The UK’s energy, banking, finance, retail, transport, home-buying, and telecommunications sectors are set to benefit from the new government roadmap, which says it will enhance efficiency, innovation, and consumer empowerment.

Central to the roadmap is the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDI), currently advancing through the committee stage in the House of Lords. This legislation will furnish the government with the necessary powers to enact the proposed smart data schemes.

The roadmap identified the sectors  as being ripe for transformation through smart data initiatives. Within banking and finance for example, the Treasury is poised to utilise its Smart Data powers to establish a regulatory framework for Open Banking through secondary regulations.

The adoption of open banking in the UK has already added more than £4 billion to the economy, attracting inward investment and creating almost 5,000 highly skilled digital jobs, according to Open Banking Ltd.

“Developing new smart data schemes will accelerate the economic benefits of open banking to other key sectors, including energy, retail, transport, home-buying and telecoms, further increasing these opportunities,” said Henk van Hulle, CEO, Open Banking.

“Through championing Smart Data – a form of data portability – we are facilitating the data economy to drive growth and innovation, and to enable services that ensure businesses and consumers get more for their money,” said Kevin Hollinrake, MP minister of state for enterprise, markets and small business.

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“We want to harness the opportunities for data to create efficiencies, tailor products and services, improve decision making, and empower customers to make better use of data that belongs to them.”

The report also underscores the government’s effort to review recommendations put forward by the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), particularly those outlined in its recently published open finance report. 

There remains, however, concerns about the oversight of the new Bill, with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) suggesting that Smart Data schemes need a regulatory framework to govern how data is shared, as well as with common and open data standards and effective representation of consumers and other end users.