Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will allocate resources to the undertaking of practical proofs of value and pilots in assured data technology on a joint collaborative and open Government and industry basis.

Mission 1 of the National Data Strategy commits to unlocking the value of data held across the economy. We will publish a policy framework to set out government's role in enabling improved data availability, and we will pilot the most promising interventions. In May, we announced a new National Data Strategy Forum to ensure diverse perspectives beyond government and the public sector inform the implementation of the National Data Strategy.

Collaboration with the private sector is already an important part of our work. The Geospatial Commission ran a pilot project over the past two years to consider the value and feasibility of creating a National Underground Asset data sharing platform to help locate buried assets for safer and more efficient work. The pilot involved more than 40 different public and private asset owners - from local authorities to national infrastructure providers, independent network operators and major utilities. In the next year, work will commence on a production platform starting by building a regional product for three regions, the North East of England, Wales and London.