Public sector information
Jinfo Blog

30th June 2008

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The Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) in the UK has published its fourth Annual Report. The report discusses a number of areas, including: · That the re-use of public sector information is getting more attention across government bodies; · That there is increased interest in this information among members of the public; · That the Government proposes developing a strategy for the re-use of public sector information; · The Office of Fair Trading’s Market Study in the Commercial Use of Public Information; · The Cabinet Office’s Power of Information review. APPSI may be a relatively unknown body to the commercial sector. The Cabinet Office established it in 2003 as a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Justice. One of its roles is ‘to advise the Director of the Office of Public Sector Information and Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office about changes and opportunities in the information industry, so that the licensing of Crown copyright and public sector information is aligned with current and emerging developments’ http://www.appsi.gov.uk/. Public sector bodies are among the largest collectors and holders of information in the UK. Such data cover public law, statistics, geography, consultation and policy documents, meteorology, hydrography, environmental issues, education, health service information, corporate and financial data, electoral data, data about governance and about the economy. For the commercial researcher or information professional it is the source of raw data from which many government or commercial information products are derived. In the UK, the Office of Public Sector Information (‘OPSI’) http://www.opsi.gov.uk has responsibility for government information policy and is the main licensing body for access to public data. It appears to be unique in Europe and it is complemented for the encouragement it gives public bodies to improve the management of information. Why does this matter in the business world? Firstly, it is the UK taxpayer that is funding the collection of public sector data. Secondly, there should be access to these data at a reasonable cost, certainly no more than the cost of collection and production including a reasonable return for the effort involved. Lastly, and perhaps most important for information professionals, much business and statistical research depends on access to underlying data that come from the information-gathering activities of a number of government departments. Whether the costs of producing public sector data should be borne by the taxpayer or by the user is one of the subjects of current debate at AAPSI. APPSI has a distinguished list of members http://www.appsi.gov.uk/members/index.htm. Some are from the public sector bodies (such as Ordnance Survey) that are responsible for data collection and production. Others are from the UK universities. The library and information community is represented by Eric Davies, Consulting Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University. Trevor Fenwick, Managing Director of Euromoney, and Christopher Roper, Director of Landmark Information Group, are Expert Members. David Worlock, formerly Chairman of Electronic Publishing Services and now Chief Research Fellow at Outsell, is a Representative Member, Digital Information Providers. Messrs Fenwick and Worlock have recently completed their terms of office on the Panel.

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