Guidance

Mid-point report on use of the DEA powers

Updated 12 February 2020

This report was produced based on feedback in the earlier part of 2020, before the COVID-19 crisis.

Since then, the government has undertaken an accelerated programme of building capability and capacity in data-sharing to respond to the crisis. In this context, there is an important opportunity to learn from the response to COVID-19, and a number of departments are carrying out a review of data activity in this period, and looking at how to continue building capacity in the longer term.

What follows is therefore an evaluation of data-sharing at the beginning of 2020, published to support the government’s commitment to open and transparent policy making. However, it should be noted that we will be considering lessons from the response to COVID-19 in tandem with the findings below, to ensure that the government’s data sharing strategy is fit for purpose for the future and drawing on the widest possible range of lessons and recommendations.

Introduction

Context

1. Public authorities need legal powers to share data. Previously, where public authorities could not rely on common law powers to share information, they would have to seek the powers they needed through either express or implied powers in primary legislation. This resulted in a proliferation of powers to share data for very specific purposes. Public authorities often found it difficult to understand the true position of what data could be shared. Where powers did not exist, it could take years to establish legislation to introduce new data sharing powers.

2. The legal gateways provided by Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 cut through these issues by enabling data to be shared safely, securely and easily, with an up-to-date framework that supports public authorities in delivering their responsibilities more effectively. The information sharing provisions became fully operational in July 2018, and have had a number of positive and varied impacts across the public sector since then, including:

• establishment of 104 new information sharing agreements (ISAs) across the various powers

• pilot schemes under the fraud power discovering almost £7 million in fraud, with potential to realise up to £30 million, as well as identifying £491 fraud for every £1 spent

• accreditation of 31 research project applications and 3,030 researchers by the Research Accreditation Panel and

• support in delivering the 2021 Census through enabling ONS to access council tax data from local authorities in England under the statistics power

3. The powers represent a powerful tool for secure information sharing, which can inspire the trust and confidence of citizens whilst enabling the delivery of better services and outcomes for citizens and government. The Government and the wider public sector need to work together to ensure that the opportunities for policy development and delivery afforded by these information sharing provisions are being fully realised.

4. This report reflects on usage of the powers to date, and how we can build on these early foundations to drive further uptake and use across government.

Overview of the data sharing provisions

5. Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 covers 7 chapters designed to improve the sharing of publicly held information for specific purposes:

Chapter one	Public Service Delivery	Allows data sharing to support services and (positive) interventions for citizens and households as part of social and economic policies. Examples include supporting individuals and households with multiple disadvantages and/or living in fuel/water poverty.
Chapter two	Civil registration	“Enables more flexible sharing of civil registration information (births, marriages and deaths). Civil registration data can play a big part in supporting digital transformation. e.g. checking against birth record data can confirm eligibility for a service without the need to send paper copies.”
Chapter three	Debt	Allows organisations to quickly establish data sharing pilots to test the value of data sharing to reduce and manage debt owed to government.
Chapter four	Fraud	Provides the ability to quickly establish data sharing pilots to test data-enabled methods to combat fraud.
Chapter five	Research	Permits public authorities to share de-identified information with accredited researchers for the purposes of research in the public interest.
Chapter six	Disclosure by Revenue Authorities	“Enables HMRC, the Welsh Revenue Authority and Revenue Scotland to share general and aggregate data, which is non identifying information, to allow them to play a wider role in policy development.”
Chapter seven	Statistics	Supports the reuse of administrative data and access to real time data to produce up to date national and official statistics.

6. Codes of Practice associated with the data sharing provisions provide details to practitioners on how information sharing powers under the Digital Economy Act 2017 must be operated. The Codes set out procedures and best practices that help ensure organisations exercising the powers are complying with the Data Protection Act 2018. It is a legal obligation for all persons disclosing or using information under these powers to have regard to the respective Code of Practice.

