The Scottish Government’s Data and Intelligence Network (DIN) has set up a pilot public engagement panel on the use of public sector data.
It is running the project with Research Data Scotland and Digital Health and Care Scotland to assess perceptions of how personal data is used and create a blueprint for a panel that would be sustainable in the long term.
The initiative is also receiving support from engagement experts at Sciencewise, Ipsos Scotland, Navigator Consulting and the University of Edinburgh.
The pilot version of the panel consists of 30 citizens broadly reflecting the Scottish population in terms of age, gender, ethnic background, location and socioeconomic status.
Understanding issues
It will run workshops on: understanding data protection and ethics; the risks and benefits of past projects; acceptable uses of data and recommendations on ethical data for DIN; and testing and refining the principles by applying them to ongoing projects.
The information collected through the workshops will be analysed and summarised, along with the recommendations, in a report expected to be published in spring 2023. In addition, panellists’ feedback on ongoing project will be shared with the project owners.
DIN is a community of public sector data experts was set up in May 2020 initially to provide data analysis to inform national and local decision making in response to the pandemic.
