Interoperability in justice and public safety forum: workshop write-up

On 23 July 2026, techUK hosted a workshop session of the Interoperability in Justice and Public Safety Forum, split into two parallel breakout groups focused on developing a Consistent Interface Layer and an Interoperability Marketplace for policing and justice technology.

The session opened with reflections on the growing momentum behind interoperability across policing and justice, including the launch of the new Interoperability Handbook developed by the Police Digital Service.

Breakout one: the consistent interface layer

This group used Open Banking as a reference model for how a common interface standard, supported by adapters, can bring legacy systems into a shared approach without needing to replace them. Discussion favoured a federated model of ownership for setting standards, and agreed that standards must be co-created with industry, tightly scoped, backed by ongoing governance, and framed around operational rather than technical benefits.

Breakout two: the interoperability marketplace

This group developed a working definition of the marketplace as “a standards-based, assured ecosystem that enables police forces and public sector organisations to procure, integrate and share digital services through common APIs, governance, security controls and interoperable data models.” The group discussed how this links to the Home Office’s work on data standard mandation, and explored options for a supporting business case, including a potential funding bid for next financial year.

Next steps

The closing discussion considered how this work fits within the wider national data architecture and called for “interoperability-first” design principles to be reflected in the Police Reform White Paper. The Forum will now spend the remaining months of its current tenure turning this session’s outputs into documented recommendations ready for handover for the next tenure.

A summary of previous Interoperability Forum sessions is available on the techUK website.