Updates on use of the information sharing powers

Public Service Delivery power

7. This power allows specified bodies to share personal information for objectives which are set out in legislation. Four objectives have been established via legislation to date:

• Fuel poverty - Allows for information sharing between specified public authorities and gas and electricity suppliers for the purposes of providing targeted assistance to individuals or households living in fuel poverty. Disclosures of information under this objective must be in connection with a fuel poverty measure listed in section 36(3) of the Digital Economy Act 2017.

• Water poverty - Allows for information sharing between water and sewerage undertakers and specified public authorities, and between the specified public authorities for the purposes of providing targeted assistance to individuals or households living in water poverty.
  Information can be shared with water and sewerage undertakers only if it is used to target support under the WaterSure scheme or a social tariff.

• Multiple disadvantages - Allows for information sharing between specified public authorities to help identify individuals or households which face two or more social/economical disadvantages

• TV retuning - Allows for the targeted assistance in re-tuning televisions following spectrum changes

Fuel poverty objective

8. Nineteen ISAs under the fuel poverty objective have been established. These include:

• Data sharing agreements between BEIS, DWP and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to test data matching between datasets to identify fuel poor households

• Data matching between DWP and energy suppliers to provide benefit eligibility checks for the delivery of energy efficiency improvements under the ECO scheme and under Warmer Homes Scotland

• Eligibility checks for the provision of support to fuel poor households under the Industry Initiatives element of the Warm Home Discount

9. Further examples of ISAs under this objective can be seen in the register. However, despite interest from local authorities in using information sharing for local fuel poverty schemes, anecdotal evidence suggests a lack of capacity and nervousness around compliance with data protection legislation has acted as a barrier in establishing data sharing agreements of this nature. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is currently exploring some options for driving further uptake of the fuel poverty objective.

Water poverty objective

10. There have been no ISAs established under this objective as yet.

11. Over the last year, eight water and sewerage undertakers or companies (Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Severn Trent, Southern Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water) have been working with DWP officials towards implementing information sharing. These companies have submitted proposals to DWP, and although no data sharing agreements are in place yet, reasonable progress has been made and it is hoped that the agreements will be in place by Spring 2020.

12. The proposals being developed currently are intended to demonstrate to other water companies how the objective can be used. The ambition is for the remaining companies to build on these frameworks to seek to achieve the full potential of information sharing between water companies and DWP in targeting water affordability assistance.

Multiple disadvantages objective

13. One ISA has been implemented under this objective.

14. The sharing of HMRC RTI data with three charities from each local authority delivering Social Impact Bonds. This ISA was agreed in 2019 for a pilot by DfE and the three local authorities (Lewisham, Bristol and Sheffield) to develop and deliver (via third party providers) Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). The aim of the SIBs is to support young care leavers into Education, Employment or Training. The HMRC RTI data was shared to help with the assessment of the efficacy of the project by tracking earnings of participants and using the data as evidence of continuous employment.

15. Preliminary discussions have taken place within a range of local authorities across the country with a view to establishing data sharing agreements under this objective. Some discussions are still progressing. However, feedback from local authorities suggests that a lack of awareness and understanding of the power in their departments has acted as a barrier to usage, with information governance teams opting to rely instead on tried and tested information sharing gateways.

16. DCMS will continue to explore the barriers and potential solutions to uptake of this power, working closely with teams across government, in particular the Troubled Families Programme Team.

TV retuning objective

17. There have been no ISAs established under this objective.

18. This objective was designed to enable data sharing to support targeted individual assistance to vulnerable customers impacted by changes to the 700MHz band. To date there has been no need for data sharing as a reactive communications approach has proved sufficient and so no data sharing agreements have been considered under this objective. The 700 MHz Spectrum Clearance Programme will go through final clearance on 29/4/20. There will therefore be no further need for this objective for 700 MHz clearance. Post clearance the use of 700 MHz will be managed by Ofcom.

