The PSC’s Response to DSIT’s Call for Evidence on Smart Data in Digital Markets
Unlocking the potential of Smart Data in digital markets to deliver innovative new services for consumers and businesses.
Smart Data enables customers to make use of the data that companies hold about them – in combination with data about the company and its products as a whole – through the secure sharing of that data with Authorised Third-party Providers (ATPs) upon the customer’s request.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is exploring how Smart Data could unlock better products, stronger competition and safer data sharing across digital markets. The PSC has submitted a detailed response drawing on our year-long work with the Department for Business & Trade (DBT) to help shape a cross-sector Smart Data economy, including informing the development of cross-sector data standards, estimating economic costs and benefits, and developing a practical Smart Data governance model. We outline more about our work and our full submission below.

Building on lessons from Open Banking, our submission sets out how a digital markets scheme should be scalable and adaptable (prioritising high-value use cases and retiring unused mandates), underpinned by an effective commercial model that doesn’t overburden data holders, and designed around clear, consistent user-experience journeys so people actually adopt Smart Data services. We also argue for an independent delivery body with the remit to drive the scheme forward while maintaining consistency and interoperability with the wider Smart Data economy.
We are now undertaking research to identify the Smart Data consumer use cases with the strongest real-world appeal with UK citizens.
Read our full response (PDF) and get in touch with josh.myers@thepsc.co.uk if you’d like to discuss what Smart Data might mean for your organisation or sector.
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