How government can make more data available for research and statistics in 2025

As we enter the new year, OSR sets out our view on what is needed to advance data sharing, access and linkage across government, to ensure opportunities to enhance the public good of data and statistics are more fully realised. 

The story so far 

In 2024, OSR called for the government to make sharing and linking datasets for research and statistics – both across government and among external researchers – the norm. Our voice joined a chorus of similar appeals from Parliament’s inquiry on improving the UK’s evidence base and Professor Lievesley’s independent review for the Cabinet Office.  

Apart from welcome pockets of innovation, the overall story of data sharing and linkage has been one of failures to deliver consistent improvements in access to and joining up government data, and therefore of failure to realise data’s full potential.  

By contrast, 2025 feels like a year to be optimistic about the potential for progress. Since our last report, the number of use cases showing the real-world impact of access to data and linked datasets has notably increased. The 2023/24 ADR UK impact report shows how the analysis of linked data has fed directly into policy development across multiple thematic areas, demonstrating the huge benefits of extending the reach of data beyond government to academic research communities. The ONS Research Excellence Awards 2024 offer further examples of impactful work made possible by sharing and linking data. 

As we enter the new year, we note promising opportunities and an appetite for improving access to data. Several government departments have publicly committed to this goal. For example, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is working on a National Data Library. Moreover, the government’s Missions and the Plan for Change provide a powerful user need for data that are joined up across departments. 

But challenges remain. At the heart of these are the perceived risks of sharing data for data owners, which can seem greater than the perceived benefits, which may accrue to other departments or policy makers. As a result of this imbalance, despite positive statements about the importance of sharing data from ministers and senior civil servants, there can be inertia, inhibiting further progress. The inactivity in this area is compounded by the practical challenges around the process and technical sides of sharing.

What is needed to advance data sharing, access and linkage 

OSR sees a need to address this inertia on both the supply side and demand side, namely by: 

• increasing the amount of data that is shared or made accessible, which can then be linked (supply) 

• increasing the number of people who want to and can use the data (demand) 

On the supply side, we need to see an increased willingness and ability to share or provide access to data, so that they are available for research. To support efforts here, government must demonstrate a continued focus on public involvement and engagement. It is essential that public bodies test the public appetite, understand concerns and ensure that the departmental perception of the risk of data sharing is grounded in that of the public they serve. 

Some of the public engagement evidence that OSR has seen points to public support for secure data use, but this cannot be taken for granted. Public support is not unanimous and tends to be context dependent. But, where there is concern about the public acceptability of a data share, public engagement should provide evidence, and possibly reassurance, to the supply side.  

There are a growing range of tools to support public engagement. OSR is delighted to be a partner of the Public Engagement in Data Research Initiative (PEDRI), which has just released best–practice guidelines for public involvement and engagement in data research.  

On the demand side, it is important that leaders throughout government see the value of data and analysis, and that they want and demand to use them to inform decision making. Here, a proliferation of powerful use cases, unifying needs – offered most visibly by the cross-departmental Missions – and continued investment in data literacy across the government is needed. 

It is also important that the government engages with the research community to support it to amplify the use and impact of data. Meeting this goal requires smoothing the path to accessing and using data. The Areas of Research Interest statements published by departments, which set out government research needs, data catalogues and data access process maps, are important here. These all exist in various forms, but the key is to advocate, improve and promote them through engagement.  

To show that efforts to reduce the inertia are working, we encourage Trusted Research Environments (TREs) to publish more–comprehensive performance metrics. Publishing median and 90th percentile timelines for data access and output clearance, for example, would clarify what a researcher can expect; identify where improvements can be made in service provision; and may enable a focus on sharing best practice across TREs.  

Enablers for change 

A handful of enablers cut across all these needs:

• Leadership is needed to ensure data sharing and linkage between departments and with external researchers is prioritised and consistently resourced. This needs to start at the centre of government but carry through into department leadership chains. 

• Collaboration is needed to drive and maintain a cultural shift. Key to this is developing agreed processes within government to work through disagreements about sharing data, as well as working with those beyond government and making data available to them. 

• Transparency about what is being done with data, why, how and the impact of data use is crucial not only to enable public trust, but also to build awareness of why and how data can be used effectively across government and the research community.  

• Practical solutions are needed to facilitate data sharing, access and linkage, including the wider use of shared data standards and shared access platforms, like TREs and the proposed National Data Library.  

• Safe use of data must be ensured to maintain security and privacy, drawing on frameworks such as the Five Safes, with investment in the development of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) to protect personally identifiable data.  

• Data literacy needs to be improved across government and the Civil Service to further the effective use of data and analysis.  

By investing in these areas and taking the right actions, the government can ensure opportunities to enhance the public good of data and statistics are fully realised and minimise missed opportunities for data use, while upholding public trust in secure and ethical data sharing.