Commercial documents indicate that, in the early months of next year, GDS will release an outline of infrastructure of the new facility for collating and enabling access to public data
The Government Digital Service has awarded a six-figure contract for a supplier to draw up plans for the UK’s new National Data Library – with details set to be published by the end of the current financial year.
Newly released commercial documents reveal that, on 17 November, GDS entered into an initial six-month agreement with London-based tech consultancy esynergy for the “architecture design” of the new data facility, which is intended to create a central government-run hub of publicly available data for use by business and academia.
The text of the contract indicates that, in coming weeks and months, the supplier will help government’s digital unit create a blueprint for the operation of the system.
The contract says: “The Government Digital Service’s National Data Library programme is contracting expert services to support the design and delivery of a federated data, technical and organisational architecture that enables high value public sector data to be managed, accessed and used in a scalable, AI-ready, secure, and interoperable way.”
The document adds that “this work seeks to utilise skills and experience not available in the public sector to deliver an actionable architecture which supports the NDL’s long-term vision and can be published by the end of FY25/26, in collaboration with the NDL team and other stakeholders within and outside of government”.
In designing the library, “it will be critical to utilise opportunities to align with, learn from and reuse existing government work”, the contract says.
The deal with esynergy – which is valued at £658,000, inclusive of VAT – can be extended for three further months at GDS’s behest, which would take its end date to August of next year.
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The creation of the National Data Library was Labour’s flagship government tech policy in the party’s manifesto for the 2024 general election.
The manifesto set out a vision for a new central nationwide system that would “bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit”.
Following Labour’s election, the party expanded GDS and moved it to a new home in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, before tasking the enlarged unit with leading early-stage research intended to better understand the current landscape and how public sector data could be shared more effectively.
In April 2025, a trial exercise run by GDS identified 200 data sets held by government departments that were suitable to be opened up for wide-scale reuse.
The Whitehall digital unit is also set to imminently publish a roadmap for implementing digital plans across departments in the coming years, which will include “fully costed, feasible and funded deliverables”.
According to recent letter to MPs sent by Emran Mian, the permanent secretary of DSIT – and the new de facto government chief digital officer – the roadmap will provide “commitments on the next steps for the National Data Library”. The departmental head reiterated the vision that, once it is up and running, the NDL “will enable businesses, researchers and public servants to deliver better services, drive economic growth and support innovation”.
