What Is Smart Data? A Practical Guide to UK Smart Data

What is Smart Data?

Smart Data is about using consent‑driven data sharing to create clearer, more personalised and better‑connected services that genuinely help people and businesses, rather than simply moving data between systems. When trusted organisations share information securely under firm legal safeguards and tailored sector rules, customers gain confidence that their data is handled responsibly and only in ways they have chosen, while providers can collaborate to design new, more useful products and experiences.

Where “big data” focused on collecting and crunching huge volumes of information, Smart Data is about using the right data, at the right time, for a clearly defined - customer initiated - purpose. It turns data from something that happens in the background into an asset that can be actively used through regulated, interoperable data‑sharing ecosystems.

Why Smart Data Matters Now

Everyday life is increasingly digital, but people still face slow, paper‑heavy processes when switching providers, applying for services or proving their identity. Smart Data aims to change that by making it easier to move, reuse and trust data across organisations and sectors, with clear consent and strong protections built in.

For individuals, this can mean quicker decisions, better deals and less form‑filling across finance, property and energy services. For businesses and public bodies, it can mean more accurate insights, faster onboarding and new ways to serve customers, supporting productivity and growth in the wider UK economy.

The UK Smart Data Landscape

The UK is widely seen as one of the pioneers of open data in finance, thanks to Open Banking and its regulatory and technical framework. That experience has shown how clear standards, strong oversight and shared infrastructure can safely open up markets and spark innovation for millions of customers.

Smart Data is the UK’s next chapter, with cross‑sector schemes being developed in areas such as finance, energy, and property. Recent government announcements and the passage of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 have confirmed Smart Data as a priority to help modernise markets and improve public services.

The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025

To make Smart Data work at scale, the UK needs clear legislation and regulatory powers. The former Digital Information and Smart Data Bill has now progressed as the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which provides that foundation by updating parts of the UK’s data protection regime and creating powers to establish Smart Data schemes.​

In straightforward terms, the Act aims to maintain high data protection standards while modernising rules, create a legal basis for government‑designated Smart Data schemes in multiple sectors, using digital verification, and other trusted data services, to make proving identity and eligibility online easier. For Smart Data specifically, it gives government the ability to require certain data holders to share customer data in secure, standardised ways with authorised third parties when customers request it, within detailed scheme‑level rules and safeguards.

Smart Data Research in the UK

Smart Data is not starting from scratch; it is built on years of UK policy development, consultation and technical research across government, regulators and academia. Departments such as the former BEIS (now split into the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Business and Trade) have commissioned work on authentication, authorisation, data standards and scheme design to understand how Smart Data can work safely in practice.​

Regulators including the FCA and ICO have jointly explored the future of Open Finance and Smart Data, stressing consumer control, interoperability and data protection by design. This body of research now underpins the move from pilots and tech sprints into production‑grade Smart Data schemes in sectors such as property, energy and wider digital markets.

Smart Data Connectivity and Ecosystems

For Smart Data to deliver value, data holders, data users and end customers must be able to connect safely and reliably, ideally through shared infrastructure. Connectivity is not just about APIs; it is about the rules and mechanisms for ensuring those are correctly and securely applied. For example: who can call an API, and how can their identity and authorisation be authenticated by the data provider.

Key building blocks include common technical standards so systems can talk to each other, secure identity and authentication for organisations and software, robust authorisation flows so users can grant and withdraw consent, and directories that show who is allowed to participate. Raidiam specialises in providing this connectivity layer for Smart Data ecosystems through Raidiam Connect, which brings together participant directories, PKI, authorisation and conformance tooling in a single, scheme‑ready platform.

Smart Data in Financial Services

Financial services is the most mature Smart Data arena today, thanks to Open Banking and the emerging expansion towards Open Finance with a wider range of financial products and services in scope. In this context, Smart Data enables individuals and businesses to share their financial information with regulated third parties to access more tailored, competitive and convenient services.​

Examples already in market include personal finance apps that combine data from multiple accounts, lenders that make quicker, fairer decisions using verified transaction data, and SME tools that automate cash‑flow and tax tasks via bank feeds. Raidiam technology underpins some of the world’s most advanced open finance and Smart Data implementations, including Brazil’s Open Finance ecosystem, demonstrating national‑scale operation with billions of secure API calls.​

To help accelerate the next wave of innovation, the FCA launched a Smart Data Accelerator programme and associated Open Finance tech sprints, providing synthetic data and a safe environment where firms can test new data‑driven use cases. Raidiam is the FCA’s technical delivery partner for the current sprints, providing the secure connectivity and sandbox environment that mirror real‑world open finance and Smart Data conditions.

