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.

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.

The Second National Infrastructure Assessment recognised that coverage of gigabit capable connectivity has improved in recent years. But to ensure the UK meets the target of nationwide coverage by 2030, it recommends that policy and regulation must continue to support private investment in networks and competition. Government should also finish delivering the £5 billion subsidy programme to provide coverage in the hardest to reach areas.

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.

The Commission’s Connect Connected future 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 ensure that gigabit capable connectivity is available nationwide by 2030 by continuing to support network competition and market deployment, alongside delivering the £5 billion Project Gigabit programme to provide coverage to premises that are uncommercial.

Government must ensure the right conditions are in place to accelerate the market led deployment of 5G. By the end of 2025, government should:

• improve the consistency of approvals for 5G masts by planning authorities, including by allocating funding for local authority digital champions and publishing a list of the best and worst performing local authorities for site approvals
• work with Ofcom to encourage further use of the Shared Access Licence regime to speed up access to spectrum and open up opportunities for new services, including where increased power may be needed in some locations, and to ensure it supports localised private networks
• develop options for subsiding 5G coverage in uncommercial areas, should new use cases demonstrate the need for nationwide coverage.

Government should identify the specific telecommunications needs of the energy, water and transport sectors and ensure that infrastructure is delivered to meet these by, at the latest, 2030 for the energy and water sectors and 2035 for the road and rail sectors. Strategies for how this will be achieved must be set out by the end of 2025 for energy and water and by the end of 2026 for road and rail, including:

• the most cost effective network deployment models, and the extent to which infrastructure can be shared between different sectors
• a spectrum authorisation approach that ensures access to adequate spectrum, whether dedicated national bands or shared spectrum for infrastructure users
• clear responsibilities within government for delivering telecoms strategies
• consideration of whether dedicated networks and spectrum or upgrades to existing networks can meet specific public policy goals, including consistent and reliable rail passenger connectivity.

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 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.