Publications
Read all our research reports, policy briefings, and written evidence.
Research reports
Original research findings and recommendations.
Report: How regulators share complaints data
April 2024
This report looks at eight key UK regulators of consumer services to see which publish useful data on complaints.
Complaints data should be published to protect consumers; nearly all key consumer-facing regulators publish this data. The Gambling Commission, however, is falling short of these standards. We call on them to match the example set by other regulators.
Report: Data gaps in healthcare statistics
March 2024
This report maps data gaps in England’s health and social care system. We look at the questions that key stakeholders repeatedly ask and cannot get answers to, to find the data gaps that are most harmful to patients’ health.
This report calls on the Department of Health and Social Care to fill these gaps as part of its review of health and social care statistics.
Report: The state of the UK’s high-value datasets
December 2023
This report calls for the UK government to make their high-value datasets freely available to support government processes and unlock economic growth. We audit the current state of UK high-value datasets and find they have patchy accessibility. With no plans to improve on this, the UK is falling behind the EU and other comparators.
Report: Gaps in the Register of Overseas Entities
September 2023
Co-written with LSE and the University of Warwick, this report assesses whether new data reforms have been effective in improving the transparency of property ownership.
We identify several major gaps in the data published by Companies House and HM Land Registry, which mean that over 70% of properties in England and Wales held via overseas companies still do not publish information about who really owns them.
Report: Data and statistical gaps in criminal justice
March 2023
This report, supported by the Justice Lab, maps data gaps in the criminal justice system of England & Wales. It outlines how data can be used to create a fairer, more transparent justice system and provides the Ministry of Justice with technical recommendations to address existing gaps.
Report: Unlocking the value of fragmented public data
February 2023
Co-written with mySociety, this report outlines principles for maximising the value of publishing public data.
To avoid data being inaccessible, duplicated or wasteful, we recommend that all public data should adhere to a compulsory data standard, the location be published in a central repository and that support should be provided by the data convener.
Report: The case for UK subsidy transparency
January 2022
Co-written with the Centre for Policy Studies, and supported by John Penrose MP, this report called for stronger transparency requirements in the Government’s Subsidy Control Bill.
This report called for the Bill to be amended in order to lower the threshold of subsidies that must be publicly declared from £500,000 to £500.
Report: New data on properties owned by overseas individuals
November 2021
The report uses previously unpublished data from HM Land Registry on property titles in England & Wales owned by overseas individuals - finding that the number had doubled since 2010.
This report provides a detailed analysis of HMLR data, highlights the failures of recent transparency commitments, and recommends measures the Government should take to address the lack of official data on UK property.
Report: How to make a national landlord register work
October 2021
This report explores the use of selective licensing schemes in England and considers how this can inform the creation of a national, compulsory register for landlords.
Our research found less than 8% of privately rented properties were covered by any registration or licensing scheme. The report sets out how a national registration scheme should be designed.
Report: Official data on ethnicity and inequality
April 2021
The report audits the Government’s progress on 26 formally accepted recommendations regarding data related to race and ethnicity. We find that only three of these recommendations have been fully implemented.
This report calls for greater accountability and transparency around progress on such recommendations, including commitments to specific timescales for implementation, and monitoring by the Office for Statistics Regulation.
Policy briefings
Policy explainers and recommendations.
Briefing: Geospatial data institutions
May 2024
This briefing compares how countries across the world manage their valuable geospatial datasets.
We find that countries increasingly manage these datasets within a cohesive governance structure - the UK is an outlier.
Briefing: Our response to the Lievesley Review
May 2024
We have responded to the Lievesley Review of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) published in March.
We welcome the Review’s call for the UKSA to address gaps in official statistics, but urge the UKSA to update the way it engages with statistics users so it can fill these gaps properly.
Briefing: A register of gas boilers
January 2024
This briefing calls for the Government to create a central register of gas boiler certificates.
We need better data on gas boilers to help us reach net zero and ensure landlords are keeping their tenants safe. The current re-tendering of the Gas Safe Register is a prime opportunity to make this happen.
