CoPI Meeting at the Cabinet Office

Present:

Tim Owen CoPI Chair
Elspeth Hyams CoPI Secretary
Barbara Buckley CoPI Treasurer

Mike Granatt Cabinet Office
Barry Sutlieff Cabinet Office
Angela Rae Department of Health
Steve Reardon Department of Social Security
John Ross Department for Education and Employment.

The purpose of the meeting was to ascertain what CoPI could do for Government and for us to put a convincing case for grant aid.

During tough questioning on the Manifesto, points that particularly hit home were the need to train children in information handling skills, especially in relation to information overload, and the concomitant need to train teachers accordingly. Whilst it was appreciated that the National Curriculum would not be changed for 5 years, that didn’t make the need go away. The problems faced by schools in financing the cost of telephone calls when accessing the Internet were also emphasised. On the civil servant side, concerns mostly centred around definitions and terminology and they were particularly anxious that information from departments should not be edited before being disseminated. This was partly because of the logistics and partly a concern that information would be taken out of context. It soon became clear how vital definitions of terminology will be in future discussions.

Debate on CoPI’s recommendation of the removal of restrictions on access to and use of personal encryption technology highlighted the need for a clearing house which would disseminate information about all relevant initiatives - a role CoPI intends to assume.

Having impressed upon the civil servants the extremely wide range of organisations and individuals that CoPI has consulted and has access to, the need to employ staff to move CoPI forward received a sympathetic hearing. There seemed little doubt around the table that CoPI had reached a watershed and needed to find significant funding for staffing if it was to provide the services outlined in the Business Plan.

Introducing the Business Plan, five aspects of CoPI's role were stressed - cooperation, coordination, conciliation , dissemination and representation, reinforcing the Chair and Secretary’s arguments about the nature of CoPI.

An extremely useful discussion ensued and the following points emerged regarding CoPI’s potential value to Government:

(a) CoPI could act as a clearing house for initiatives, collating details of these. Cabinet needs a common grammar to reach Government's public and must be kept in touch with initiatives and the needs of users. They will have to find resources to assess how information is needed and may do this in cooperation with other departments. Terminology must have flexibility.

(b) There was considerable interest in how CoPI could help with government.direct. It was suggested that CoPI could evaluate the pilot projects and assess the gaps.

(c) CoPI could act as a clearing house for initiatives, collate details of these and add value.

(d) CoPI could advise various government departments as to how they could improve their research. It could also provide a distillation of the views of a wide range of users e.g. CABs, Age Concern, big business, and add value. This would enable issues to be moved forward more quickly.

Whilst it is early days regarding any government funding, the CoPI team were left with a very positive impression and look forward hopefully to further meetings. There is a willingness to learn and seek advice and CoPI is perfectly placed to assist.

Barbara Buckley

12^th May 1997