While the COVID-19 pandemic shows the need for better data, it also shines a spotlight on the political dimension of data collection. Without mandatory collection and reporting requirements, this can be inconsistent between local and national levels of government and across the devolved nations of the UK.
For example, in Scotland, ethnicity is recorded on death certificates, however such data is not routinely captured in England and Wales. This is despite a report back in 2003 noting that collecting this information was vital for tackling health inequalities.