Briefing: Land ownership by trusts
January 2024
This briefing explores the main loophole for land ownership transparency in the UK: trusts.
Understanding who owns land is vital for building houses, tackling financial crime, and various social purposes. Data is published when individuals and companies own land, but when trusts are involved there is a lack of transparency that criminals can exploit.
Briefing: Healthcare payments data
January 2024
This briefing discusses how plans to increase transparency about industry payments to the healthcare sector could be jeopardised by data fragmentation.
Drug companies may soon be required to publish data on their payments to doctors. However, this data could be of limited value if data standards and a central repository are not set up.
Briefing: Address data
November 2023
This briefing examines the poor state of UK address data and explains why opening it up would be a low-cost, high-impact solution.
UK address data is expensive, hard-to-access and unreliable. This limits growth and innovation, slows public service delivery, and means the UK is falling behind other high-income countries.
Briefing: Unrepresented defendants
February 2023
This briefing explores why data is needed on the number of defendants who appear in magistrates’ courts without legal representation.
Unrepresented defendants face harsher justice outcomes, are more likely to have negative court experiences and slow down hearings. Despite high public interest in the issue, no official data is published on unrepresented defendants.
Briefing: Court backlogs
February 2023
This briefing identifies data gaps on the court backlog and how they could be addressed.
In particular, we call for timeliness data to be broken down by individual courts and types of crimes, and for a breakdown of plea types in the Crown Court backlog - and much more.
Briefing: Out of court disposals
February 2023
This briefing studies data gaps around out-of-court disposals (OOCDs). These are non-court resolutions issued by the police to low-level offenders, like fines or community service orders.
Currently, very little data is available on who receives OOCDs or how well they reduce the reoffending rate.
Briefing: Employment support schemes
January 2023
This briefing calls for the DWP to publish more detailed performance data for its employment support schemes - Restart and the Flexible Support Fund.
£2.5bn is spent annually on employment support schemes, but the lack of performance data makes it hard to identify whether they are working or represent value for money. This briefing recommends a series of inexpensive measures that would help the DWP to better inform its understanding of schemes.
Briefing: Custodial remand
January 2023
This briefing examines data gaps on custodial remand. Little data is routinely available on how long people spend in remand, or why custodial remand is used.
These data gaps make it harder for experts to monitor trends, or to identify the number of defendants held beyond legal time limits.
Briefing: Conditional bail
January 2023
This briefing calls for the Ministry of Justice to fill data gaps on conditional bail.
We currently are unable to answer basic questions such as how many people are released on conditional bail or what type of conditions are being attached. We provide recommendations on how to address these concerns.
Briefing: Strengthening the Subsidy Control Bill
August 2021
This briefing outlines proposals to strengthen the Government’s Subsidy Control Bill by amending its plans for a transparency database.
The proposals would make it much easier to understand where public spending goes and whether it works, and would not be difficult or expensive to deliver.
Briefing: Data on furlough support
November 2020
This briefing called for HMRC to publish the name of employers that received grants under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
We argued that there was a legal basis for HMRC to disclose such data, which would also help authorities recover fraud losses.
Briefing: Agriculture Bill
July 2020
This briefing explains why the Government’s proposed Agriculture Bill would result in minimal data being collected on farm payments.
Developing a more robust agriculture data regime would allow authorities to monitor the effectiveness of funding systems and generate new commercial opportunities.
Evidence submissions
Our responses to government consultations and select committee inquiries.
Written evidence: Water quality and infrastructure
May 2024
We responded to the Environmental Audit Committee’s call for evidence on water quality and infrastructure.
We recommend that the Committee asks water companies to urgently start publishing real-time data on sewage spills. This data is required to protect our waterways and their users.
Written evidence: Value from Government money
April 2024
We wrote evidence for the Public Account Committee’s inquiry into delivering value from government investment in major projects.
We recommend that budget approval for major projects and programmes be conditional on proper consideration of metrics. Without these metrics, the Government cannot know if its spending was worthwhile.
