Notice

Opportunities for public sector data survey 2026: questions

Published 23 January 2026

Thank you for taking part.

Your response will help us understand which public sector data would be most valuable to organisations like yours, and how we can make public sector data easier to access responsibly.

By public sector data, we mean data that is created, owned or made available by public sector organisations (including local government and Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs)) — such as data about locations, organisations or society.

We know that public sector data can be used responsibly to deliver public impact and has huge potential value to innovators and researchers across the UK economy. It is already delivering benefits for people in the UK. Government already shares data responsibly with businesses and academia to support applications in transport, construction, education and health:

• Open Data initiatives, such as the Transport for London API, have enabled the development of transport apps like CityMapper
• the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) is improving the way we install and maintain buried infrastructure such as pipes and cables
• the government-funded AI Education Content Store, launched last year, brings together curriculum guidance, lesson plans and anonymised pupil work into a structured dataset that can be used to create high quality AI tools that support schools
• the Health Data Research Service (HDRS), fully operational by December 2030, will give researchers a secure, single-point of access to NHS datasets, speeding up medical research and enabling new AI-driven diagnostics and treatments

Public sector data may include sensitive data (like confidential or personal data) and be subject to restrictions on use. Any potential future use  of personal data would need to be lawful, responsible and secure. Any changes to the rules governing its use would need to balance enabling innovation with public interest and proportionate safeguards. The government will continue to consider the best terms and conditions under which to make data responsibly and legally available to researchers and innovators.

How we will use your response 

Your response will help us to make more public sector data responsibly available to innovators, businesses, researchers and public bodies. This includes making existing public sector data easy to reuse and creating or curating new data as needed.

This is part of our work in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

How to respond

The survey should take you around 15 minutes, but you can take longer if you like. You can save and continue this survey if you are unable to complete it all at the same time.

If you respond to this survey, you will be able to ‘opt in’ below to be contacted as part of a more comprehensive market analysis in 2026.

Complete this survey here.

This deadline for a response is 11:59pm on 28 February 2026.

We may close this survey sooner based on the number of responses. 

We will publish an anonymised summary of results in due course.

If you want to contact us please email contact@take-part-in-research.service.gov.uk.

Your privacy

We take your privacy seriously. Our Privacy Notice explains how we handle and use the data we collect from you.

• We will only use any personal information you provide to record results from this survey, or, where you have agreed to be contacted, to reach out to you for follow-up engagement.
• We may share details of your response with other organisations in the public sector tasked with developing policy to support your sector
• We may collate and share summary data with other teams in the public sector
• We may publish an anonymised overview of responses publicly to ensure transparency of any policy they inform.

Confidential information

• If you provide any market sensitive or confidential information in your responses, please explicitly state so.
• Any confidential information will not be shared outside DSIT.

If you have any questions about the survey, please email us PublicSectorDataEngagement@dsit.gov.uk.

Questions

Your details

1. Which organisation do you work for?

2. What primary sector does this fit into?

Select 1 option or ‘other’ to enter a different sector.

• Agriculture, fisheries, mining, quarrying and forestry
• Construction
• Arts, entertainment, recreation and sport
• Education
• Energy and utilities (electricity, water supply, sewerage, waste)
• Finance and insurance
• Hospitality
• Health and care
• Information, communication
• Manufacturing
• Professional services; science; technical consultancy; includes advertising
• Public administration and government
• Retail and wholesale
• Real estate
• Transportation and storage
• Other
  • Enter a different sector

3. Describe your organisation’s relationship to or use of AI.

Please select only 1 option.

• We build AI models / products / services (primary activity)
  
• We integrate AI into products / services we provide
  
• We use AI internally (productivity, operations) but don’t sell AI products or services
  
• We don’t currently use AI, but are exploring it
  
• We don’t use AI and have no current plans
  
• Don’t know

4. Approximately how many people work for your organisation, including yourself:

• Sole trader (0 employees)
• Micro (1-9 employees)
• Small (10-49 employees)
• Medium (50-249 employees)
• Large (250+ employees)

5. What is your job title

6. What does your role involve?

7. What UK region is your organisation based in?

Please select only 1 option. If you’re based outside the UK, specify which country.

