No statutory duty or function for maintaining canonical government reference data

GDS's Registers programme, comprising 51 canonical, API-accessible datasets (countries, local authorities, schools), was retired in March 2021 with no successor function. The consequences are now official: data.gov.uk's own team admits over 25% of links lead to error pages, datasets sit unupdated for years, and publishers include organisations that no longer exist, after 'underinvestment since 2017'. The March 2026 data.gov.uk reset (curation, Data Manual v1, public roadmap) treats symptoms, but no department is under any duty to maintain reference data that others build on, and the National Data Library's published plans do not yet include ownership obligations.

Every service, journalist and AI system built on rotting reference data inherits its errors. The government is now spending £100m+ on a National Data Library whose raw inputs decay by default because maintenance is nobody's job.

A registers function inside the National Data Library: named accountable data owners per canonical dataset, update SLAs and public quality dashboards, backed by a Cabinet Office functional standard or statutory duty to maintain designated reference datasets.

// State-led: Instrument: Cabinet Office functional standard or statutory duty within the National Data Library.

The £100m National Data Library is being reset now, creating a moment to attach maintenance duties, but keeping canonical datasets current is currently nobody's statutory job.