Move faster on data sharing or risk UK’s lead, warns competition tsar

CHRIS DORRELL

JOHN PENROSE, the government’s competition tsar, has urged the government to move faster in enabling the safe sharing of customer data or watch global competitors “leapfrog” the UK.

Alongside a coalition of business groups –including the Payments Association and Open Banking

Excellence –Penrose argued that the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill needs greater clarity to catalyse business investment in data sharing.

Although the Bill introduces provisions to improve data sharing, it does not include a timetable for how fast changes will be introduced. This means the UK is at risk of falling behind global competitors, despite it being one of the earliest adopters of open banking.

Penrose warned that “other countries are trying to leapfrog and overtake us. If they succeed, all those juicy global opportunities will happen somewhere else instead.”

“We need firm implementation plans and timetables from ministers right away, so businesses can get cracking,” he said.