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

Guiding Principles

Guiding Principle 1 (Public Engagement and Involvement); Principle 2 (Public Interest and Public Benefit); and Principle 3 (Do No Harm)

The Scottish Government recognises the critical role that citizens play in data-related decision-making and governance. As we shall explain, public engagement is foundational to building trust, and appropriate mechanisms for engagement will underpin ethical and responsible data use.

In developing use cases for private sector access to public sector personal data, we will amplify the public’s role and agency in defining the terms ‘public interest’, ‘public benefit’ and ‘do no harm’, on a case-by-case basis, so that these principles can be validated and applied in an operational context.

We recognise that achieving the highest standards of ethical data access and usage will necessitate purposeful cross-collaboration, involving the Scottish Government, multi-sector stakeholders and the general public. This engagement will be essential to evaluate different approaches to realising benefits; and also to identify, manage and mitigate risks, or potential harms.

Guiding Principle 4: Transparency

The Scottish Government is committed to transparency in how public sector data is used. This commitment is enshrined in Open Government principles and the specific commitment to “supporting government openness, transparency and empowerment through open data”^[13].

The Scottish Government, COSLA, civil society partners and people across Scotland have contributed to the development of Scotland’s third national action plan^[14]. As a member of the Open Government Partnership^[15], this provides a collaborative platform on which to share best practice, and to learn from, the wide range of stakeholders involved in these areas.

The Scottish AI Register^[16] is a web-based tool designed to share, with the public, high-level information about AI use in the Scottish Government and wider Scottish public sector. The Register enables these organisations to be open and transparent with the people of Scotland about their AI use, and to help alleviate concerns about the deployment of this technology.

RDS facilitates collaborative data-driven research and innovation for public good, using best practice legal, ethical and privacy-preserving approaches. All research projects are required to publicly share information on who accesses the data, what datasets / data items are accessed and the purpose for access. Safe Haven Trusted Research Environments (TREs)^[17] - secure physical or digital environments which can only be accessed by approved researchers - will publish this material in easily accessible formats in ‘data access registers’, to common standards. In line with the Digital Economy Act Research Code of Practice^[18], any research project involving data access will be required to publish outputs, and incentivised to make the analysis code and research datasets available for reuse.

In the health and care sector, NHS Scotland Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care (HSC-PBPP) publishes a list of the decisions^[19] they have made regarding approvals for data use.

Guiding Principle 5: Law, ethics and best practice

The national digital strategy, A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world^[20], outlines our vision for a society where people can trust public services and businesses to respect privacy and be open and honest in the way data is being used. The strategy sets out a pathway to improve the way data is accessed, shared and used to improve public sector decision-making. The UVOD programme will build on these foundations, and seek to align with the draft Vision for Public Sector Data in Scotland^[21], which is expected to become a subset of the national digital strategy.

The Scottish Government, together with RDS and UK Research and Innovation’s Sciencewise programme^[22], convened a public panel to explore the ethics of Scottish public sector data-led projects. The deliberative public dialogue on the use of data in Scotland project generated a set of ethical principles to inform current and future data-driven projects and policies. The Scottish Government is considering how these principles could be applied in an operational setting, and how compliance would be managed and monitored.

Guiding Principle 6: Enabling conditions

Data increasingly drives decision-making in the Scottish public sector, so managing data effectively is essential. If personal data is to be made available for secure access and ethical innovation by the private sector, public sector organisations need to be aware of the personal datasets they hold. This requires investment in the skills and capabilities to adopt new technologies to make data accessible, enhance data discovery and streamline data-sharing (see Recommendation #5).

The Scottish Government continues to support the professional workforce through our commitment to specialist Digital, Data, and Technology (DDaT) roles within the Scottish public sector. The Scottish Digital Academy^[23] provides high-quality professional learning to support digital capability across the public and third sectors in Scotland.

The National Information Governance (IG) Programme will set a national IG framework for health and social care, aligning relevant strategies and strengthening the ambition to maximise the realisation of benefits from digital and data-driven health and social care innovation. This will create an environment to support fair, lawful, secure and efficient access to data, with a clear framework, processes and tools that empower people to effectively access and share data.

One of the ambitions of Scotland’s Health and Care Data Strategy^[24,25] is “giving researchers and innovators from the public and private sectors clear, ethical and efficient routes to access and use data to take forward projects that support the modernisation of our health and social care service and deliver public benefit”.

Guiding Principle 7: Regular review

We welcome the recommendation to regularly review and monitor these principles through iterative engagement with the public, industry / private sector and data system stakeholders. The more government and public sector decision-makers are able to involve the people they serve, the more accessible and transparent they will be.