Civil Registration Power

19. The Registrar General has entered into 6 ISAs under this power (with HMRC, HMCTS, DWP, Home Office and UKVI) with a further 2 applications currently being considered.

20. The majority of the ISAs have supported digital transformation in the respective department by allowing a check against civil registration data to confirm eligibility of the service without the citizen needing to provide a paper copy of their certificate. The powers have also assisted DWP to trace the next of kin of a large number of deceased former benefit recipients where arrears of benefit has been due to the estate. Without the ISA, this information would only have been available by the purchase of individual death certificates.

21. The Registrar General has made an application to enter into an ISA with each of the 173 local registration districts with the ISAs expected to be in place by the end of this financial year. Local Authorities have started to see the potential benefits of the powers with 1 data sharing agreement in place and 4 progressing.

Debt Power

22. There are 29 councils piloting a data share with HMRC, under this power, to reduce council tax debt by accessing income data.

23. Councils taking part in the pilot sent a combined sample of 122,000 council tax debt records to HMRC, amounting to £110m of debt. HMRC used match criteria based on a full match of first and last name, and debt or forwarding address, applying other rules to prevent false matches. HMRC achieved a good match rate with a little variation between councils and returned to the pilot councils income data for where there was a conclusive customer match. Data revealed that 50% of customers were in PAYE employment, 10% had self-assessment income and 10% had both. For 30% of the matched records, HMRC had no record of either PAYE or self-assessment income – useful to inform more tailored debt management and support strategies.

24. Just over half of matched returns related to customers who fall into the personal rate income tax band of up to £12,500 and may therefore be financially vulnerable. However, early analysis shows that 2% of customers fall into the higher and additional rate income tax bands and may earn more than £150,000 per year.

25. For England and Wales, Council Tax debt stands at around £3.2 billion. The pilot is not yet due to report however indications are that using HMRC data will support recovery of around 20% of the debt.

26. A further Council Tax debt pilot is being planned to incorporate DWP data in addition to the HMRC data to increase match rates and to better identify and therefore assist those in difficulty due to debt affordability and/or vulnerability. Furthermore, a debt pilot is being considered to better understand cross government management of debtors with vulnerabilities (mental or physical health problems, bereavement, drug dependency, etc).

Fraud Power

27. There have been 7 Pilots conducted using the fraud powers. These have included:

• Data sharing between Companies House and HMRC: the pilot compared company accounts information to understand where businesses might be misrepresenting their financial position in order to either i) appear more investable or receive more generous lines of credit; or ii) reduce tax liabilities. The pilot identified between £5.1 and £5.5 million of tax at risk from cases taken up for investigation by HMRC. The pilot also identified over 3,500 accounts that have been corrected on the public register of companies.

• Data sharing between Homes England and HMRC: the pilot compared Help to Buy Loan data to understand where applicants may be fraudulently seeking a loan when i) they have failed to disclose existing residential property ownership or ii) declared that they earn more than they do, in order to receive a larger loan. The pilot has identified £337,000 fraud, with potential benefits of £4.86m if the data share were converted into business as usual.

• Data sharing between local authorities and HMRC using the National Fraud Initiative (NFI): the pilot is testing the value of adding HMRC data to the existing wide range of council datasets held within NFI, targeting potential fraud resulting from undeclared; property ownership, earnings and capital; and undeclared persons in a household. The pilot has found an estimated £1m fraud from 10 councils. Extrapolating these results nationally suggests this could deliver 2,500 cases of fraud/error, deriving almost £25m of benefits to the public sector.

• A Pilot has been undertaken to understand the value of DVLA data for single Universal Credit claimants to identify possible other adults at the same address revealing a risk of undeclared partner fraud. An operational pilot looking at identifiable cases is now being planned.

