloed or outdated infrastructure. Every delay in spinning up a new data pipeline is a delay in insight, decision-making and ultimately the delivery of effective citizen services. When priorities change or a crisis emerges, speed matters. 

Modern data platforms don’t just support improved services today; they also pave the way for faster product development and richer insights in the future. Quality, reusable data, shared securely across teams and departments, unlocks innovation at scale. New and emerging technologies, including AI and machine learning, also demand clean, reliable, interoperable data shared at a platform level. With more than 140 AI-use cases within the government already identified, it’s crucial that organisations start to invest in data foundations now or risk being left behind. 

Alongside innovation, modern data platforms can also help to reduce long-term costs. By taking control of their data architecture, departments can avoid vendor lock-in, consolidate tools and make smarter procurement decisions.

Is your data infrastructure delivering value?

Reliable, secure and accessible data across the public sector is the key to better decisions, improved services and greater value for public money. 

To understand if their organisation’s infrastructure is delivering value, public sector data leaders need to ask themselves key questions:

• Do you know where all your data currently sits, and can you access it easily?
• Can your teams build modern data pipelines across legacy and cloud systems?
• Do you understand how your data is being used across departments?
• Is your architecture resilient, flexible, and secure?
• Can you trust the quality of your data?
• Do you rely heavily on external suppliers and third-party vendors?
• Do your platforms support data governance, security, and audit?

A data health check can help data leaders answer these questions and more. It provides a bespoke, independent assessment tailored to the unique goals and challenges of an organisation, uncovering actionable insights that enable government departments to confidently plan impactful next steps on the journey to improved data infrastructure. 

What a modern data platform enables

Data exists in every public sector organisation, but it’s often locked in legacy systems or hidden in silos, only accessible to a limited number of people. By creating a cloud-native, AI-enabled data platform, built on lakehouse architecture, organisations can enable secure, centralised access to data. Combining data pipelines, the flexibility of data lakes and the structure of traditional data warehouses brings numerous advantages:

• Greater agility: Respond to change faster with infrastructure that supports rapid development, integration and iteration of data pipelines, enabling improved time to value. 
• Multiple-source data pipelines: Bring together data from multiple departments, systems, or sources to power joined-up services and richer insights.
• Trusted data quality: Access real-time and historical data with confidence, supporting faster, better decisions. 
• Reusability and cost efficiency: Reuse data sets and infrastructure to reduce duplication and deliver better value.
• Scalability, interoperability and governance: Standard models and platform-wide controls make it easier to share and secure data at scale.
• Attract top talent: Skills and capability building is a core challenge within public sector organisations. Modern data platforms appeal to skilled data professionals, essential for building internal capability and reducing reliance on external contractors.
• Future-proof for AI: Build the foundations required for AI, machine learning, advanced analytics and automation, without having to re-architect from scratch.

For HMRC, the creation of a valuable, flexible and scaled data platform enabled the organisation to support diverse government business use cases with a level of efficiency that has never before been possible. The Customer Insights Platform helps drive fraud prevention, customer insights and smarter decision-making thanks to the accessibility of the rich data stores. Read the case study

Navigating the potential challenges

While the benefits of modern data platforms are clear, the path to success isn’t always smooth, especially within the public sector’s unique organisational landscape. This year’s Data-sharing: The beating heart of a successful public sector report points to structural fragmentation as a major blocker, alongside a lack of a strong data culture built on robust leadership and confident skills.

Other potential pitfalls include:

• Deeply embedded legacy technology: Many departments are still reliant on systems that were never designed for modern data demands. Moving to cloud-native systems demands not only investment but also clear architectural thinking, documentation and a long-term strategy
• Vendor lock-in: Becoming overly dependent on vendors can limit flexibility and architectural control, making it harder to evolve systems over time.
• Over-reliance on external consultancies: While external support can help to accelerate delivery, it must be paired with a supplier that has a deliberate focus on capability building to ensure long-term sustainability. 
• Siloed systems and security vulnerabilities: Disjointed systems and unclear ownership can create gaps in security posture, posing risks to both data integrity and public confidence.
• Losing public trust: Just 46% of people say they trust the government to effectively use their data to improve products and services, and only 48% believe the government can keep their data safe. Modern infrastructure must be secure by design as well as resilient, transparent, and trusted. 

Recognising and addressing these challenges is key to building a platform that not only meets today’s needs but is ready for what comes next.

The Home Office faced some of these challenges in its journey towards a single source of truth. With siloed systems creating barriers between teams in immigration, border control and passports, it was becoming difficult to efficiently coordinate. We worked with the public sector organisation to create the Single Intelligence Platform, enabling users to record, access, and share data across the organisation. Read the case study

Delivering real-world data platforms

At Equal Experts, we’ve helped both public and private sector organisations transform their approach to data platforms. From helping HMRC use data pipelines to predict and prevent cybercrime to generating an estimated £22.1 million cost-saving at John Lewis Partnership through a paved road approach to data pipelines we have a proven track record of success.

Our experts have the skills, knowledge and experience to help you build, evolve and support modern data platforms built on underlying data that is available, trusted and actionable.If your organisation wants to build a strong foundation for an effective, efficient and future-proof data platform, we can help. Contact us to book a data platform discovery call or arrange a data health check to take the first step towards better data use across your organisation.