6. What plans are there to use big data to change the way public services are delivered? OAQ(5)0088(FLG)

Harnessing advances in digital and data offers real opportunities to public services. The Welsh Government is investing in the capacity to make the most of these chances, for example, through investment in the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank in Swansea and by working with the Office for National Statistics as they develop their data science campus in Newport.

Thank you, Minister. Harrow Council have used big data to streamline rubbish collection and grass-cutting services, making £4 million of savings just through calculating the best routes to collect the bins and preventing overlap. Camden Council has reduced repair calls by 14 per cent by using big data to pinpoint where problems arise. When considering how the delivery of public services is redesigned, will you ensure that digital innovation is embedded so that we can be at the forefront of the big data revolution?

I thank the Member for that. There are things we say on this topic in the White Paper on local government, and I very much share his focus on the way in which big-data analysis can make a difference to the most everyday aspects of what local authorities provide. I was hearing only earlier this week from a big-data analysis company of the way in which, in another part of the world, simply by capturing data from citizens, they had been able to make a radical difference to the way in which roads are cleared at times of snow. It is by getting under the bonnet of data of that sort that councils will be able to face a very difficult future by using their limited resources in that more directly effective way.