Written evidence: Contractual controls on land
April 2024
We responded to the Department for Levelling Up’s consultation into contractual controls on land.
We recommend two minor tweaks to their proposed dataset: it must cover unregistered land, otherwise the Government will be blind to 12% of land in England and Wales; and it must include geospatial data to help the Government achieve its policy goals.
Written evidence: Access to HM Land Registry data
April 2024
We sent evidence into HM Land Registry’s consultation on its fees and charging structure.
We recommend that HMLR reduce the cost of particular data to make it more useful for research and innovation, and consistently use high-quality UPRNs to support data linking.
Written evidence: the Office for Local Government (2)
March 2024
We responded with mySociety to a consultation on the Office for Local Government’s (Oflog’s) new draft Corporate Plan.
To support civil society’s analysis of local government performance, we recommend that Oflog include data users and republishers in its user research, and tackle fragmentation in local government data.
Written evidence: the Office for Local Government
March 2024
We submitted joint evidence with mySociety to the Department for Levelling Up’s inquiry into the Office for Local Government (Oflog).
We recommend that Oflog tackle fragmentation in local government data so that the data’s potential does not continue to go untapped.
Written evidence: Transparency of trusts
February 2024
We responded to the Department for Levelling Up’s consultation on the transparency of land ownership involving trusts.
In line with our briefing, we recommend that the Government publish the beneficial owners of land-owning trusts to create parity with other property owners.
Written evidence: the Code of Practice for Statistics
December 2023
We responded to the Office for Statistics Regulation’s call for evidence on the Code of Practice for Statistics.
We recommended the Code require statistics producers to take a more user-centric approach, to ensure that official statistics best serve the public good.
Written evidence: A register of short-term lets
June 2023
We wrote evidence on DCMS’s consultation on a register of short-term lets in England.
We argued that the register should be compulsory and national, should include real lettings data, and should include company and NI numbers, to help local authorities enforce rules.
Written evidence: Remand data
January 2023
We provided evidence to the Justice Select Committee’s inquiry into adult custodial remand.
We recommend data should be published routinely on how long people spend in remand and the reasons why remand is used, as many experts have called for, and as it should be possible to publish.
Written evidence: ‘Restart’ employment scheme
December 2022
Co-written with the Government’s former anti-corruption champion, John Penrose MP, we submitted evidence to the PAC’s inquiry into Restart - the DWP’s scheme to support the long-term unemployed.
We recommend the DWP should publish better performance data on the scheme, and on the design of future schemes.
Written evidence: Sentencing data
October 2022
We provided evidence to the Justice Select Committee’s inquiry into the public opinion and understanding of sentencing.
Our response calls on the MoJ to improve the quality of its sentencing data, and to start publishing court-level sentencing data, as it previously committed to do.
Written evidence: Analysis of AirBNB data
September 2022
We responded to DCMS’s call for evidence about developing tourist accommodation schemes. This response analyses UK AirBNB listings data from 2016-2022, using data from Inside AirBNB, and finds a sharp rise in listings in rural areas.
We also recommend that a registration scheme should be accompanied by data disclosure requirements for platforms.
Written and oral evidence: National Lottery
December 2021
We provided written and oral evidence to the DCMS Committee's inquiry on the future of the National Lottery.
We recommend that the Gambling Commission should collect better data on Lottery play and potential harms, to protect gamblers.
Written evidence: Ofcom and address data
January 2021
We responded to Ofcom’s proposed work plan, recommending it reviews Royal Mail’s delivery of the Postal Address File (PAF).
Currently, anyone who wants to access PAF must pay high licensing fees and is subject to complex intellectual property restrictions. This limits innovation and growth.
Written evidence: Agriculture Bill
September 2020
We provided evidence to DEFRA’s consultation on the Agriculture Bill, reforming payment schemes for farmers in England & Wales.
Our response identified shortcomings in the Bill’s proposed use of data - the proposed published data would not tell us reliably who was receiving funding, or for what purpose.