Unlocking the value of data - public engagement: literature review

Conclusions and Recommendations

We identified that deliberative and dialogue based qualitative public engagement and research methods have the ability to shift public views, and they tend to enable the development and identification of more nuanced and considered public perspectives around private sector use of public sector data than quantitative methods that generally collect publics’ spontaneous attitudes or ‘gut reactions.’ Deliberative methods also enable the identification of collectively developed and agreed recommendations from members of publics. This suggests that deliberative and dialogue based public engagement methods are likely to be most effective in identifying informed and considered public views on private sector use of public sector data, whereas quantitative methods can be used to assess publics’ spontaneous reactions and levels of existing awareness and knowledge.

We identified eight overarching key themes across the findings from the included documents that should be emphasised and taken into account when it comes to private sector use of public sector data in general and in designing public engagement activities around this area in particular: low public awareness, ‘gut reactions,’ and changing perceptions around data use; acceptability of private sector data uses; the centrality of public benefit; importance of benefit-sharing and distribution; trust and distrust; oversight, governance, and safeguards; public involvement and engagement; and the impact of demographic differences of people’s views.

The impact of low levels of public awareness on publics’ views concerning private sector use of public sector data suggests that there is a pressing need to better inform and engage publics about how and why private sector organisations are accessing and using public sector data, and providing information should be a part of related public engagement activities. The central emphasis on public benefit across the included studies, including as a key condition of public acceptability for private sector use of public sector data, suggests that any proposed or actual case of private sector involvement with public sector data should be able to deliver or have high potential to deliver public benefit in order for it to be acceptable to publics and have public support. This ability should be convincingly evidenced and justified, and concerns over excessive private benefits and profit motives mitigated. However, there is no consensus on the definition of ‘public benefit’ in the existing literature, which suggests that public engagement activities should be designed to clarify the meaning and scope of this concept. Relatedly, publics wish to see a fair distribution of benefits from private sector uses of public sector data, suggesting that the development of benefit and profit sharing models is of central importance and should involve publics. While publics tend to be relatively distrustful of private sector organisations, the included studies show that publics generally have a high level of trust in public sector organisations and especially the NHS in the UK. Publics are generally more trusting of partnerships between the private and public sector if public sector organisations, and especially the NHS, retain control of the data and its uses during such partnerships, because publics presume that public sector organisations will protect public interest and ensure public benefit is realised. This suggests that to gain and retain public trust in and support for private sector uses of public sector data, public sector organisations should be centrally involved as key partners, and the data, as well as how it is used, should remain under the control of public sector organisations. The included studies also suggest that publics expect there to be both stringent oversight, governance, and safeguards mechanisms, and public involvement and engagement mechanisms in place. However, there is no consensus in existing literature on the precise nature of these oversight, governance, and safeguards, or public involvement and engagement mechanisms, and there is some ambivalence around these areas. This suggests that public engagement activities should be designed to identify, clarify and define what kinds of oversight, governance, and safeguards should be in place. It also suggests that more work is needed to identify precisely where, to what extent, and at what levels publics wish to be involved when it comes to decision making about private sector use of public sector data.

Based on the above, we recommend a focus on the following:

• Use deliberative and dialogue based public engagement methods to involve publics in decision making about private sector use of public sector data
• Develop public engagement activities to identify where, to what extent, and at what levels, publics wish to be involved in decision making about private sector use of public sector data
• Develop public engagement activities to identify and derive an agreed definition of the meaning and scope of ‘public benefit,’ to develop a useable definition that is informed and supported by a public consensus
• Ensure that all cases of private sector use of public sector data are centrally motivated by and have a demonstratable potential to deliver public benefit, and provide convincing evidence and justifications for how public benefit will be realised
• Involve publics in the development of effective benefit-sharing models for private sector partnerships, including profit sharing and reinvestment of profits into the public sector
• Ensure that all cases of private sector use of public sector data have an in-built benefit-sharing system based on these benefit-sharing models
• Develop public engagement activities to identify the best and most acceptable oversight, governance, and safeguard mechanisms that should be implemented to govern private sector uses of public sector data in ways that ensure that data is protected, and that public benefit is realised
• Ensure that all cases of private sector use of public sector data have stringent oversight, governance, and safeguard mechanisms that publics find acceptable and trustworthy
• Ensure that all cases of private sector use of public sector data are transparent and clearly communicated to publics, and implement educational campaigns that inform publics about private sector use of public sector data more generally