Gavin Freeguard

Tomorrow!

If you’re a lead or head working on a digital service, you’re going to be held to account by more than GDS’s guidance. And it doesn’t all live in the same place. My favourite governance nerd, Oli Lovell, has pulled together a compass. Have a peek. publicdigital-delivery-compass.netlify.app/trial/

True Londoners know best of us comes from sharing ideas. Great to be back last night with @gavinfreeguard.com founder of @sotf.org.uk at @ice-engineers.bsky.social for his #DataBites series, following a small hiatus. Discuss #ArtificialIntelligence. Obvs. #LetsGuide #UniquelyLondon #ALondonersLife4

Missed yesterday’s Data Bites? Catch up on #61 in our resources section for the latest presentations on data across government and the public sector. 📺Watch the recording here buff.ly/5lN211C 📅 Register for November’s #DataBites62: buff.ly/GneyYcf

Sign up for the next 2 #databites on 11 November and 2 December: www.thinkdigitalpartners.com/data-bites/

Tune in at 5.30pm for the 61st edition of #databites, the first from @sotf.org.uk & @thinkdigitalptns.bsky.social! - HMRC on trustworthy data and AI - National Archives on preservation registries - Commons Library on election data - Sopra Steria on spotting red lights

I've talked before about how we are overdue a proper think about the role of MPs. The proposed national commission on electoral reform is an opportunity for this. I mused on that here thehumbleaddress.beehiiv.com/p/the-nation...

put something on GOV.UK didn’t we www.gov.uk/guidance/test-and-learn-playbook

⏳️ THIS TIME TOMORROW ⏳️ Join us in London or online for the return of #databites Hear from HMRC on trustworthy data & AI... National Archives on preservation registries... Commons Library on election data... Sopra Steria on 'spotting red lights'... Drinks and discussion afterwards! 👇👇👇

A reminder that: - The Cab Sec doesn't want you to know who is advising her on the review into the civil service medium.com/state-of-the... - The review risks starting in the wrong place (AI-driven headcount reduction), and is it as 'fundamental' as it needs to be? medium.com/state-of-the...

I incorporated your excess secrecy point in the draft CS Review conclusions that I have offered to Dame Antonia. @lucyfisher.ft.com ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/review-of-...

A reminder that: - The Cab Sec doesn't want you to know who is advising her on the review into the civil service medium.com/state-of-the... - The review risks starting in the wrong place (AI-driven headcount reduction), and is it as 'fundamental' as it needs to be? medium.com/state-of-the...

And I published my (very late) 2025 year note medium.com/@gavin-freeg... And we welcomed @aliceolilly.bsky.social as an associate 🥳

AI notetakers are in the news at the moment - those transcribers that pop up in online meetings. We @carefultrouble.bsky.social did some work with GMCA earlier this year to write a playbook on best practice and have published it, with 11 guidance principles www.careful.industries/ai-voice-tra...

Great new blog post from @gavinfreeguard.com about the excellent new report on Policy Camp that he's written. medium.com/state-of-the...

And for the final time this conference season... now with added SNP listings 👇

In the proudest tradition of utterly failing to relax on holiday, I've updated my "Open Govtech Index": all the government open source repos I could find, classified and tracked, so you can see what government is building (and hopefully reuse some of it!) www.govtechindex.cloud

Sign up via email: mailchi.mp/3c57e3c9e403...

Today's excellent @samfr.bsky.social newsletter has motivated me to blog about how the state might respond to the rise of AI-generated claims, applications, appeals, complaints etc. loosemore.com/2026/10/14/t...

Really pleased that this is the first report from @sotf.org.uk - convening people and giving them the space to connect, reflect and share lessons (and frustrations) is vital for making government better, and we should be learning from the people doing the work

Q: Do you know of any #public or #community owned conference venues in #Manchester that can host 250 people and have at least 8 breakout rooms, please? Dates needed are either Saturday 16 or 23 January 2027. @ukgovcamp.com 2027 ( #ukgc27 ).

Done! Please do sponsor us and @arthritisuk.bsky.social! fundraise.arthritis-uk.org/fundraisers/...

Update

Horrifically and hilariously late, but for the sake of completeness... my year note for 2025 with links to all the work I did gavin-freeguard.medium.com/year-note-20...

Done! Please do sponsor us and @arthritisuk.bsky.social! fundraise.arthritis-uk.org/fundraisers/...

Really sad to see this, but congratulations to everyone @ukandeu.bsky.social, past and present, for what was really valuable work

I'm re-reading, "Mapping public sector reformers: an update" medium.com/kinship-work... by @gavinfreeguard.com published 12 January 2026. #reformers #community #opensource

Rum.

The Cabinet Office is being ridiculously secretive about who is helping it consider future civil service reform. And there is still no sign of any public or internal civil service consultation. All very strange/troubling.

Saddened but not surprised by this. Radical civil service reform is vital if, for example, the vision of "joined up government services" highlighted in the GDS Roadmap has any chance of being implemented.

On the face of it, a very odd refusal to name external advisors

If things are still as they were when I was SCS five years ago, a Deputy Director at least will have had to have signed off this FoI exemption. This should worry us for several reasons:

Good stuff from Gavin here. It's incredibly worrying that this is being done behind closed doors. It only breeds worry that it's the very worst and wrongest people being listened to. To renew faith and trust in government, this kind of work must be done in the open.

Very much worth reading. I'm really not sure I understand the Cabinet Office's position on this.

Exclusive: the government doesn’t want you to know who’s advising it on civil service reform medium.com/state-of-the...

Very interested to hear from anyone with any insights into the government’s approach towards AVR and data, or ideas for ‘retrospectives’ - previous government data projects that might have faced similar challenges

Very excited to start working on this!

If you're at Conservative Party conference in Birmingham this week, here's a list of all the data/AI/digital/public sector reform events Please add any I've missed! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...