Skip to main content
GOV.UK

Blog: Defra digital, data, technology and security

Organisations:
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Environment Agency, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Animal and Plant Health Agency

How a ‘Hackathon’ approach can accelerate the implementation of digital solutions

AI Generated Infographic illustrating the core elements of the hackathon

How a ‘Hackathon’ approach can accelerate the implementation of digital solutions

AI Generated Infographic illustrating the core elements of the hackathon Jay Ashcroft shares how a ‘Hackathon’ approach can foster creativity and produce working digital solutions in days. At the end of the summer, we collaborated on a ‘Hackathon’ event which …

Read more of How a ‘Hackathon’ approach can accelerate the implementation of digital solutions

What we’re doing to make video more useful across Defra

Posted by: John Seglias, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Posted on: 16 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation, Smarter working
Defra is unblocking access to online video

We're committed to smarter working in Defra, and we are starting with small fixes that make people's lives easier. One of those is about opening up access to online video.

Read more of What we’re doing to make video more useful across Defra - 3 comments

What we've learned about preparing for discovery

Posted by: David Thomas, Posted on: 7 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Defra services, Digital transformation
Animated gif with the words "Pre-discovery" replaced by "Preparing for discovery"

...discovery, which leads into alpha, beta and then live. My own recent experiences make me think that while the preparation work done during 'pre-discovery' is incredibly useful, the name “pre-discovery”...

Read more of What we've learned about preparing for discovery - 4 comments

Why we care about data architecture

Posted by: Sarah Burnett, Head of Data Architecture, Data Transformation Programme, Posted on: 4 August 2017 - Categories: Data Transformation, Defra digital
Head of Data Architecture for the Data Transformation Programme, Sarah Burnett,

We’re beginning to tell the story of how critical getting data architecture is to 'getting data right' for the Defra group.

Read more of Why we care about data architecture

A film about the flood digital service

Posted by: Dominic Burton, Posted on: 3 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
The flood digital service is used by the public to check for local flood warnings by location as well as current river and sea levels

The Environment Agency’s flood digital service is used by the public to check for local flood warnings by location as well as current river and sea levels. We spoke to the agile team that developed the service about how they are continually …

Read more of A film about the flood digital service

Time to talk, time to think, time to help

Posted by: Betsy Bassis, Posted on: 2 August 2017 - Categories: Defra digital
A poster about health and wellbeing in the Civil Service

...coat it: there’s a lot going on at the moment. Political changes. Organisational changes. People changes. Change has become the new business as usual. That’s why we’re working to become...

Read more of Time to talk, time to think, time to help - 2 comments

Better access to data to tackle Bovine TB

Posted by: Steve Wilkinson, Head of Innovation, Defra Data Transformation Programme, Posted on: 1 August 2017 - Categories: Data Transformation, Defra digital, Digital transformation, Software tools
Cows

Bovine TB is a complex and costly disease in cattle. Bringing Defra’s data together and providing better access and tools will really help us to tackle it.

Read more of Better access to data to tackle Bovine TB

Email less, talk more

Posted by: Colin Banno-Thorton, Posted on: 27 July 2017 - Categories: Defra digital
Photo of someone holding a Defra sticker that says "Email meetings conversations" (the words "email" and "meetings" are crossed out).

I want to talk about the subtle shift in communication approach within teams. Effective digital teams are good at trust and openness. It takes time to build behaviours like these,...

Read more of Email less, talk more - 4 comments

Smarter working means making Defra a better place to work

Posted by: Betsy Bassis, Posted on: 24 July 2017 - Categories: Defra digital, Digital transformation
Thomas Hind from the PMR team, doing their show-and-tell

Read a blog post from Betsy Bassis, Defra Chief Operating Officer, explaining what it means to work smarter and why it's important

Read more of Smarter working means making Defra a better place to work - 3 comments

Collaborating, reflecting and iterating

Posted by: Stefan Janusz, Communications, Defra Data Programme, Posted on: 21 July 2017 - Categories: Defra digital
Iterate poster

We teamed up with our friends in Digital Transformation to show what #datacando... With the help of Defra Leaders and Data and Digital experts, we showed off some of our work in data and digital services and made the case that transformation is about people, processes and culture...

Read more of Collaborating, reflecting and iterating

John Murray mashing geospatial data at #DataMash

Posted by: John Murray, Data Science Lab, University of Liverpool, Posted on: 18 July 2017 - Categories: Defra digital
Building

John Murray's work with #opendefra LiDAR yields 'actionable insights' – by mashing geospatial data from a range of sources, he shows how social patterns follow physical features.

Read more of John Murray mashing geospatial data at #DataMash
Previous page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 32
  • Page 33
  • Page 34
  • …
  • Page 51
Next page

Related content and links

Defra digital, data, technology and security: our story

This blog is about our experience of transforming Defra digital, data, technology and security services and information.

Find out more about what we do.

We're hiring

We’re always on the look-out for great talent.

Visit our recruitment hub for more information about the current roles on offer.

Find out more about our people.

Follow Defra digital, data, technology and security

  • Join our Defra digital, data and technology LinkedIn community
  • Follow Defra digital, data, technology and security on X

Recent blogs

  • How meeting our users in person changed everything  12 February 2026
  • Defra’s T Level pilot: investing in young people and building digital capability in government 6 February 2026
  • Defra group transformation: mapping the whole service landscape 10 December 2025

Sign up and manage updates

  • Email
  • Atom

Pages

  • About Defra digital, data, technology and security
  • Blog comment and moderation guidelines
  • Subscribe
  • A guide to agile communication
  • Our people
  • Working for us

Recent Posts

  • How meeting our users in person changed everything 
  • Defra’s T Level pilot: investing in young people and building digital capability in government
  • Defra group transformation: mapping the whole service landscape
  • Grief in the workplace: supporting each other during National Grief Awareness Week and beyond
  • Identifying the environmental impacts of digital services: lessons from the 'Get air quality data’ service

Recent Comments

  • Tom Parry on Identifying the environmental impacts of digital services: lessons from the 'Get air quality data’ service
  • Simon Johnson on Building a shared understanding of services
  • George Watkins on How Defra is leading the way in sustainable technology
  • Ryan Bark - Closing the Loop on How Defra is leading the way in sustainable technology
  • Amy Jennings on Improving Customer Experience in APHA – Delivering Outcomes with commercial “off-the-shelf” products

Useful links

  • All GOV.UK blogs
  • All GOV.UK blog posts
  • GOV.UK
  • All departments
  • Accessibility statement
  • Cookies
All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated
© Crown copyright