Midata 2012 review and consultation
Consults on order making power for suppliers to provide customers, upon request, historic transaction and consumption data in an open format
The proposals have the following aims:
- help people find the goods and services most suited to their needs or preferences
- stimulate the development of a new market in personal data handling and analysis that allows UK business to target a strong potential growth market
The consultation received around 400 written responses from a mix of individuals, large and small businesses, industry and consumer representatives. In addition about 60 people attended dedicated open meetings organised by BIS during the consultation period.
In the light of the consultation the government has announced that it will look to legislate if companies fail to comply with the voluntary release of consumers’ electronic data. To facilitate this, the government will take a power to provide for the introduction of regulations to give consumers the right to request their transaction information in an electronic machine readable format. The power will focus on certain core markets: energy, mobile phones, current accounts and credit cards, with the option to act more widely subject to taking into account certain factors.
The government is still committed to making progress through the voluntary programme (a number of respondents indicated this would be there preference), and work on this under the Chair Professor Nigel Shadbolt will be stepped up. In particular, the midata work on the necessary conditions for consumer trust and stimulating innovative developments will be prioritised, along with the release of new data.
If the government does consider making regulations under the power there will be a further round of detailed consultation.
The government’s response to the midata review and consultation is below and non confidential responses will be made accessible shortly.