Interoperability in justice and public safety forum: workshop

Interoperability is now central to policing reform, justice collaboration, public safety delivery and the better use of data.

As part of our Interoperability in Justice and Public Safety Forum we are hosting a workshop that will bring together stakeholders from across government, policing, public safety and industry to explore two linked ideas:

1. The Consistent Interface Layer – creating a more consistent way for systems to access and share common capabilities across organisational boundaries.

2. The Interoperability Marketplace – reusing proven patterns, adapters, mappings, test packs and assurance evidence, rather than solving the same integration problems repeatedly.

Session overview

Forces and agencies will continue to use different systems and suppliers. Some local configuration will always be needed. The challenge is to allow that local flexibility while reducing unnecessary variation in how systems connect, share information and support audit.

The workshop will explore interoperability at two levels:

1. At the force or agency boundary, where capabilities need to be exposed or consumed in a consistent way.

2. At the supplier product level, where products need to support integration now and move towards stronger alignment with national standards over time.

Workshop focus

The workshop will focus on two breakout discussions.

Breakout 1: Consistent Interface Layer

This group will explore how a common access layer could work in practice. Discussion areas will include:

• What should the Consistent Interface Layer do?

• Where should it sit: force boundary, agency boundary, supplier product, integration platform, or a combination?

• Which initial use cases would be suitable for testing?

• How should it align with the PDS Interoperability Handbook, POLE, API standards, identity, lawful purpose, audit and assurance?

• How can local configuration be supported without creating unnecessary local variation?

• How could suppliers and products be assessed for readiness to support a consistent access layer?

Breakout 2: Interoperability Marketplace

This group will explore how reusable interoperability assets could be shared, adopted and assured. Discussion areas will include:

• What should an Interoperability Marketplace contain?

• Could it include reusable patterns, adapters, mappings, test packs, reference implementations and assurance evidence?

• How could it reduce repeated integration work across forces, agencies and suppliers?

• What would need to be assured before an asset could be reused?

• Who should govern, maintain and update marketplace assets?

• How could the marketplace support SMEs as well as larger suppliers?

Expected outputs

The workshop is intended to produce:

• A clearer view of the role and scope of the Consistent Interface Layer

• A shortlist of potential initial use cases

• Practical assessment questions for suppliers, products, forces and agencies

• A view on what an Interoperability Marketplace could contain

• A set of issues to take into a follow-up Delivery Framework session

Follow-up Delivery Framework session

The outputs from the 23 July workshop will be used to shape a follow-up session focused on delivery. That session will consider how the ideas discussed on 23 July could be taken forward in practice, including governance, ownership, assurance, procurement, conformance, adoption, funding and delivery responsibilities.

Who should attend

Due to the nature of the session, the workshop will be hosted fully in person at techUK offices. If you are interested in joining the conversation please book your ticket.