The data taskforce is intended to unlock up to £42bn of untapped economic growth across the European Union. It is due to report to the UK and French governments by the end of 2015 on the following objectives:

• enhance UK-France cooperation on open data where the UK is a world-leader in making government data available for public use, including by tech entrepreneurs
• establish a set of principles for improving SMEs’ use of data and data science to develop new services/compete with larger players
• look at ways to provide greater consumer control of data and improved data portability – where UK and France are market leaders and make recommendations to promote greater competition between new entrants and established data-based service providers

“I am delighted to announce the creation of a new joint UK-France taskforce to lead the way in unlocking the significant economic benefits offered by the digital economy,” said Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. “In the UK our digital industries contribute over £113 billion to the economy and this taskforce will consider ways to accelerate growth in this flourishing sector.”