UK Gov Camp 2025 Personal Reflections

Hope is in the air

UK GovCamp at the Ministry of Justice 2025

Attending UK GovCamp 2025 felt like a breath of fresh air compared to 2024.

Last year, frustration and burnout were front and centre. This time, there was a real sense of hope and thinking about the art of the possible!

Here are the standout things from the sessions I joined:

AI bullshit spotting

There were quite a few sessions with AI in the title, so I thought I should attend at least one of them! 

A few things that stuck with me:

• If you're prescribing that AI is used in your project, you're heavily restricting innovation as you've prescribed it as a solution.

• AI energy consumption is tricky to measure due to limited data from private companies, but it was said that generating one picture uses about the same energy as charging a mobile phone. (Needs fact-checking!) This led to a comment that we should focus on decarbonising the grid.

• Most had experienced leadership asking for some AI magic to be sprinkled onto projects! (cue the eye roll moment!)

• Many people equate AI with Large Language Models, like Chat GPT. But there is more to it than that - much more!

• AI isn't free - sometimes, the cost will dampen the hype.

Error rates, data quality, and influencing senior leaders

A few takeaways from this session:

• Perfect data just does not exist. Just because people have submitted a digital form response doesn't make the data accurate.

• Data gets messy because the world and people change over time.

• Most forms have 100% error rate (ie, one error per form). Some can have 600% error rate (if it has gone back and forth a few times to get the data).

• Data on paper is "dead" data!

• Perfect-quality data is never possible. We should go with the best we can get. 70% accuracy in “warm data” is better than 99% accuracy in “cold data”.

• The Data Quality Framework is a helpful resource for understanding data quality better. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-government-data-quality-framework

Mission-led government and design

This session explored the idea of mission-led government and the question of whether it can help break down silos and focus on outcomes.

Maybe.

The challenges are real, however. KPIs, micromanagement, and bad systems don’t go away overnight. But there’s potential.

It’s all about the culture and leadership.

Camden Council’s work got a shout-out as a great example. 

Platformland

We discussed the challenges of putting the vision in the book Platformland into practice in the UK government.

In summary - this is a change challenge rather than a technology challenge. The tech is there already.  Challenges exist around things like:

• Trust between departments is low to non-existent.

• Funding issues - in the current structure, who would be happy to fund something that entirely benefits another government department. Funding is often short-term, too.

• It will require a culture shift - which doesn't happen overnight.

• It needs leadership that understands the vision.

Hang on a minute - it’s all about the culture and leadership…!

Feeling Positive

Overall, it felt like people were ready to look ahead and tackle big systemic challenges.

It was also a reminder that it's all about the people and culture if we're to deliver change successfully.

The optimism was contagious, and I left feeling inspired about what’s possible and excited about the future!

UK GovCamp is an unconference, also known as open space. This is a gathering where people form the agenda at the start of the day. UK GovCamp usually happens annually in January in London.

There are other government related unconferences, including GovCamp Cymru (focused on Welsh public services) and Local GovCamp (focused on local government).

Find the flavour that suits you!