Initiative overview
The National Data Library was announced as part of the UK Government's AI Opportunities Action Plan in January 2025, based on recommendations from entrepreneur and AI advisor Matt Clifford. Its creation is overseen by DSIT, with close involvement from the Government Digital Service (GDS). The NDL completed an extensive discovery phase in 2025, including public attitudes research, consultation with over 200 organisations and expert bodies (including the Open Data Institute, Wellcome Trust, Public Digital, The Tony Blair Institute and The Startup Coalition), and five 'kickstarter' projects designed to test approaches to systemic data reform. An architecture design contract of £650,000 was awarded to esynergy in November 2025 to produce a federated architecture blueprint for the NDL. The NDL's design principles prioritise: (1) public benefit and ethical data use; (2) data security and privacy safeguards; (3) a federated model that does not centralise data but provides shared infrastructure for access; (4) AI-readiness, with guidelines for making government datasets AI-ready published by GDS; and (5) public trust through ongoing citizen engagement. Economic analyses suggest a fully developed AI-ready data ecosystem underpinned by the NDL could generate £40 billion annually in productivity gains by 2030.
