Falling behind? The UK’s high-value public datasets
Think tank: Centre for Public Data
Author(s): Anna Powell-Smith; Amber Dellar
December 15, 2023
This report from UK think tank the Centre for Public Data calls for the UK government to make their high-value datasets freely available.
High-value public data is basic infrastructure for the modern world. Good data on buildings, for example, helps everyone from the fire engine crew saving lives, to the start-up building better boilers. And these core datasets contain no personal information, so they can be shared without privacy concerns. So why are several of the UK’s high-value datasets still only available under prohibitive commercial licenses?
This report calls for the UK government to make their high-value datasets freely available to support government processes and unlock economic growth. It audits the current state of the UK’s high-value datasets and find they have patchy accessibility. With no plans to improve on this, the UK is falling behind the EU and other comparators.