28. This means that data sharing under DEA powers to combat fraud has, in the first year of operations:

• found almost £7 million fraud with potential to realise up to £30 million

• identified £491 fraud for every £1 spent

29. Two further pilots under the fraud powers have yet to report outcomes. One involved data sharing between the Student Loan Company and HMRC to combat fraud in claiming childcare costs.

Research Power

30. In early 2019, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) established a Research Accreditation Panel to oversee the governance and accreditation of processors, researchers and projects wishing to use the Research power. The Panel has agreed a framework of security and capability standards that processors must meet to become accredited for the preparation and provision of data under the DEA. Five processing environments across the UK have gained accreditation and the UK Statistics Authority accreditation team is working with a number of processers to accredit more environments to deliver a network of processing environments which adhere to the necessary standards and controls.

31. Since October 2019, the Research Accreditation Panel has accredited 31 research project applications which are now proceeding. These projects have been sponsored by a range of organisations including Government, local government, academia and the commercial sector. The Research Accreditation Panel has also accredited 3,030 researchers under the Digital Economy Act 2017, who have successfully completed Safe Researcher training so as to become accredited researchers under the Research strand of the DEA.

Disclosure by revenue authorities

32. There have been 15 ISAs under the chapter 6 power. The power has been used to share information with the Cabinet Office in seven fraud ISAs to allow the Centre for Counter Fraud Expertise to assist with data sharing pilot analysis.

33. HMRC has also used section 74 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 to share data with a range of departments, including:

• MoD - Enabling information sharing between MoD and HMRC aimed at helping MoD to understand if HMRC data could help improve their reservists address accuracy, enabling justification to create a new gateway in the Data Protection Act 2018 to get individuals’ data

• Scottish Government - anonymised and disclosure controlled aggregated counts of data have been shared with the Scottish Government for the purpose of calculating the income domain of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation

• Defra - Aggregate data on trade in specified minerals between the UK and EU/Non-EU countries on a per country basis and also aggregate trends by industry sector has been shared with Defra to assist with planning of future resources

34. Section 74 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 has also been proposed as a legal gateway to enable sharing of non identifying information with Defra on incidences of non-compliance that relates to the Convention on International Trade (in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 1975) of goods entering UK ports.

Statistics Power

35. Since the Statistics powers came into force, amending the 2007 Statistics and Registration Service Act, there have been 27 ISAs put in place which provide ONS with access to data using the framework in sections 45A-D of the SRSA/DEA statistics framework. Examples include:

• NHS Digital data on hospital episodes and improving adult access to the Psychological Therapies programme

• HMRC Self-Assessment data to support the development of household income estimates for use in the Census and other statistical outputs, and to improve the quality of analysis on self-employment

• Council tax data from local authorities in England to support the delivery of the Census in 2021

• Positive engagement with a number of major UK retailers to supply test-versions of ‘scanner’ (point of sale) data to support the development of price and inflation estimates, and retail sales statistics

• Home Office exit checks data to improve the quality of migration statistics

• Credit reference agency data for experimental financial statistics

The Review Boards

36. Separate Review Boards have been established to oversee use of the Public Service Delivery and Debt and Fraud powers. Both Boards consist of qualified subject matter experts gathered from across government, as well as representatives from the Information Commissioner’s Office and invited members from appropriate public representative bodies. Further information on both the Public Service Delivery Review Board and the Debt and Fraud Information Sharing Review Board can be found on their respective webpages.

Public Service Delivery Review Board

37. The Public Service Delivery Review Board met three times in the first 18 months of operations and focused on reviewing use of the existing four objectives as well as assessing a proposal from the Scottish Government for a new objective to improve the targeting of early learning and childcare support in Scotland. The Review Board recommended to the Minister that this objective be taken forward which was agreed in July 2019 and instructions to draft Regulations are being prepared

38. DCMS are planning to reconvene the Review Board in April. This meeting will primarily focus on the results of research which has recently been commissioned into barriers to usage of the Public Service Delivery power and how they could best be overcome. The frequency of Board meetings will be increased as more proposals for new objectives are developed to the stage where they were ready for scrutiny by members.

