Digital & Data

Digital connectivity has become an essential service, vital to the country’s economic growth and to people’s quality of life. Businesses, charities and public sector organisations are dependent on digital technology to operate effectively. Individuals rely on digital services to perform day-to-day tasks, access public services and shop online. Future innovations will increasingly rely on digital connectivity, from connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) to new applications of virtual reality.

The National Infrastructure Assessment recommended that government should prioritise extending full fibre coverage across the whole country to avoid the UK being left behind – and saving up to £5.5 billion in operating costs over the next 30 years. Significant progress has been made since then to expand full fibre coverage and the pace of rollout has been increasing; evidence on the positive progress made on digital connectivity can be found in the Digital annex of the Commission’s Baseline Report, which sets out the programme of work which will inform its recommendations in the second National Infrastructure Assessment.

As well as offering benefits for home broadband users, enhanced digital connectivity will also facilitate the development of 5G mobile communications and smart infrastructure, enabling more agile and more efficient management and maintenance. Another project in the second Assessment will therefore look at how the digital transformation of infrastructure could deliver higher quality, lower cost, infrastructure services.

This study demonstrated how new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning could, in parallel with better data collection and management, help cut delays and disruptions across the UK’s increasingly inter-connected infrastructure networks.

A Digital Framework Task Group, set up in 2018, works across infrastructure sectors to realise the benefits of data. We have actively supported this group and the steps it is taking to develop appropriate data standards and work towards a National Digital Twin.

As part of its work on the second National Infrastructure Assessment, the Commission will be looking in more detail at how the digital transformation of infrastructure could deliver higher quality, lower cost, infrastructure services. More information on this project can be found in the Baseline Report.

This study, published in 2016, set out a series of recommendations to ensure good mobile connectivity is available where we live, work and travel, and that the UK’s road and rail network is made 5G ready. Since then, progress has been made on widening 4G coverage and enabling the early rollout of 5G technologies.

In February 2020, our follow-up review on mobile connectivity on UK roads and railways called for further progress in four areas: government leadership; access to trackside land; overcoming commercial barriers through a competitive process and filling evidence gaps.

Government should develop a data standard for freight data collection to support local authorities, outlining the requirements for technological capability, data requirements, and data format. Such a standard must seek to ensure consistent data quality and format across technologies to allow regional and national aggregation, and should be complete by the end of 2020.

The Commission recommends that government should set out a nationwide full fibre connectivity plan by spring 2019, including proposals for connecting rural and remote communities. This should ensure that full fibre connectivity is available to 15 million homes and businesses by 2025, 25 million by 2030 with full coverage by 2033. To achieve these targets:

• Ofcom should promote network competition to drive the commercial rollout of full fibre, by deregulating where competition is effective and guaranteeing a fair bet on risky investments before regulating any uncompetitive areas.
• Government should part subsidise rollout to rural and remote communities, beginning by 2020, starting with the hardest to reach areas and community self-build.
• Government and Ofcom should allow for copper switch-off by 2025.
• Government and Ofcom should take action to cut the cost of full fibre deployment including:
  • Government should ensure the processes for obtaining wayleaves and connecting new builds are the same for digital infrastructure as other utilities by 2019.
  • Local government should designate ‘digital champions’ to improve telecoms processes such as street work permissions and access to publicly owned assets.
  • Ofcom should monitor the accessibility of Openreach’s duct and pole infrastructure by levels of usage.

The Commission recommends that government should publish good quality data on infrastructure costs and performance. All public bodies taking decisions on strategic economic infrastructure should publish the forecast costs and benefits of their major infrastructure projects at each appraisal stage and at a suitable point after completion, by the end of 2019. The Infrastructure and Projects Authority should work with departments to ensure that costs are comparable between sectors.

