Smart Data Review: terms of reference
Updated 11 June 2019
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The government’s recent green paper ‘Modernising Consumer Markets’ announced that the government will conduct a Smart Data Review to consider how we can accelerate the development and use of new data-driven technologies and services to improve consumer outcomes in regulated markets.
Context for the review
The green paper highlighted the challenges that consumers face in regulated markets such as financial services, energy or telecoms. For example, we recognised that consumers often struggle to stay on top of their essential service contracts and find it difficult to identify the best deal. Those that do regularly switch have to put in a lot of effort. Those that don’t switch or engage often pay considerably more.
New technologies have the potential to address many of the problems consumers face in regulated markets and strengthen competition. These include innovative intermediary services such as automatic switching services and utility management services, as well completely new business models and providers.
These innovative services depend on access to customer data, however too often this data is locked away in a manner that works against consumers and innovators. For example, the development of many of these services are constrained by difficulties in accessing data on consumers’ current tariff, their usage and the other available deals in standard formats.
The Smart Data Review will enable government and regulators to work together to ensure consumers benefit from new technologies that can strengthen competition, transform the consumer experience, and modernise consumer markets. It will build upon existing interventions such as Open Banking, midata, and the UK’s new data protection laws. These introduce a new right to data portability that allows people to have their personal data given to them or a third party of their choice in a commonly used machine-readable format.
The Smart Data Review will support our Industrial Strategy by ensuring that regulated markets in the UK are at the forefront of the data revolution, and that the UK leads the way in supporting innovative data-driven consumer services.
Scope and objectives
The Smart Data Review will focus on how we can use data portability to improve the consumer experience in regulated markets.
The review will identify the steps that the government, regulators and others need to take to:
- accelerate the development of innovative intermediaries and other services which can improve the consumer experience in regulated markets
- ensure that a wide range of consumers can benefit from these innovative services, not just those who are already highly engaged and digitally confident
- establish a regulatory and policy framework which builds consumer trust in data portability and innovative intermediaries and supports an effective market for these services, including addressing any undue barriers to roll out
The review will seek to identify what lessons can be learned from existing data portability initiatives and the extent to which a cross-sectoral approach is appropriate.
Process
This is a cross-government review led by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, working closely with the relevant sector regulators. The review will report to the newly established Consumer Forum, chaired by the Minister for Consumer Affairs, which brings together ministers and CEOs of sector regulators.
The government will consult with stakeholders including developers, intermediaries, regulated companies, consumer organisations and charities throughout the review.
We encourage all organisations that would like to be involved in the Smart Data Review to register their interest at smartdatareview@beis.gov.uk. We would particularly like to hear from providers of innovative data-driven consumer services, or those who are considering developing such a service.
The government will announce the conclusions of the review and next steps in the first half of 2019.
Enquiries
Enquiries regarding the Smart Data Review should be sent to smartdatareview@beis.gov.uk.