Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the efficacy of data sharing across Whitehall.

The Government Transformation Strategy, published in February, includes an assessment of how data sharing across Whitehall could be made more efficient. Specific opportunities for improvement identified within the strategy include the development of registers to ensure reference data is easy to maintain and use.

The potential of data sharing to save time and resource in several key areas across Whitehall has been analysed as part of the data sharing measures set out in the Digital Economy Bill. These measures enable easier data sharing to improve the public services and functions we deliver. For example, providing automatic rebates to those in fuel poverty would cost less than £1 per household to deliver, while non-automated methods can cost up to £30 per customer.

Industries outside the public sector will also benefit from cost savings enabled by the Digital Economy Bill: the transformation of data collection practices will lead to reduction, over time, of costs associated with compliance, currently estimated at £24 million annually for UK businesses.