The National Data Library: recognising public data as a strategic asset

Vast amounts of data are generated through taxpayer-funded services and everyday interactions between people and government. That makes the government not just a regulator of the data economy, but one of its largest producers too. Used well, this data can support innovation, economic growth and better services. Left unmanaged, the same data can be exploited in ways that largely benefit private firms - often not based in the UK - more than the people who both generated and paid for it.

The government has long been in the business of commercialising data, and has sometimes done so very successfully. But even in these cases, it has tended to happen on a tactical basis - ad hoc, and not really as part of a clear plan. By being more intentional, we see a huge opportunity for governments to design data services that generate financial, social or economic value, and in transparent, accountable ways.

There are plenty of examples that illustrate the opportunity. HM Land Registry’s datasets and services generate hundreds of millions of pounds in annual economic benefit, underpinning property market analysis, lending, risk assessment and infrastructure planning. The Met Office’s weather and climate data capabilities are estimated to deliver around £56 billion of economic value to the UK economy over the coming decade, a return of nearly £19 for every £1 of public money invested.

Elsewhere, government has focused less on turning data into cash, and more on unlocking growth across the economy. As of mid 2025, more than 15 million people and businesses in the UK use Open Banking enabled services, supporting an ecosystem estimated to be worth around £4 billion. Similarly, the open register of Companies House underpins a vast ecosystem of credit agencies, compliance tools, identity services and market intelligence products.

All of this is great. But what these approaches have in common is that they evolved locally, organisation by organisation. There is no coherent view of what data should be open, when it should be charged for, or how value should flow back into public services. As a result, similar datasets are treated very differently, and their value is not maximised. For example, campaigners have argued for years that keeping the Postcode Address File behind a paywall is an ‘innovation tax’. Countries like the Netherlands and Denmark open theirs up for free.

The risk of not being strategic and intentional about public datasets is failing to give the public a good enough return on our collective investment in them. Whenever public finances are tight - and they always are - the pressure to sell the family silver for a momentary balance sheet boost grows. People who need to make a sale don’t get the best price.

And without clear public models, private firms often step in to extract, aggregate and monetise public data at scale. The downsides of that are not just measured in lost revenue, but also in lost sovereignty. Control over how data is used, who benefits, and how public value is protected over time can be lost by carelessness as much as by design.