Smart Data schemes: Enhanced data sharing in the UK under the new Data (Use and Access) Act

This article was updated on 21 July 2025.

On 19 June 2025, the Data (Use and Access) Act (the “DUA Act”) received Royal Assent. The DUA Act is intended by the UK government to enhance the UK’s digital strategy and unlock the use of data, harnessing its capabilities to boost public services and contribute to the UK economy.

In this Law-Now update, we look at the provisions of the DUA Act that will enable new Smart Data schemes to be established, with the intention of increasing data portability between suppliers, service providers, customers, and relevant third parties.

Smart Data schemes

The provisions in the DUA Act on Smart Data schemes establish a framework to allow for sharing of customer data held by service providers (upon a customer’s request) with authorised third-party providers. Authorised third parties will then be able to use this data to provide services to the customer.

Smart Data schemes are seen by the government as a way to increase competition, create greater opportunities for innovation, produce time saving for consumers, reduce costs, increase the quality of services, improve the security of data sharing and increase the trust in data sharing mechanisms. Services provided by authorised third parties may include, for example, personalised market comparisons for services (such as, energy services) and automatic switching from one service provider to another (helping to overcome the ‘loyalty penalty’ which reportedly sees consumers who do not switch or recontract with their mobile, broadband, home insurance, savings and mortgages service providers collectively pay an estimated £3.4 billion per year more than other customers).

Open Banking is an example of a Smart Data scheme that already operates in the UK. Open Banking enables UK consumers and businesses to permit authorised third parties to access their banking data in order to provide them with financial services. The UK government hopes that this new legislation will extend the success of the Smart Data model used in Open Banking to other sectors.

Access to Customer Data and Business Data

The Smart Data schemes will relate to the sharing of customer data and business data, as defined in the DUA Act:

* A trader is any person who supplies or provides goods, services or digital content in the course of a business

Data Regulations

The DUA Act confers powers on the Secretary of State and the Treasury to establish Smart Data schemes through regulations requiring that data holders will provide access to customer data and/or to business data.

Data holders are defined as traders or any person who processes the relevant data in the course of a business

Such regulations may require data holders to provide customer data to customers and/or to persons that are authorised by customers to receive the data. Data holders may also be required to produce, collect or retain customer data and to make changes to customer data, including rectification of inaccurate customer data, at the customer’s request. There are parallels in this respect between the obligations on data holders and on controllers processing personal data in accordance with UK data protection law.

Regulations establishing a Smart Data scheme may require data holders to publish or provide business data to customers to whom the business data relates, or to other specified classes of persons. Data holders may also be required to produce, collect or retain business data.

Obligations of Data Holders and Third Party Recipients

When establishing a new Smart Data scheme, the Secretary of State and/or the Treasury will be able to impose a number of obligations on data holders and third party recipients in connection with the operation of the scheme and the sharing of data. Third party recipients are persons that receive the relevant customer data (once authorised by the customer) or business data from the data holder (which they then use to provide services). Such obligations may include:

• Using specified facilities or services, including dashboard services, other electronic communications services or application programming interfaces (APIs)
• Complying with specified standards or participate in specified arrangements relating to, or to the use of, such facilities or services
• Requiring data holders or third party recipients to set up an ‘interface body’, that is a body that establishes an ‘interface’ for the processing of customer or business data, sets standards in relation to that interface and maintains the interface and related arrangements
• Publishing specified information relating to the rights and obligations of persons under the regulations
• Implementing procedures for the handling of complaints.

Data holders under Smart Data schemes and the EU Data Act

The introduction of these new rules for Smart Data schemes has parallels with recent data developments in the EU, in particular the data access and sharing requirements of the EU Data Act, which came into effect on 11 January 2024 and will become applicable in September 2025 (subject to some exceptions). Along with the requirements of the EU Data Governance Act (which has been applicable since September 2023), the Data Act has introduced far-reaching rules on access to and use of industrial data in the EU, with the aim of facilitating the free movement, sharing and re-use of data to create secondary markets and strengthen economic competitiveness. However, unlike the Data Governance Act, Smart Data schemes under the DUA Act are not limited to sharing of public sector data, and unlike the Data Act, which is focussed on IoT devices and software, the reforms in the DUA Act are not exclusively about access of data generated by connected products.

Data holders under Smart Data schemes that are also data holders under the EU Data Act will need to ensure that they understand their obligations under each regime, which are different. In this previous Law-Now article, we take a closer look at the data access and data sharing rights and obligations that could be introduced under new Smart Data schemes and those set out in the Data Act, and set out some practical steps that UK businesses can take to prepare themselves for change.

Introducing new Smart Data schemes

Before establishing any new Smart Data schemes, the Secretary of State or the Treasury (as applicable) must have regard to a number of factors, including (1) the likely effect of any scheme on existing and future customers, data holders, small businesses and micro businesses, (2) the likely effect on innovation, and (3) the likely effect on competition. It is probable that any Smart Data scheme proposed by the government would be preceded by a period of consultation.

The previous government, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, had issued a Smart Data Roadmap in which it set out its intention to extend Open Banking to a wider range of financial sectors and products, such as savings, investments, pensions and insurance (so-called ‘Open Finance’) and to look at introducing Smart Data schemes in the energy, telecommunications and transport sectors.

The current government has previously committed in its manifesto to support Open Banking and its extension to Open Finance. In October 2024, the government also made clear that it intended to use the Smart Data provisions of the DUA Act to implement a statutory open data scheme for fuel prices, known as “Fuel Finder”, to increase price transparency. It believes that this will help drivers to compare prices easily and make more informed decisions on where to buy petrol and diesel. This follows a public consultation conducted by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

More recently, the government has laid out its plans for Smart Data schemes in its Modern Industrial Strategy, which in addition to plans for the energy and finance sectors, includes plans for Smart Data schemes in the property sector.

Consultation on developing an energy Smart Data scheme

In 2025, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero carried out a public consultation on introducing an energy Smart Data scheme. The government has previously said that it wants to support customers to make informed choices about their energy needs in what is an increasingly complex market. They believe that an energy smart data scheme could be one route to delivering this aim. The consultation identified a number of potential use cases for an energy-sector Smart Data scheme, including: streamlining carbon reporting for businesses by allowing easier data sharing; data sharing to improve accuracy of EV charging point information for customers; providing energy usage information to price comparison services to help customers find suitable tariffs based on actual use; providing access to energy usage with information about customer properties to allow tailored decarbonisation recommendations; and providing energy use information to allow targeted support to vulnerable customers. The consultation closed on 10 March 2025. The government’s response and proposals for next steps are yet to be published.

Next steps

Look out for future Law-Now updates, in which our specialists will focus in more detail on other key areas of change implemented by the DUA Act, the outcomes of the consultation on developing an energy Smart Data scheme (once those are published) and the government’s proposal for new Smart Data schemes in other sectors.

If you would like to discuss this article or how the Data Act may impact your business, please contact one of the listed lawyers or your usual CMS contact.