Sir Robert Chote, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, has recently advocated for increased data sharing among government departments as a means to stimulate economic growth and enhance public services. In his statement, Chote highlighted the untapped potential that exists in combining data from various government bodies to generate valuable insights and improve policy-making. He pointed out that during the pandemic, the urgent need for collaboration led to effective data sharing, which was instrumental in targeting communication campaigns aimed at increasing vaccine uptake.
However, Chote expressed concern that the government has not fully capitalised on the opportunities for data sharing that emerged during that time, resulting in many potential benefits remaining unrealised. He cited successful initiatives such as the Better Outcomes through Linked Data programme, which demonstrated that offenders with alcohol or drug problems were ten times more likely to take their own lives compared to the general population in England and Wales. This programme also indicated that expediting access to treatment could significantly reduce these deaths by leveraging data from multiple government departments.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has made strides in this area by beginning to collect data from private companies to enhance its official figures. This initiative includes the use of anonymised data from supermarket scanners for inflation tracking, as well as data on cars and train fares from Auto Trader and the Rail Delivery Group. Additionally, the ONS employs anonymised Visa data to monitor credit and debit card spending for travel and tourism research, alongside live PAYE data from HM Revenue and Customs to provide more accurate employment figures.
Despite these advancements, Chote maintains that such examples of effective data sharing remain too infrequent. He attributes this hesitancy to concerns among departments about the potential downsides of sharing information, including risks to privacy and the potential reputational damage if data weaknesses are exposed or if conclusions drawn from the data are inconvenient for the institution or its leadership.
Chote also addressed the increasing strain on the ONS and other data-gathering entities, which is partly due to tight budgets and declining response rates to household surveys. Last year, for instance, the ONS had to stop publishing monthly jobs data from the labour force survey due to concerns regarding the reliability of the figures stemming from low response rates. Given that these surveys are crucial for estimating unemployment and job data—information that informs the Bank of England’s interest rate decisions—maintaining their quality is essential.
In light of these challenges, Chote is urging the government to prioritise data sharing across departments. He recognises the potential of such collaboration to drive economic growth and enhance public services. By overcoming the barriers to data sharing and investing in the necessary resources, the UK can unlock the full potential of its data and make more informed, evidence-based decisions.
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