Public data to be more freely available

Ordnance Survey says it will explore the commercial opportunities surrounding its data

Last week, Tom Watson, the minister for digital engagement, told the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta)/Unesco Public Service Media (PSM) 2009 Conference that the government was ready to accept some of the key proposals made by the Power of Information Review, which aims to open up public sector information to businesses and individuals and improve the government’s engagement with citizens online.

The most significant step was the decision to ease the restrictions on the use of Crown Copyright material.

“They say information is power, but it is only distributed information that is truly empowering,” said Watson.

In future, anyone wanting to use public sector information for their own purposes will now be automatically granted a licence rather than having to go through an application process.

The move is intended to make it easier for people or small companies to make innovative use of information, such as MPs’ voting records, school league tables or crime data.

Outlining the steps in a speech, Watson told the PSM conference that the move would help drive innovation in the UK.

“The UK is ahead of the game internationally,” said Ed Mayo, chief executive of Consumer Focus. “But there are areas of opportunity to engage citizens even more creatively.”

There is a wider social and economic value to making public information freely available, according to Jon Kingsbury, director of creative economy innovation programmes at Nesta. “It will allow people to use the data to develop new services and products in ways that we cannot foresee,” he said.

This measure was a key recommendation of the Power of Information Review, which was published in February 2009, after a long consultation. The review highlighted the need for action to improve online public services and to make more information available to the public.

The government is due to formally respond to the review in the next month, but Watson said it was already putting its recommendations into action.

It is taking steps to present public sector information in a findable and usable fashion online, reducing the number of web sites and moving information centrally onto the Directgov site, intended eventually to be a one-stop shop for citizens looking to engage with the government online.

But not everyone is so keen on making access to Crown Copyright material available for nothing. