Public body data to be more accessible, Government says

The Government's aim is that public sector data will only not be freely available to use in "exceptional circumstances", the Cabinet Office's consultation said.

"The proposals outline how we will move to a position where most data held by public bodies and about public services will be available for re-use under the Open Government Licence, except in very specific circumstances," the Making Open Data Real consultative document (58-page / 954KB PDF) said.

The Open Government Licence (OGL) was established last year when the Government launched its Licensing Framework, the policy and legal framework for the re-use of public sector information. The OGL allows for the re-use of public and Government information on a perpetual, royalty-free basis regardless of any copyright or database rights that exist in the material.

The Government Licensing Framework also includes information on licenses for Government or public information that contains copyright or database rights that need to be paid for before re-use. New guidance (25-page / 237KB PDF) published on Monday suggested how the organisations can word prospective re-use licences where the information they make available is not free to use.

A separate "machine readable" licence permitting the re-use of Government or public information for non-commercial purposes only has also been introduced into the Framework.

Consultation respondents are asked on their views on how to "enhance a right to data" for individuals, businesses and others. The Government is also seeking views on how to establish "transparency standards" that will help enforce new rights to data.

The Government consultation said making public sector data more accessible would improve organisational accountability and reduce administration costs.

"Open Data enables accountability; it improves outcomes and productivity in key services through informed comparison; it transforms social relationships – empowering individuals and communities; and it drives dynamic economic growth," the document said.

"Delivering open public services ... is also about reducing the administrative burden on these services. Better data actually means less but higher quality data, and more openness means fewer Freedom of Information Act requests for this data and less red-tape".

The Freedom of Information Act  and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act came into full force on 1 January 2005, giving individuals the right for the first time to see information held by Government departments and public bodies.

The laws give individuals the right to access information held by the public authority.

Under the freedom of information (FOI) laws anyone of any nationality living anywhere in the world can make a written request for information and expect a response within 20 working days. The public authority will be obliged to meet that request unless exemptions apply or unless meeting it will be too costly or difficult.

"The UK Government is determined to have the most ambitious open data agenda of any government in the world," Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said in a statement.

"We demonstrated that ambition recently through the Prime Minister’s open letter.  But we want to embed this approach throughout the public service and we want to hear from people about how they think we should do this. It is an incredibly brave step for any government to become this open, but this is the approach we want to take in order to create public accountability and efficiency in our services and to drive economic and social growth,” Maude said.

The consultation builds on an announcement made by Prime Minister David Cameron in July. Cameron said that more information on health, education, transport and Government finances should be made more open to the public.

The Cabinet Office consultation is open until 2 November.

A separate consultation (37-page / 416KB PDF) on the workings of a new data publishing body was also established. In January the Government announced that a Public Data Corporation (PDC) would be set up to manage and license out data produced by publicly owned organisations.

The Government said at the time that it hopes the move will make it easier for individuals, groups and companies to base their services on data created by the Government. The data could form the basis of other bodies' services or could even be released to the public, it said.

The PDC data policy consultation seeks views on the framework for "charging, licensing and regulation of public sector information produced by the PDC for re-use".