The UK Government has introduced a bill into Parliament aiming to will harness the ‘enormous power of data’ to free up millions of hours for NHS and police staff and boost the UK economy by £10 billion.
The new Data Use and Access Bill will help make data more easily transferable across NHS departments, freeing up 140,000 hours per year for staff to focus on patient outcomes. It will also remove manual logging requirements for police database access - which will save an estimated 1.5 million hours per year for staff.
To help the UK become more efficient, the bill will legislate on ‘digital verification services’, a ‘trust mark’ that enables companies who use identity verification tools to be certified in line with the government's trust framework of standards. This move to a country-wide verification standard is predicted to boost the UK economy by £4.3 billion in the next 10 years.
Efficient and secure
In an increasingly digital world, the DUA legislation will look to limit bureaucracy and give researchers and organisations access to seamless information sharing.
“Data is the DNA of modern life and quietly drives every aspect of our society and economy without us even noticing – from our NHS treatments and social interactions to our business and banking transactions” said Technology Secretary Peter Kyle.
“With laws that help us to use data securely and effectively, this Bill will help us boost the UK’s economy, free up vital time for our front-line workers, and relieve people from unnecessary admin so that they can get on with their lives” he continued.
Alongside data sharing projects, the bill will support the creation of a new national map of UK underground infrastructure, called the National Underground Asset Register, so that telecoms operators and water companies can avoid accidents on underground pipes and cables.
In truth, the DUA Bill doesn’t represent a huge change from its predecessor, the DPDI Bill, which outlined modifications to GDPR laws to encourage more seamless information sharing. However, the DUA Bill is likely to align the UK more closely with EU data adequacy regulations - which is good news for just about everyone.
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