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Report on the King’s Speech states on pages 39–41 that the UK government plans a new Digital Information and Smart Data (DISD) Bill. The bill seeks to harness data for economic growth, modern digital government, and better lives. It includes digital verification services, smart-data schemes extending open banking, a National Underground Asset Register, and ICO reform.

The bill will help people choose secure digital-identity services that make life easier and support growth. It is expected in the new government’s 1th parliamentary session.

Video Explanation of the Bill

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Text Overview of the Bill

The UK government plans a Digital Information and Smart Data Bill with potentially major effects on personal data and growth. It aims to harness data, support modern government, and improve lives through verification services, broader open banking, an underground-asset register, and ICO reform.

Digital verification services support secure and trustworthy creation and adoption of digital IDs, making moving home, pre-employment checks, and age-restricted purchases easier. A digital underground-infrastructure map will speed safe construction and repairs.

Smart-data schemes securely share customer data, with consent, with approved 3rd-party providers. They extend open banking to other sectors, potentially improving products and services.

The bill also advances digital public services, including electronic birth and death registration and information standards for health and care IT suppliers.

Modernizing data law for scientific research will facilitate broad consent and equal use of the data regime by legitimate commercial researchers, supporting interdisciplinary research.

For data protection, the ICO will be restructured and strengthened, with a modern CEO, board, chair, and new powers. This will reinforce privacy in a fast-changing digital society and advance privacy, security, and inclusion standards for digital identity.

It will also improve data sharing for child-death investigations, potentially helping prevent repeated tragedies.

The bill promotes data use for economic growth and quality of life. It is notable that digital verification services and open-banking-inspired smart-data schemes sit at its center.

Its operation and effects require close scrutiny. Such laws are vital as digital society develops, but keeping law abreast of technology remains difficult. Its influence abroad also bears watching: unlike GDPR it lacks extraterritorial reach, yet UK open banking has influenced many countries.

English Translation of the Digital Information and Smart Data Bill Explanation

  • The government wants to harness data for growth, support modern digital government, and improve people’s lives.
  • The bill enables safe innovation, reforms sharing and standards to improve public services, modernizes data law for research, and gives the ICO stronger powers and structure. These measures begin delivering better services through science and technology.

What Does the Bill Do?

  • This bill harnesses data for economic growth. We will legislate for 3 innovative uses of data that people may opt into and that accelerate innovation, investment, and productivity across the UK:
    • Establishing Digital Verification Services 1:They will ease daily life through innovative secure technology and support trusted digital-identity products from certified providers for moving home, employment checks, and age-restricted purchases.
    • Developing a National Underground Asset Register:This digital map will transform work on buried pipes and cables, giving planners and excavators immediate, standardized, secure access to necessary data.
    • Establishing smart-data schemes: securely sharing customer data with approved third-party providers at the customer’s request.
  • The bill improves lives and life chances.It enables more and better digital public services.Amending the Digital Economy Act will permit government sharing of data about businesses using public services. Birth and death registration will become electronic, and standards will apply to health and care IT suppliers.
  • The bill reflects modern interdisciplinary scientific research in data law, helping scientists use data better for world-class research. Scientists may seek broad consent, and legitimate commercial researchers will have equal access to the data regime.
  • The bill ensures your data is well protected. We will modernize and strengthen the ICO with a CEO, board, chair, and stronger powers, make targeted reforms while maintaining high standards, and promote digital-identity privacy, security, and inclusion standards.
  • The bill also creates a data-preservation process that coroners, or procurators fiscal in Scotland, may initiate when necessary for child-death investigations, easing access to needed online information.

Territorial Extent and Application

  • The bill extends throughout the United Kingdom.

Key Facts

  • Digital verification services help people and businesses use identity technology confidently. Convenient trusted proof saves time and money, enables smoother, cheaper, safer transactions, and reduces business costs, delays, and breaches. Widespread secure digital identity could benefit the UK economy by about 600 million pounds annually.
  • Smart data means securely sharing customer data, at the customer’s request, with authorised third-party providers 2 (ATPs), who enrich it with contextual business data and offer innovative decision-support services. Open banking is the only current smart-data scheme; legislation is needed for a durable foundation and expansion. It enables informed choice and innovation, extending growth across the economy, especially where engagement is low or firms hold more information than customers.
  • The National Underground Asset Register 3 (NUAR) is a digital map transforming installation, maintenance, operation, and repair of buried pipes and cables by giving planners and excavators standardized, secure, immediate access to needed data.
  • The UK data economy currently (as of 2022) represents an estimated 6.9% of GDP. Harnessing data creates enormous economic and social value and supports trade. In 2021, data-enabled UK service exports accounted for 85% of all service exports, worth 259 billion pounds. Data-enabled exports to the EU alone were estimated at 91 billion pounds.
  • Data is essential to UK businesses: 77% handle digital data in some form, rising to 10 among firms with at least 99% employees.

Footnotes

  1. Digital Verification Services
  2. authorised third-party providers
  3. National Underground Asset Register

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