Digital

Enabling faster, secure access to data by industry for public benefit

January 22, 2026 by Stewart Hamilton No Comments | Category Data, Digital Scotland, Research Data Scotland, Unlocking the Value of Data

Guest blog post by Roger Halliday, Chief Executive, Research Data Scotland (RDS), on how RDS is developing a framework to support faster, secure access to Scotland’s public sector data by industry partners, on behalf of the Scottish Government. This guest blog is part of a series on the Unlocking the Value of Data programme.

At Research Data Scotland, we believe that enabling better access to data about people, places and businesses will improve lives.

Established as an independent charity by the Scottish Government, we are working in partnership across Scotland and the UK to build on and support the data research system.

One of our innovations has been the Researcher Access Service, a digitised application and approval pathway designed to speed up public benefit research using nine of Public Health Scotland’s most frequently requested datasets. This is encouraging, but there is more work to be done if we are to make the most of our public sector data. For example, we are excited to work with the Scottish Government Data for Research Change Management Board to explore ways to bring further efficiencies to the way our public sector data assets are accessed and used.

We know that many of the treatments available through the NHS stemmed from collaborations between NHS, academia and industry. As more and more healthcare innovation becomes data-driven, it is vital that our data services support this triple helix approach. Without this, we lose opportunities for innovation and improved services for the people of Scotland.

Private sector – a missing piece of the puzzle 

Scotland’s Data Strategy for Health and Social Care makes a clear commitment to supporting research and innovation by facilitating safe access to health and social care data for industry, innovators and researchers.

This is also a key priority for the Scottish Government’s Unlocking the Value of Data programme. As part of its response to the final report by the Independent Expert Group for the programme, the Scottish Government tasked RDS with developing an Operational Framework to support simplified and faster access to public sector data, subject to appropriate safeguards. This builds on work that has already taken place, including our own review published in 2023.

Research in the public benefit can co-exist with private company interest. However, some people’s initial reaction to their data being used by a private company is one of suspicion that their data will be used with profit generation as the primary motive.

The Five Safes framework has been adopted across Trusted Research Environments in the UK to guide their risk management processes. These processes ensure use of data for research only happens when it demonstrates public good whilst keeping people’s data secure and being transparent about who is using it. This works well for academic and public sector research, so could this work for the private sector too? To answer this, we wanted to explore two further questions:

• What, if anything, additional do we need to see from industry to secure public support for their involvement in research?
• What changes are needed to the way our services operate to ensure they work for industry access?

Understanding our different communities

To answer these questions, we have been engaging with industry, data controllers and members of the public to understand what changes are needed to make industry collaboration a reality for research in Scotland.

A loss of trust in the use of public sector data for public benefit would set back the ability to use data to improve wellbeing through research, so listening and engaging with the general public on how their data is used and kept secure is vital. RDS worked with market research company Ipsos to better understand public opinions on accessing data for research, including access for private sector companies. Three workshops were held with 32 members of the public from across Scotland between April and May this year.

The workshops found that, while there was some scepticism towards commercial entities, participants accepted that private sector access to public sector data could be beneficial. This was on the condition that applications from industry were subject to the same rigorous criteria around research for the public good and appropriate safeguards. In addition, vetting of any private sector company requesting access was deemed essential, including its structure, history, values and commitment to public good.  Transparency of the work, its funders, and its eventual impact were also key. And we published a report on the public engagement work we’ve done.

Our conversations with data owners align with the feedback we heard from the public. Data owners want clear guidance on what is acceptable and what isn’t when it comes to private sector data access. They want a clear demonstration of the expected impact that granting industry access to data will have.

To help inform what industry would need from our services, we also ran a workshop in September with colleagues from the private sector to understand their data access needs. Much like academic researchers, they valued simplified, faster access to the data they need, with a more predictable delivery timetable.

How do we bring this together?

We have used the feedback from these different groups to shape up a draft Operational Framework and are currently testing this with the public, data controllers and industry. Our aim is to get broad support and publish the framework and service development plan in spring 2026.

Throughout this process, it’s essential that we keep the reason for this work to the fore i.e. whether this framework will actually make a difference in enabling faster access to data and enabling research by industry for public benefit. If we can bring in expertise from industry to work with our partners in the NHS and academia, we could see real positive impacts for people living in Scotland. Our goal is to ensure that this is done in a considered, safe and secure way.

We are keen to hear your views about the framework. So if you would like to know more about our work on private sector data access, or feed your views into the framework, please get in touch at: info@researchdata.scot.

Tags: Data, Research Data Scotland, Unlocking the Value of Data

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