The Government wants to harness the power of data for economic growth, to support a modern digital government, and to improve people’s lives. The Data (Use and Access) Act has been designed with the intention of achieving these 3 objectives.
	The UK data economy (its data market plus the value data adds to other sectors of the economy) represents an estimated 6.9 per cent of GDP (as of 2022). Data is essential to UK businesses: 77 percent of UK businesses handle some form of digital data; increasing to 99 percent for businesses employing more than 10 people. In 2021, data-enabled UK service exports accounted for 85 per cent of total service exports, estimated to be worth £259 billion.
Policy background