Debt and Fraud Review Board

39. The Debt and Fraud Review Board met 12 times in the first 18 months of operations. Members recommended to the Minister 7 fraud and 29 debt pilots and the Minister approved all 36 pilots for implementation.

The register of information sharing agreements

40. The relevant Codes of Practice set out that information about all information sharing agreements (ISAs) concerning England-only or non-devolved bodies under the Public Service Delivery, Civil Registration, Debt and Fraud powers must be included in a publicly available register. The codes set out the specific information that needs to be included within the register e.g. the controllers, processors, projected benefits and type of data being shared under the ISA.

41. The register was developed and maintained by GOV.UK Registers to meet the requirements of the Codes of Practice. The custodians for each of the powers were responsible for checking proposed new entries from controllers before submitting them to the Government Digital Service (GDS) for uploading into the register i.e DCMS are custodian for entries under the Public Service Delivery power; Cabinet Office for entries under the Debt and Fraud powers; the General Register Office for entries under the Civil Registration power. DCMS retained oversight and overall management of the register. There were 1,418 visits to the on-line register in the first year of operations. Public authorities also publish supporting documents including business cases, ISAs and data protection impact assessments in line with ICO guidance.

42. Two reference registers were established alongside the main register of ISAs. One reference registers sets out the legal powers under which information is disclosed under Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 and the other sets out the Specified Persons able to disclose and use data under those provisions.

43. The register of ISAs provides a number of benefits, including making information about how the information powers in Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 are being used publicly available. The register also helps public authorities understand how the powers are being used. This can help them better determine how they could use the powers to improve their respective services and deliver better outcomes for citizens. The register also enables the Government to monitor how the powers are being used and to better understand their impact.

44. DCMS has established a new registers site that will be hosted and maintained solely by DCMS as policy area holders. The need for a new system was based on improved functionality for both administrators and users of the system. Custodians for the powers now send entries for DCMS to upload into the register as opposed to GDS.

Themes emerging from usage of the powers

45. Some overarching themes and challenges have emerged which apply to a number of different powers:

46. Time and resource savings: The expectation was that considerable savings could be generated if public authorities were able to use the legal gateways under part 5 of the Act, rather than having to dedicate time to establish new legal gateways. Early use cases suggest that the Digital Economy Act 2017 is having this positive impact. For instance, three of the fraud pilots were implemented in around 8 months whereas prior to the Digital Economy Act 2017 they would have required their own separate pieces of legislation which would have taken significantly longer to address.

47. Value of HMRC and DWP data: Many of the ISAs that have been developed, or that have been finalised, under the various powers, involve the disclosure of HMRC or DWP data. This underlines the value of this data in improving the delivery of a range of policies and services. HMRC and DWP teams are working hard with a range of bodies to support these numerous requests for access to their data. DCMS will continue to engage with them in order to understand pressures on their resources that may result from these data access requests.

48. User confidence and call for case studies: Feedback from stakeholders suggests that some organisations are more reluctant to make their data available for fear of data breaches or risks to data confidentiality. They have said that they need more guidance and case studies to change a culture which is very risk averse (including among local solicitors).

49. Bringing data held by health and adult social care bodies into scope: Some stakeholders have argued that they would be more likely to make use of chapters 1-5, particularly the Public Service Delivery power, if data held by health and adult social care bodies were brought in scope via legislation. However, as set out in the Code of Practice, until the recommendations made by the National Data Guardian’s Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt-outs have been implemented and there has been public consultation, including with appropriate representative health bodies, adult health and social care bodies in England and for activities which are not devolved will not be added to the Schedules.

50. Delays in finalising agreements with Government departments: Lead departments for most of the powers have reported instances of data sharing teams in departments requiring long lead in times to accommodate proposed data shares. In most cases, it appears that resource and capacity constraints are the primary factor for the delays. A lack of consistent awareness and understanding of the powers across Government has also contributed to delays in progressing information sharing agreements under the powers.