The Government should task the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) with the establishment of a digital framework for infrastructure data, drawing together key organisations and existing initiatives both large scale (BIM) and smaller scale:

• a. A Digital Framework Task Group for infrastructure data should be established with a high profile chair who can act as a national champion for this agenda.
• b. CDBB should set out a roadmap to a digital framework to develop standards and formats for collating and sharing data.
• c. Key organisations which should be involved in the Task Group and in developing the framework include the Alan Turing Institute, Infrastructure Client Group, Construction Leadership Council, Infrastructure and Projects Authority, Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, Project 13, Office for National Statistics, Ordnance Survey, Open Data Institute and the recently announced Geospatial Commission and Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation. Wider consultation input should also be sought from the digital twin working group referenced in section 5.
• d. On standards development, in order to understand the existing standards landscape thoroughly at both a national and supranational level and to ensure agility, CDBB should consult extensively with industry on current behaviours and future requirements for how different infrastructure sectors and sub-sectors use data. CDBB may wish to commission an external standards organisation to conduct some of this work on their behalf.
• e. IPA and ICG should be engaged closely when designing final data standards and performance measures. The ICG amongst others will also be important to consult with respect to appropriate safeguards for commercial confidentiality.
• f. There should also be close collaboration with CPNI and NCSC on security requirements and levels of access and to develop standards for security, consistent with the objectives of the framework and an agreed approach to risk management.
• g. In order to support effective implementation, CDBB should also lead a scoping exercise for a framework to assess industry progress in adopting and using the framework and to measure innovation.
• h. CDBB should complete these actions and provide a public report on progress by 1 September 2018, setting out their recommendations for next steps. The National Infrastructure Commission would assess this as part of its wider role in monitoring progress against its recommendations.

The Infrastructure Client Group (ICG) and the Digital Framework Task Group Chair should lead industry engagement in the framework and cultivate a shift towards minimum levels of commercial confidentiality.

• a. ICG should report to CDBB on current industry compliance with minimum levels of commercial confidentiality agreed with CDBB in recommendation 1.
• b. ICG should work collaboratively with industry and the Digital Framework Task Group to identify opportunities to make data available and reduce the unnecessary use of commercial confidentiality (e.g. through reviewing and revising existing digital contracts), and should set out an agreed plan with milestones towards achieving the proposed shift.
• c. ICG should report on progress in reducing the application of commercial confidentiality to infrastructure data by December 2018.

The Digital Framework Task Group (see recommendation 1) should work with the UK Regulators Network and relevant Government departments to review and, where possible, strengthen the role of economic regulators in driving up the quality and openness of infrastructure data. This should include:

• a. Participation by the UK Regulators Network in the formulation of the digital framework set up by CDBB to ensure that it is effectively aligned with regulatory work on innovation and data.
• b. Assessment of the potential role of regulators and of possible barriers within current regulatory frameworks regarding: ensuring compliance by regulated network operators and utilities with the national framework and adherence to data collection standards and formats; sharing of data to inform better understanding of asset performance and user experience; sharing of data across infrastructure sectors and the value chain to enable greater innovation in the development of new technologies and data management focused on better asset management and increased productivity.
• c. Support for CDBB’s engagement with network operators and utilities around the provision of data of verified quality to input to the development of a national infrastructure digital twin over the long term.
• d. Identification of relevant areas for further trials or studies to enable regulators, and regulated industries, to understand and demonstrate how monitoring technologies and data can support cost-effective maintenance decisions and proactive asset management, working with relevant research organisations.

CDBB should collaborate with the Alan Turing Institute (ATI) and the UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) in pioneering digital twin models with predictive capability in the UK. This initiative should draw upon the AI expertise concentrated in the UK across universities and the public and private sectors.

• a. CDBB should work with BEIS and other potential funders to take forward a digital twin pilot project to explore and experiment with the benefits of building a digital twin of a specific geographical area. CDBB, ATI and ITRC should draw upon input from the digital twin working group identified in section 5.
• b. A project review of the pilot digital twin should be completed by October 2018. This should consider the lessons learnt for any future development of larger-scale or more complex digital twins, and the most effective institutional structures to support continuing progress in this area.