This paper explores the activity of existing intermediaries across different sectors, and considers the role they could play in the future.

It discusses the opportunities that data intermediaries present, including how they can empower individuals and businesses (e.g. by enabling individuals to control how data about them is used and for what purposes), and enable analysis (e.g. by facilitating data sharing in commercially-sensitive environments). It explores how data intermediaries can be leveraged in response to pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges, with a focus on three potential opportunities, including: facilitating preventative medicine; enabling better matching of workers with available jobs; and enabling the UK to meet its Net Zero targets.

It considers seven types of data intermediaries, including: data trusts; data exchanges; personal information management systems (PIMS); industrial data platforms; data custodians; data cooperatives; and trusted third parties.