Data Sharing Infrastructure

A National Data Library should be part of a Data Sharing Infrastructure that is governed by the Regulatory Innovation Office.

Labour’s proposals¹ for a National Data Library and a Regulatory Innovation Office have got many of us thinking… and hopeful. These ideas could be part of a bigger data sharing landscape that would unlock the value of data across the economy and help tackle the major challenges of our day; climate, health, energy, security, housing, economic wellbeing. If we want people and machines to be more productive, we have to enable them to access the right information to make decisions. Artificial Intelligence can aid us in tackling these challenges but only with the right data and the right rules around using that data. Secure data sharing has to be the cornerstone of mission-based industrial strategy.  

But we continue to share data in a piecemeal and clunky way. We waste energy with multiple copies of data held in central databases. We share some data we shouldn’t; and fail to share some data we should. We all want a piece of the data action, but we don’t quite know how to be at the heart of it. Because the heart of it, is sharing data, not holding it. Excellent data sharing exemplars have arisen over the past few years, the National Underground Register², London Datastore³, the Climate Resilience Demonstrator⁴, Virtual Energy System⁵, Open Energy⁶, Open Banking⁷, National Digital Twin Programme⁸, Stream⁹ and many more which are demonstrating the benefits of sharing data; such as boosting innovation, reducing cost, increasing resilience, and showing us how to do it. We need to harness the groundwork of these initiatives and bring them together into an economy-wide data sharing infrastructure.  And crucially we need effective governance and direction to enable us to share data securely. 

A Regulatory Innovation Office presents a huge opportunity to provide data and digital governance across the whole economy whilst working to join up the effort of existing Regulators. Our Regulators are highly specialised, and we need that, but as called for by the National Infrastructure Commission¹⁰ and the Climate Change Committee¹¹, they need to collaborate more on non-sector specific issues like climate change and data. Cross-sector issues require systems thinking, and you can’t get systems thinking to have impact without collaboration. A Regulatory Innovation Office that takes responsibility for making rules about how we share and use data across the economy working with existing regulators who already think about this; ICO, CMA, Ofcom, Ofgem, Ofwat, ORR, DRCF and more. These rules would form part of our data sharing infrastructure, an infrastructure which would enable us to share data securely across all parts of the economy. 

A National Data Library “to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services”¹², needs to be based on a distributed model of data sharing, with a distributed architecture, rather than a centralised one.  And a National Data Library needs to be recognised as part of Data Sharing Infrastructure because Data Sharing Infrastructure is infrastructure and needs to be developed for the benefit of all. This means the Data Sharing Infrastructure needs funding and regulation, in the same way as for example, transport infrastructure. Public and private sector data both need to be shared using this infrastructure but according to a common set of rules that keep us all safe. 

We’ll be stuck in era of not knowing what’s going on unless we have a data sharing infrastructure governed by a Regulatory Innovation Office that recognises the value of data to our economy and the importance of public infrastructure to support information flow to all parts of our economy. In the internet age, we’ve become surrounded by data but unable to make best use of it. Our counterparts in Europe and Japan already have a deal¹³ in place to enable cross-border data flows to facilitate digital trade. The EU Data Governance Act¹⁴ underpinning the development of Common European Data Spaces¹⁵ provides the governance and direction to foster data-driven innovation across the EU. We’ve not been without ideas and technical progress here in the UK, with initial calls for data sharing infrastructure in Data for the public good¹⁶ and advancements across the tech sector and publicly owned facilities such as the Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure¹⁷ under the Science and Technology Facilities Council¹⁸. What we haven’t managed to do so far is to guide this progress under a common governance framework. We haven’t had the oversight to drive this forward. We have a huge opportunity right now to put some governance in place under a new Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Peter Kyle, to enable our brilliant domestic tech sector to get on and provide secure, resilient and scalable data sharing. 

So if the Regulatory Innovation Office provides the oversight, how do we ensure collaboration and diversity of thought? Convenors and connectors like the Catapult Network (working as not for profits and Public Private Partnerships) are very good at bringing different parties together for different purposes to achieve better outcomes. These convenors can lead a Data Sharing Infrastructure Centre of Excellence to support the work of the Regulatory Innovation Office, bringing together real-world projects and experiences to guide the development of policy and rules. 

A National Data Library and a Regulatory Innovation Office are brilliant ideas. Data sharing infrastructure is much needed in the UK or we will lag behind the EU’s Data Spaces. We need to make sure that a National Data Library is part of Data Sharing Infrastructure and that this is governed by the Regulatory Innovation Office. That way we can put ourselves in the best position to deliver each mission. 

Authors

Sarah Hayes, Independent Consultant and Connected Places Catapult Ambassador 
Mark Enzer OBE FREng, Strategic Advisor, Mott MacDonald 
Justin Anderson, Director of the Digital Twin Hub, Connected Places Catapult 
Geoffrey Stevens, Director of Data, Connected Places Catapult 

On behalf of Connected Places Catapult – The UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport & place leadership. 

[1] Labour-Party-manifesto-2024.pdf
[2] National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
[3] London Datastore – Greater London Authority
[4] Climate Resilience Demonstrator (CReDo) – Digital Twin Hub
[5] Virtual Energy System | ESO (nationalgrideso.com)
6] Open Energy – Find, access and use Open and Shared energy data.
[7] Home – Open Banking
[8] National Digital Twin Programme (NDTP) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
[9] Stream – Portal (streamwaterdata.co.uk)
[10] NIC-Strategic-Investment-Public-Confidence-October-2019.pdf
[11] Progress in adapting to climate change – 2023 Report to Parliament – Climate Change Committee (theccc.org.uk)
[12] Labour-Party-manifesto-2024.pdf page 35
[13] EU-Japan deal on data flows enters into force  – European Commission (europa.eu)
[14] European Data Governance Act | Shaping Europe’s digital future (europa.eu)
[15] Common European Data Spaces | Shaping Europe’s digital future (europa.eu)
[16] Data-for-the-Public-Good-NIC-Report.pdf
[17] Data & Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure – DAFNI – The UK’s next generation platform to support the development of essential infrastructure services, revolutionising the UK’s ability to adapt to a changing climate and technological landscape.
[18] Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) – UKRI