What is a data trust?
The Open Data Institute (ODI) define a data trust as 'a legal structure that provides independent stewardship of data'. ‘Data stewards’ decide who has access to data, under what conditions and who can benefit from it. Organisations that collect and hold data usually have this role. With data trusts, the organisations that collect and hold data permit an independent institution to make decisions about how that data is used and shared for an agreed purpose.
ODI data trust pilots
After a national tendering process, BPE was one of only two law firms appointed to advise the ODI on the legal governance of data trusts. The research programme, funded by Innovate UK and the Office for Artificial Intelligence, involved several projects examining the use of data trusts in different scenarios. BPE’s Science and Technology team, led by Partner, Rob Bryan, advised on the use of data trusts to improve public services in the Royal London Borough of Greenwich. Specifically, the project examined how data could be used to improve energy use and environmental impact in a communal heating system, and the potential of using electric car charging points and parking sensors to share information about the availability of parking spaces.
Copies of the reports produced as a result of the pilot projects can be found in the links below.
Data Trusts team
To talk to one of our team about data trusts and how they could benefit your organisation, please contact a member of the team below:
Rob Bryan, Head of Science & Technology
Data trusts: legal and governance considerations
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In 2018/19, the Open Data Institute collaborated with the Office for AI and Innovate UK on a project to assess whether the use of data trust structures might be effective in wielding access to data in a manner which engenders trust.
BPE Solicitors, Pinsent Masons and Professor Chris Reed of Queen Mary University of London are appointed by the Open Data Institute to advise on the legal, contractual and regulatory aspects of data trusts as part of this project.
Data trusts: legal and governance considerations
Extended ODI Data Trust report: 5
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This report refers to the current thinking on the recommended form of a data trust that will best apply to the pilot project specific to the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the Greater London Authority. The pilot specific reports act as a proof of concept for specific structures of data trust, the GLA and RBG pilot being a hybrid form mixing public bodies and commercial actors, the Wildlife pilot being a form of international data trust sharing between global border forces, and the Food Waste pilot being a commercial form of data trust working towards specific project.
Extended ODI Data Trust report: 5
Data Trust for the Royal Borough of Greenwich and Greater London Authority
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Pilot 1 - Sharing Cities
The Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Royal Borough of Greenwich (RBG) have jointly expressed an interest in trialling the concept of a data trust as a solution to the concerns held by themselves and data providers and users around the sharing of data, and general problems they experience with data sharing. As a general point of principle, both are interested in using the sharing of data to improve efficiency within the individual boroughs and in London as a whole.
