Independent Expert Group for the Unlocking the Value of Data Programme report: SG response

Background

The Unlocking the Value of Data (UVOD) programme^[1] was created in March 2022, with the strategic aim of unlocking the value of Scotland’s public sector personal data, when used by or with the private sector, for public benefit.

The purpose of this programme is to aid decision-making by data controllers regarding the approval for use of this data by or with the private sector, for public benefit. Data controllers have a responsibility for the personal data in their control and have a duty of care to the people whose data they hold, to ensure the data is held and used within the law.

The Programme has been driven by feedback from Scottish public sector data controllers, who cited uncertainty relating to managing personal data access requests by the private sector. This is despite legal safeguards and stringent information governance processes being in place.

Specifically, data controllers highlighted the fact that the legal provision of private sector access to public sector personal data rests on the demonstration of ‘public benefit’, a complex and contested term. In addition, data controllers identified the need to consider issues such as the value of data - understood broadly as social, economic and environmental value - and the sharing of benefits between private and public sectors, and the uncertainties that arise about how best to make these judgements.

An Independent Expert Group was established by Scottish Ministers to provide strategic oversight of the programme. Professor Angela Daly, Professor of Law and Technology at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science and Law School, University of Dundee, was appointed as the Chair of the group, supported by a Scottish Government Secretariat.