Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment is Department has made of the potential effect of reducing data duplication across government on access to public services for people who are (a) precariously housed, (b) students and (c) experiencing relationship or family separation and (d) leaving abusive relationships; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is committed to making better use of data, including reducing data duplication, to keep pace with rising public expectations and the availability and potential of new technology to deliver better services at lower cost to taxpayers. This is why we have introduced data sharing measures in the Digital Economy Act, which:

-allow public authorities to share personal data with other public authorities in specific contexts in order to improve the welfare of the individual in question, for example the Troubled Families programme;

-allow public authorities to share limited information with energy companies to apply energy bill rebates or to provide households with energy saving measures; and

-allow public sector access to civil registration information (such as birth, marriage, civil partnership and death information) on a more consistent and transparent basis.