A public debate, Free our Data?, is to be held in Manchester on March 15 at 6pm as part of the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science. Would you share your personal health and lifestyle information if it helped researchers understand, say, the causes of the huge growth in diabetes in the UK? Is it fair for the government to charge you to access data whose collection your taxes have already funded?

These dilemmas and issues are the subject of this free debate hosted by the ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science. Central to the discussion is whether social researchers should have unlimited access to the data that the government collects about the UK and its citizens. The resulting research would greatly improve social policy, but does this progress outweigh concerns about privacy and costs.

Participants will join experts from the media, academia and government to discuss whether government data should be made freely available:

• If the government made its data about the UK and its citizens freely available, would our social and economic lives improve or suffer?

• Who should meet the costs of collecting and maintaining the data? Only those people who directly use the information, or the wider public who may ultimately benefit from the resulting research.

• Making government data freely available such as NHS patient data or road traffic data raises issues about privacy and costs. Can these issues be addressed at the same time as reaping the benefits of a better evidence base for the UK's social and economic policies?

Chaired by Jim Hancock, former Political Editor for BBC North West, the debate will feature expert contributions from:

• Neil Ackroyd, Director of Data Collection and Management, Ordnance Survey

• Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, The Guardian

• Peter Elias, Professor of Labou
  '"/>