• East Midlands
• East of England
• London
• North East
• North West
• South East
• South West
• West Midlands
• Yorkshire & the Humber
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• Outside the UK
  • Enter a country

Public sector data you use

8. What key public sector data do you currently use in your organisation ? Please specify the dataset/API names, sources (e.g., department/agency), formats (dataset/API), and any relevant links/documentation.

9. If you answered the above, please explain how this data is important to your work.

10. Did you pay for this data, or use any licenses to access the data? If so, please provide details.

Select all options that apply. 

• I paid or used a license that was not the Open Government License (please provide details)
  
• I accessed it under the Open Government License (‘open data’)
  
• I don’t know

11. Did you face any difficulties accessing or using this data? (select all that apply)

• Cost
  
• Ability to find the right data
  
• Poor data quality
  
• Approvals processes
  
• Legal frameworks
  
• Linking to other data sets and interoperability
  
• Technical infrastructure
  
• Other (please specify)

Public sector data you would find useful

12. Are there existing public sector data sets that you or your organisation would like to access that you currently do not?

Please list specific data sets or themes where possible.

• Yes (provide details)
• No

13. Why are you unable to access this data

You can pick more than one option.

• Cost
• Ability to find the right data
• Poor data quality
• Approvals processes
• Legal frameworks
• Linking to other data sets and interoperability
• Technical infrastructure
• Other (please specify)

14. What would be the use cases and benefits for your organisation or sector? Against each data set or theme you listed, please list potential use cases and benefits.

[free text]

15. Are there any new data sets that you think the government should capture and make available? Please list specific data sets or themes where possible.

• Yes (provide details)
• No

16. What would be the use cases and benefits for your organisation or sector? Against each data set or theme you listed, please list potential use cases and benefits.

[free text]

Data for AI

17. What public sector datasets (existing or new) would be useful for innovating using AI or adopting AI technologies? Please list specific data sets or themes where possible.

[free text]

18. What would you use this data for?

You can pick more than one option.

• training or fine-tuning AI models
  
• using AI model to get predictions, recommendations, or automated outputs
  
• understanding customers (e.g. behaviour, preferences, or spending patterns)
  
• analysing markets or competitors (e.g. market surveillance or trend analysis)
  
• working with text, images, or media (e.g. classification, tagging, sentiment, summarisation)
  
• detecting fraud or managing risk
  
• research and development (e.g. scientific or technical research, literature analysis)
  
• forecasting and planning (e.g. demand or capacity planning)
  
• adopting AI technologies
  
• Other (please specify)

19. How can the public sector make datasets available in ways that would best support AI innovation or adoption?

[free text]

Other comments

20. Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your experience with public sector data?

• Yes (provide detail)
• No

21. Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your views on the use of public sector data?

• Yes (provide detail)
• No

Taking part in follow-up engagement

22. Before you go, we’d love to be able to get in touch to follow up on this survey. Would you be willing to take part in follow-up engagements on this survey?

• Yes (please provide your email address)
• No

Taking part in future research

We’d love to be able to get in touch as part of further research into opportunities for public sector data and how to improve access. This could include being sent another survey, participating in interviews or joining roundtables.

If you sign up, we will send you a short set of questions via email and your name will be added to a list that we will use to contact participants for further research on this topic.

You can always say no to an invite and you can unsubscribe at any time by contacting: contact@take-part-in-research.service.gov.uk  - we’ll also include details on how to do this in every communication we send you.

Our user research privacy notice explains how we handle and use the data we collect from you if you opt in.

23. Would you be willing for us to contact you to take part in further research on this topic?

• Yes (please provide your email address)
• No