Case study: Unlocking the potential of major projects’ data, HM Treasury
Case study details
| Metadata item | Details |
|---|---|
| Owner: | Analysis Function Central Team |
| Who this is for: | All government analysts |
| Contact: | Sarah Boutle (Sarah.Boutle@nista.gov.uk) |
Team / Department
National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) Data and Insight Team, HM Treasury.
Situation / Action
The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) in HM Treasury (HMT) supports the delivery of the UK government’s largest, most complex and innovative projects in government, a portfolio costing £834 billion. These are projects that span the entire range of government’s actions, from schools and hospitals to nuclear submarines. NISTA provides support and independent assessment to these projects, a mission which critically relies on good quality data.
A collaboration between NISTA’s Data and Insight team, the Government Strategic Management Office (GSMO) and the Digital Analytical Capability in the Data and Insight Team, Cabinet Office Digital (GRID) (both teams in the Cabinet Office), this is a project which has transformed the way data on major projects is shared (read more about Productivity Pitches #6: What can central government do to improve productivity in public services? | Institute for Government). The collaboration helped synergise reporting requirements across central government and provide a consolidated and collaborative view of delivery for all.
Over the course of the last 18 months, we transitioned data sharing between departments and the centre to a robust, easy-to-use platform (GRID) that was built in-house by the GSMO team, increasing the number of users from 650 to 7,000.
Working on a “share-once-use-again” principle, we worked with GRID to build the digital and data infrastructure needed to develop state of the art interactive dashboards, fast effective reproducible analysis and effective AI tools to support better project delivery.
Outcome / Impact / Results
The result was a more efficient, more impactful use of project data across government, driving project delivery into the future, with:
- Significant direct savings compared to the previous platform
- Enhanced user experience for departments, providing a single platform with clearer, deduplicated reporting for departmental teams, driving better data quality with automated quality assurance, saving its users up to three weeks each quarter, and providing further significant indirect savings
- Consolidated and shared view of data for all, cutting out the “middleman” reporting industry
- Accessible, timely data and analysis to drive evidence-based decision-making on major projects across NISTA, Cabinet Office, HMT, No10, and other departments
Our flagship AI tool Scout, developed in collaboration with i.AI, is designed to improve major government project delivery by automatically analysing thousands of documents to help detect early ‘teething’ problems. Now in operation, Scout has already trialled in the NISTA assurance reviews of 11 major projects.
Further reading
- Civil Service World DSIT previews ‘Humphrey’ AI package for civil servants in £45bn productivity drive
- Read more about Scout in Heywood Quarterly
How this work supports the Analysis Function strategy
HMT’s work demonstrated behaviours which support the Analysis Function strategy by improving project delivery through data (1), building AI tools like Scout and digital platforms (2), and enabled cross-departmental data sharing (3).
Find out more: a strategy for analysis in government 2025 to 2028