51. Government culture around usage of data: there is a need to move to a culture where sharing data, safely and securely, is considered best practice and a core service across government to support the delivery of public services. This includes ensuring that existing systems and processes are adequately mapped and understood, so they can be fully utilised to support evidence-based policy making in government.

52. Creating new public service delivery objectives via secondary legislation: In June 2019, the NAO report ,‘Challenges in using data across government,’ noted that the process for creating a new objective under the Public Service Delivery power is, ‘a lengthy process, which could act as a disincentive to pursuing data-sharing opportunities.’ The subsequent PAC report in July commented that the Digital Economy Act 2017 had ‘made gaining parliamentary approval to share data between departments or with external bodies easier but it is still quite new’. Reflecting on the process for creating new objectives and considering how to stimulate greater consideration of proposals for new objectives among departments and other stakeholders will be a key element of the programme of work going forward.

Next steps

53. As this report outlines, while there have been some encouraging early use cases of different information sharing provisions, overall usage, particularly of the Public Service Delivery power, has not been as high as anticipated. DCMS intends to improve uptake and work with colleagues across Government and the wider public sector to:

• Educate, enable and equip departments and organisations to make more use of the existing powers to improve services in 2020: supporting departments to make use of the various provisions is resource intensive and time consuming. DCMS and Cabinet Office provide support in using the Code of Practice and Review Board procedures. All parties to an information sharing agreement under one of the provisions need to provide technical expertise from lawyers, analysts, security, policy and data protection teams, all pulled together by a project team. DCMS will therefore need to combine with other departments to resource further activity under the Digital Economy Act 2017 provisions.

• Identify gaps and mismatches between legal gateways and strategic objectives that are stopping departments and organisations from using data sharing as a vehicle to improve services: building on the findings in this report, DCMS has commissioned research into barriers to usage of the Public Service Delivery power. This research will also look at some of the other information sharing provisions within Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 for comparative purposes and will be useful in improving understanding of barriers to information sharing more generally. A final report on the barriers, with recommendations on how they might be overcome, is due in April 2020, to help inform the development of the wider work programme associated with the Digital Economy Act.

• Prepare for the statutory review of the powers in 2021: the Digital Economy Act 2017 includes a duty for the relevant Minister to review the operation of the Debt and Fraud powers after three years. This will be a timely point to take stock of how the other powers are being used. DCMS, Cabinet Office and other partners will work together to prepare for the statutory review and any other accompanying review of the other powers.

