Guidance

Data (Use and Access) Bill factsheet: growing the economy

Published 24 October 2024

The Data (Use and Access) Bill will bring an estimated £10 billion boost to the UK economy across 10 years.  

The innovative use of the new Smart Data powers and the National Underground Asset Register will drive economic growth across the UK by improving the way consumers, businesses and asset owners can safely share data to help workers, and the public make more informed decisions.

Smart data

• The Data Bill will give the Science and Technology Secretary and HM Treasury (HMT) the power to introduce new Smart Data schemes through regulations which will specify the scope of a scheme. These regulations include:

  • Who is required to provide data
  • What data they are required to provide
  • How and when they must provide that data
  • How that data is secured and protected, including who authorises access to data.

• The regulations will create the right conditions to support the future of open banking and the growth of new smart data schemes, models which allows consumers and businesses who want to safely share information about them with regulated and authorised third parties, to generate personalised market comparisons and financial advice to cut costs.

• UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) already allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data. Smart data takes this further by allowing consumers to request their data be directly shared to authorised and regulated third parties, whilst establishing a supporting framework to ensure data security.
  • Open Banking, for example, allows you to aggregate the account information from different banks into one real-time dashboard of your choosing, so you can see all your money in one place. When making online payments, open banking also allows you to make transfers through the service you are using instead of having to open your banking app. This allows for better money management.
• There is low engagement and a lack of trust amongst consumers to utilise their own data in many sectors. Where already sharing data, some customers are currently using less secure methods, such as ‘screen scraping’ which means using a computer programme to copy data from a website. Use of these methods can lead to direct harm if this data is mishandled.

The benefits of the smart data powers in the Data (Use and Access) Bill

• This legislation will pave the way for the smart data model to be used in more sectors, as well as finance. Customers could be able to compare prices between energy providers, for example, allowing them to find better deals and reduce their energy use, boosting competition and ultimately the UK’s economy.  

• As an example, authorised third parties could act as an intermediary service for your data, allowing you to cancel one service and sign up for another with form filling becoming just a click of a button. In Open Banking this is seen in the Current Account Switch Service. 

• The potential of Smart Data is already being demonstrated with open banking, where 82 firms alone have raised over £2 billion of private funding and created over 4,800 skilled jobs in March 2023.

• As an early pioneer of open banking, the UK has historically been a leader in smart data. Legislation will help us retain this position, by enabling the expansion of smart data to other sectors. Consumers and businesses will have better control over their own data and access to new services, fuelling innovation, investment and growth in the economy.

• Open banking already gives consumers and businesses better access to their banking data. It is used by over ten million people. More opportunities for consumers to switch to better deals, through similar smart data schemes will increase competition in the market.  This will encourage providers to improve their services, ultimately allowing for open banking to grow – with smart data powers aiming to do this across more sectors, such as energy.

About the National Underground Asset Register

• National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) is a new government digital service which provides instant access to a map of the underground pipes and cables for authorised users in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

• Currently, owners of buried assets like water and electric companies voluntarily share their data with NUAR. The proposed legislative reforms will make signing up mandatory to create a complete and accurate picture of our underground infrastructure. These changes will streamline the process by which asset data is shared, and enable NUAR to become a fully operational, comprehensive and sustainable service.   

• “Asset owners” will include over 600 gas, water, electric and telecommunications companies and local authorities.  

• NUAR already includes data from over 240 asset owners, including most of the major energy and water providers, such as Welsh Water, Cadent Gas and Northern Ireland Electricity, several major telecommunications companies, including Virgin Media O2, as well as smaller providers of these services, transport organisations and local authorities.

• Due to the significant commercial and security barriers required to develop a platform like NUAR, there is no commercially viable service in the UK which brings together all public and private underground infrastructure data in a single digital resource.

The benefits of NUAR

• NUAR will grow the UK economy by over £400 million a year. 

• It will improve the way we install, maintain, operate and repair our buried infrastructure. 

• There are around 60,000 accidental strikes on buried infrastructure every year - costing the UK economy £2.4 billion per year and putting workers’ safety at risk. NUAR will ultimately reduce delays from roadworks for citizens and improve worker safety. 

• Currently, workers who are installing, maintaining, operating, and repairing buried assets must contact multiple organisations and wait on average over six days just to get the information they need. 

• NUAR will accelerate the average data-sharing process from 6 days down to 6 seconds, providing workers in the field with access to a more comprehensive and rich view of buried assets to help them make more informed decisions on how to carry out works safely and efficiently.  

• It will reduce the risk of workers potentially hitting underground utilities when digging during construction and lead to enhanced communication between parties and improved data quality. It will also contribute to building the infrastructure needed across the country, such as new roads, rail and houses