Following on from our work on Joining Up Data in 2018 and our update to this in 2019, we are launching a follow-up review into both data sharing and data linkage within government and beyond.
Since our 2018 and 2019 reports there has been lots of really good progress across the UK: the pandemic has helped change the mindset and highlight the opportunities that exist with greater collaboration and sharing projects. However, significant barriers still exist, and it is our goal to understand the extent of hold-up and to identify opportunities to move forward.
We plan to follow-up with producers, researchers and others working in this area to understand how the landscape has changed, champion innovative projects and find out how we, at OSR, can help with progress.
We want to talk to a wide variety of people such as those:
- linking data
- sharing data
- using already linked data
- involved at a leadership/advisory level
- aiding collaboration in this space
If you would like to talk to us about your experiences with data sharing and/or data linkage please get in touch with us at regulation@statistics.gov.uk.
Director General for Regulation, Ed Humpherson said:
“Data sharing and linking in government stands at a crossroads. Since we last reported on this, there has been some excellent progress in creating linked datasets and making them available for research, analysis and statistics. The pandemic provided a strong impetus to sharing data for the public good. But there remain areas of challenge around sharing, and wider access to data to researchers outside Government; and there are uncertainties about the public’s attitude to and confidence in data sharing.
Our review will look to take stock of data sharing and linkage at this crucial juncture and point the way to build on recent successes and confront the more ingrained challenges.”