June 17, 2019

In June 2018, the DCMS announced the UK Government’s intention to develop a National Data Strategy that would unlock the power of data across government and the wider economy, while building citizen trust in its use.

The Government says that the aim of the National Data Strategy is to “drive the collective vision that will support the UK to build a world-leading data economy”. The objective is to ensure that “all citizens and organisations trust the data ecosystem, are sufficiently skilled to operate effectively within it, and can get access to high-quality data when they need it”.

In creating a National Data Strategy the Government wants to “maximise the positive impact that data can help us achieve, with a focus on people and the places where they live”.

Through the open call for evidence the Government says that it will consult on the parameters and objectives of the strategy and gather evidence that will underpin a draft strategy. It will run a full consultation on that draft strategy later in 2019.

The call for evidence is divided into three areas of focus:

• people: to ensure that data is used in a way that people can trust and to ensure that everyone can effectively participate in an increasingly data-driven society;
• economy: to ensure that all businesses and non-profit organisations can effectively operate in an increasingly data-driven economy and to improve growth and productivity through the effective use of data across the economy; and
• government: to improve public services and government operations through the effective collection, sharing and use of data, and to achieve alignment in government around data, so that data is shared and used cooperatively wherever appropriate.

The DCMS says that the term “data” is intended to be understood broadly and refers to all kinds of data unless otherwise specified. For example, covering both personal and non-personal data, information that is stored both digitally and non-digitally, and data used for various purposes, e.g. data about people, data about performance, government data, content data etc.

The call for evidence closes on 14 July 2019. To access the call for evidence and for details on how to respond, click here.