Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government (1) which public bodies are subject to the data sharing agreement under the Digital Economy Act 2017, (2) which public bodies have received data under the Digital Economy Act 2017, and (3) what checks they have performed on the accuracy of the entries added to the register of information sharing agreements.

The Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA) contains data sharing powers that allow specified authorities to share information, including personal data, for specific purposes. Anyone sharing information under Chapters 1- 4 of Part 5 of the DEA is required to have regard to the relevant Code of Practice when doing so. This states that those authorities, listed in schedules 4-8 and Chapter 2 of the DEA, should enter an information sharing agreement (ISA) when sharing data under these powers.

The codes of practice provide details to practitioners on how information sharing powers under the DEA must be operated. Those relating to public service delivery (PSD), debt and fraud and civil registration place a requirement on the Data Controller(s) to set out information about their ISA within a publicly available register.

The register, operated by Government Digital Service (GDS) and publicly available on GOV.UK, provides a central repository of all data shares made under the powers provided by Chapters 1 - 4 of Part 5 of the DEA. It is a key transparency measure which outlines details of each data share, including the bodies involved, why it is shared, for how long and the expected benefits.

The register currently contains 525 entries and 464 public bodies. It is available at https://www.digital-economy-act-register.data.gov.uk.

While GDS is responsible for maintaining the register, the DEA’s statutory Code of Practice makes clear that responsibility for the accuracy of register entries rests with the public authorities involved in each data share, except in relation to the debt and fraud provisions, where responsibility falls under the debt and fraud secretariat.