Policy paper

National Data Library: progress update, January 2026

Published 26 January 2026

Data is a strategic asset for the UK. Better use and management of data is essential to radically transform people’s lives through:

• improving the delivery of public services
• boosting economic growth
• underpinning groundbreaking research
• fuelling cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) development and applications

The government is committed to realising the opportunities that data offers, including through creating a National Data Library (NDL). The creation of the National Data Library is backed by over £100 million as part of a £1.9 billion total investment being provided to DSIT over the spending review period to drive cross-cutting digital priorities.

As part of our work to create the National Data Library we have completed an extensive discovery phase to:

• understand the biggest opportunities and priorities where we could make the most impact through the National Data Library
• test approaches to systemic reform across the public sector whilst also delivering tangible benefits for people and the economy

This update sets out:

• key activities to date
• new data access initiatives
• the opportunity for public sector data
• government data access initiatives already delivering
• next steps

Key activities to date

Evidence gathering

We have built a strong national evidence base to shape the remit and delivery model of the National Data Library. This has been based on:

• engaging citizens via public attitudes research to understand baseline attitudes towards the government’s use and sharing of data, and the delivery of a National Data Library.
• engagement with stakeholder organisations across academia, business and the public sector, to understand how the National Data Library can best support responsible data access, drive innovation, and improve outcomes across sectors.
• review and consideration of insights from external expert reports and commentaries on the National Data Library, such as those from the Open Data Institute (ODI), Public Digital, The Startup Coalition, Tony Blair Institute, and the Wellcome Trust.
• Bringing together Chief Data Officers and leaders from across government departments to begin the transformation in how the public sector treats its data.
• Establishing the National Data Library Expert Advisory Group, bringing together independent experts from industry, academia, and civil society with a diverse range of experience in data and AI. The Expert Advisory Group’s purpose is to support and challenge the design and delivery of the National Data Library. 
• Developing an understanding of existing government data sharing initiatives, identifying key factors that contributed to their success and barriers faced during delivery.
• Evaluating the performance of data.gov.uk, assessing the range of datasets available and existing functionality.
• Learning from international best practice for harnessing the full potential of public sector data from countries such as Denmark, Estonia, Singapore and the Netherlands.

New publications

We have also:

• published a survey on the opportunities for public sector data, asking innovators across the economy where better access to existing and/or the creation of new public sector data could positively impact their work. This will help us prioritise public sector datasets in strategically significant areas.
• worked with stakeholders to publish guidelines and best practices for making government datasets ready for AI. The guidelines help public bodies develop effective data structures and data dissemination methods for AI readiness.

New data access initiatives

We have launched 5 kickstarter projects that aim to deliver high value use cases while testing innovative ways to address challenges related to data access. These projects are intending to:

1. Target energy bill support for those who need it

Over one in ten households need support to pay their energy bills, but identifying exactly which ones isn’t always straightforward.

Information about household circumstances – earnings, benefits, energy usage – is held across different parts of the public sector. Bringing this information together could help build a clearer picture of which households are struggling and may be entitled to support.

This project will explore whether securely connecting these different data sources could make it easier to identify households in need, to ensure support reaches the people it’s designed for faster.

2. Help people with long-term health conditions find or stay in work

People with long‑term health conditions and disabilities spend the equivalent of 9 working days a year on health-related admin, yet millions still miss out on support they’re entitled to.

This project will explore how public services could work better together to support these individuals. It will look at whether bringing datasets and information across services could reduce the number of times people need to repeat themselves.

The lessons learned from this work could help reduce the administrative burden on individuals and help ensure that more people receive the support they’re entitled to – enabling them to take advantage of opportunities, participate in their communities, and contribute to economic growth.

3. Ensure adult social care services match demand

Adult social care plays a vital role in helping people live independent, dignified lives – and getting it right matters for the wider health system too.

Useful data about social care services already exist, but those who need it most – care providers, local authorities and researchers – often struggle to access or make sense of it.

This project will test whether bringing this data together in a more accessible way could help. The aim is to explore how a new digital service might gather, analyse and present information clearly, while protecting privacy. 

If this proves workable, it could provide a clearer, joined‑up view of social care needs – improving visibility on local need (and flagging pressure points early) to allow for smarter commissioning and more efficient resource allocation.

4. Enable AI powered legal guidance for businesses

Smaller British businesses rack up costs of £13.6 billion a year due to failing to address legal issues such as contract law and disputes. 