Annex: Summary table on the use of the information sharing powers

Power	Number of ISAs	Achievements from use of the power/objective	Planned activity
Public Service Delivery - fuel poverty	19	Data matching between DWP and energy suppliers to: - Provide benefit eligibility checks for the delivery of energy efficiency improvements under the ECO scheme - Eligibility checks for the provision of support to fuel poor households under the Industry Initiatives element of the Warm Home Discount.	BEIS are currently exploring some options for driving further uptake of the fuel poverty objective.
Public Service Delivery - water poverty	0	Eight water and sewerage undertakers/ companies have been working with DWP towards implementing information sharing under the objective by Spring 2020.	For the remaining companies to build on these first use cases when they are ready.
Public Service Delivery - Multiple Disadvantages	1	- information sharing by DfE and three local authorities to develop and deliver Social Impact Bonds to support young care leavers into Education, Employment or Training. - The HMRC RTI data was shared to help with the assessment of the efficacy of the project by tracking earnings of participants and using the data as evidence of continuous employment.	DCMS will continue to explore the barriers and potential solutions to uptake of this power, working closely with teams across government, in particular the Troubled Families Programme Team and Local Authorities.
Public Service Delivery - TV retuning	0	- This objective was designed to enable data sharing to support targeted individual assistance to vulnerable customers impacted by changes to the 700MHz band. - To date there has been no need for data sharing as a reactive communications approach has proved sufficient.	- N/A - The 700 MHz Spectrum Clearance Programme will go through final clearance on 29/4/20. - There will therefore be no further need for this objective for 700 MHz clearance
Civil Registration	6	The information sharing has: - Supported digital transformation by allowing a check against civil registration data to confirm eligibility of the service without the citizen needing to provide a paper copy of their certificate. - Assisted DWP to trace the next of kin of a large number of deceased former benefit recipients where arrears of benefit has been due to the estate.	The Registrar General has made an application to enter into an ISA with each of the 173 local registration districts with the ISAs expected to be in place by the end of this financial year.
Debt	29	- England and Wales council tax debt stands at around £3.2 billion. - 29 councils are piloting a data share with HMRC to reduce their £125million Council Tax debt by accessing HMRC income and employment data. - The pilot is projected to support recovery of around 20% although these are not due to report yet.	- Further council tax debt pilots are being planned to incorporate DWP data alongside HMRC data to increase match rates and to better identify and therefore assist those in difficulty due to affordability and/or vulnerability - A debt pilot is being considered to better understand cross government management of debtors with overlapping government debts and/or vulnerabilities (mental or physical health problems, bereavement etc),
Fraud	7 (4 pilots completed;3 have yet to report final outcomes)	- Data sharing under DEA powers to combat fraud has, in the first year of operations a) found almost £7 million fraud with potential to realise upto £30 million; and b) identified £491 fraud for every £1 spent. Concluded pilots include: - Data sharing between Companies House and HMRC to understand where businesses might be misrepresenting their financial position - Data sharing between Homes England and HMRC to understand where applicants may be fraudulently seeking a loan - Data sharing between the Student Loan Company and HMRC to combat fraud in claiming childcare costs.	Approved pilots yet to report outcomes are looking at - internal fraud in the civil service - sharing HMRC data with local authorities through the National Fraud Initiative - fraud in apprenticeship learning funding and provision - Three new proposals are expected to be tabled in the coming months.
Research	31 (accredited projects)	- Since October 2019, the Research Accreditation Panel has accredited 31 research project applications which are now proceeding. - The Research Accreditation Panel has also accredited 3,030 researchers under the Digital Economy Act 2017, who have successfully completed Safe Researcher training so as to become accredited researchers under the Research strand of the DEA.	UKSA will continue to promote the Research strand of the DEA among government departments and the UK research community to: - increase the number of researchers using the gateway - and to reduce the degree of fragmentation that exists across the approvals landscape Through the Research Accreditation Panel, UKSA will continue to accredit processors to ensure a UK-wide network of accredited processing environments.
Disclosure by Revenue Authorities	15	Examples of use include: - Disclosure of de identified HMRC data to assist with the analysis of data sharing pilots under the fraud power - Sharing between MoD and HMRC aimed at helping MoD to understand if HMRC data could help improve their reservists address accuracy	HMRC will continue to share non identifying information for public interest reasons e.g A new data share with DEFRA is being considered to allow DEFRA to monitor non- compliance of the ‘Convention on International Trade in endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.’
Statistics	27	The data sharing agreements have provided ONS with access to data using the framework in sections 45A-D of the SRSA/DEA statistics framework.e.g - NHS Digital data on hospital episodes and - Council tax data from local authorities in England to support the delivery of the Census in 2021 - Home Office exit checks data to improve the quality of migration statistics improving adult access to the Psychological Therapies programme	Over the next six-months, ONS is expecting to conclude extended discussions with data providers to obtain access to key datasets to support the transformation of official statistics and analysis, for example: - HMRC Pay as You Earn data to support faster production of labour market statistics, economic indicators, and better analysis of economic productivity and wages; and, - DWP ‘customer’ data which will enable greater disaggregation of migration and population statistics, and the compilation of administrative-based population estimates