The Government published the Data Sharing Governance Framework in May 2022. This sets out five principles to follow to make data sharing more efficient:

• Commit to leadership and accountability for data sharing – using / reusing data should be a strategic priority (including making data accessible and accessing data from elsewhere). Senior leaders need to understand the strategic importance of data sharing, make data sharing a strategic priority and create a culture that supports those working to solve data sharing problems.
• Make it easy to start data sharing – organisations can make data sharing more efficient by making it easier for others to start a conversation about it, from identifying contacts to transparency on what information is needed from data requesters.
• Maximise the value of the data you hold – data sharing is made slower and more difficult when there is a lack of transparency about what data exists and how it can be accessed. It is easier to realise the value of data the more that is known about the data held and who is responsible for it. This also makes it easier for others to understand its value and start conversations about it.
• Support responsible data sharing – sharing data (particularly personal data) can be seen as a high-risk activity, but this should not discourage sharing where there are good reasons to do so. Consideration should be given to data protection law and national guidance as a way to make sure that data is shared responsibly. Some sensitive data has special legal protections which may restrict sharing, such as data held by healthcare organisations. Non-personal data can be shared with more flexibility if an organisation has different plans to share different kinds of data in different ways.
• Make data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable – using common data standards is very important here. Data standards help people to agree and document the content, context and meaning of data. This includes how it is represented, recorded, stored and accessed. Better findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability means everybody can get more value from shared data and that the data can be shared and used more quickly.