Giving them information they need to deal with unique legal issues could save them a fortune – and crucially – give them the freedom they need to focus on growth.

This kickstarter will explore how streams of authoritative legal data from the National Archives could be made AI-ready. That could open the door for AI systems to easily digest high quality information – and ultimately give small and medium sized businesses cost-effective legal support at their fingertips, when they need it most.

This means businesses up and down the country – from local cafes to new start ups – could be empowered to understand how different regulations and laws apply to their individual circumstances, giving them the confidence they need to invest and grow.

5. Improve the use of weather and climate data for smarter decisions

In 2024, more than 1 in 5 British businesses said they lost money because of storms and severe weather. Better ways to plan around our changeable weather and climate could make businesses and councils more resilient – putting them on the front foot of adapting how they work to keep people safe through frosty spells, hot summers, and stormy seasons.  

This project will explore where trusted Met Office data, alongside AI tools and compute allocation, could help a wider variety of organisations and communities understand how local weather conditions may impact them.

Whether it’s a local café knowing if it should stock up on hot chocolate instead of ice cream, to creating or developing smarter ways to grit the roads that actually need it – this project will explore how better access to weather and climate data could help make streets safer and businesses more resilient.

The opportunity for public sector data

The UK has the largest data economy in Europe, enabled by proportionate regulation, a highly digitised economy and access to technical talent. Data can be used for better decision-making, research, trend analysis, seamless user experiences and precise management of operations. And today, AI offers the opportunity for data to have impact in an exponential scale.

The public sector holds and creates a vast amount of data, generated from interactions between individuals, businesses and public services, research conducted directly or funded by the public sector, and specific data capture activities. This data is already improving the lives of people across the UK, but we can go much further.

There is the opportunity to ensure that the UK has the right data sharing infrastructure across all parts of the economy, that respond to geopolitical and technical developments, whilst building and maintaining the trust of the public in the use of its data.

Doing this would enable us to:

• Build the UK’s global leadership in data-driven innovation. A strong data ecosystem which values data as an asset in both the public and private sectors makes the UK a natural home for scientists, innovators and AI developers to research and create products.
• Deliver world-leading public services. Data is shared and re-used at scale to enable seamless and tailored public services, with data-driven decisions at every level, underpinned by robust safeguards and resilient digital infrastructure.
• Treat data as a high value asset. Knowing the value of data, when it’s used, and understanding its commercial worth focuses investment and secures the best returns for citizens.

Government data access initiatives already delivering

We are in a strong position to realise the opportunities from public sector data through building on the initiatives which already demonstrate how UK data is driving value across the public and private sectors. Examples of these include the following:

• The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) is improving the efficiency and safety of the installation, maintenance, operation and repair of buried infrastructure by providing secure access to data from over 600 public and private sector asset owners, creating over £400 million of economic growth per year.

• The Department for Education Content Store, launched in September 2024, is a centralised, structured repository of curriculum-aligned educational resources – such as lesson plans, assessment materials, and learning objectives. It is a key piece of digital government infrastructure giving EdTech companies the data to develop high quality tools for education.

• The Health Data Research Service (HDRS), backed by up to £600 million from the Government and Wellcome Trust, will begin delivery by December 2026, with new capabilities being progressively rolled out. Once fully operational in December 2030, the HDRS, working in collaboration with the National Data Library, will be a secure single access point to regional and national-scale health datasets, delivering high-impact data assets for research and innovation while embedding rigorous safeguards for privacy, ethics, and security.

• The Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme uses data linking to integrate and transform public services, connecting data from the Ministry of Justice, Department of Health and Social Care, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Public Health Wales, Department for Education, police forces, and the Welsh Government, to improve services and develop new insights to transform public policy.

• The active pairing of compute with large-scale datasets through Isambard AI and the Genomics England Research Environment ensures researchers can access major datasets directly alongside public compute to run advanced AI models on large proprietary datasets in a secure environment – for instance, high-impact health datasets to improve medical and drug discovery.
  
  

  • Isambard AI will be linked to a new “British Library for the AI age” data facility, and the next national supercomputer (backed by £750 million of government funding) will be coupled to the International Data Facility at the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre.
  • The Genomics England Research Environment – a secure cloud platform hosting the National Genomics Research Library – provides tools and compute for large-scale clinical and genomic analysis, including demanding AI workflows.

Next steps

The government will set out more details on the National Data Library in spring 2026.