Smart Data in Property

Property is one of the most powerful Smart Data use cases, because today’s homebuying and selling process is notoriously slow, fragmented and paper‑based. Critical information about a property is held across land registries, local authorities, conveyancers, lenders and other bodies, leading to duplication and delays when it has to be re‑collected and re‑verified.

Smart Data can bring these pieces together by creating a secure framework for sharing verified property data through APIs under a common trust framework. By connecting sources such as HM Land Registry, local authorities and lenders into an interoperable ecosystem, Smart Data can pre‑package key property information, reduce manual re‑keying and chasing, and cut the time, cost and risk of property transactions.

Raidiam is the core technology provider for the UK’s first Smart Property Data Trust Framework POC, working with the Open Property Data Association and the Council for Licensed Conveyancers on a proof of concept to digitise the UK’s homebuying and selling process. Using Raidiam’s trust framework technology and sandbox environment, the Smart Property Data Trust Framework will enable property transactions to be supported by consented, API‑based data sharing – seamlessly connecting trusted sources such as HM Land Registry, local authorities and conveyancers.

→ Related Read - Open Property Smart Data: How APIs Will Transform UK Homebuying

Smart Data in Energy

Energy is another sector where Smart Data can deliver immediate benefits, especially as households and businesses seek to manage costs and decarbonise. Customers generate a constant stream of data about energy usage, tariffs and payments, but today this data is often hard to access and reuse when switching or adopting new services.​

An energy Smart Data scheme aims to let consumers and businesses share their usage and tariff data securely with authorised providers and tools, so they can find more suitable or greener tariffs and access services that support energy efficiency. The UK government has consulted on and is developing an energy Smart Data scheme, recognising its potential to improve competition and support net‑zero goals, alongside similar work in other regulated sectors.

How Trust Frameworks Make Smart Data Work

Trust is at the heart of any Smart Data ecosystem, and trust frameworks provide the shared rules and governance that make it possible. They define who can join a scheme, how participants prove their identity, which standards they must follow and how their ongoing compliance is monitored.

In typical Smart Data trust framework technology, participants are certified and listed in a machine‑readable directory, use cryptographic certificates to secure their communications, and are bound by scheme‑level policies on consent, data minimisation and security. Raidiam designs and delivers trust frameworks infrastructure, combining policy expertise with technical building blocks such as directories, certificate management and conformance testing to make Smart Data schemes repeatable and scalable.

→ For a deeper dive into how Trust Frameworks work and their components, read our Trust Framework infrastructure guide.

How Raidiam Powers Smart Data

Raidiam’s mission is to make secure, open data sharing simple, repeatable and trustworthy for governments, regulators, enterprises and industry coalitions. Raidiam works from early‑stage advisory through to live operations, helping clients move from Smart Data strategy and scheme design into production ecosystems.​

Raidiam Connect and related services are proven at national scale in open finance and are now being deployed in new Smart Data sectors such as property, as well as in private and enterprise ecosystems that need the same trust and connectivity foundations. With an end‑to‑end “trust stack” that covers directories, PKI, authorisation and conformance tooling, Raidiam reduces complexity for Smart Data schemes and provides a common backbone that can span multiple industries and deployment models.​

Raidiam’s partnership with the FCA on the Smart Data Accelerator and Open Finance tech sprints further reinforces its role as a trusted Smart Data infrastructure provider, giving innovators access to scheme‑grade connectivity and governance in a safe testing environment.

Getting Ready for the Smart Data Era

Smart Data is moving quickly from policy discussions to live services, and different audiences can take concrete steps now. Policymakers and regulators can identify priority use cases, convene stakeholders and design Smart Data schemes with clear outcomes, supported by reference architectures and technical partners such as Raidiam.​

Data holders in finance, property, energy and other sectors – including large enterprises – can assess their current data, API and security capabilities and plan how to participate in future Smart Data schemes, including how they will manage consent, assurance and ongoing compliance. Fintechs, proptechs, energy innovators and other third‑party providers can start developing services that rely on permissioned access to high‑quality, real‑time data, using accelerators and tech sprints to experiment safely before full‑scale rollout.​

Across all these groups, there is a need for robust, interoperable infrastructure and a trusted partner that understands both policy and technology, which is where Raidiam’s experience with national schemes and private ecosystems is particularly valuable.

If you’re exploring how Smart Data schemes or Smart Data‑ready infrastructure could support your ecosystem, our team is always happy to share practical lessons from global implementations and current UK programmes.

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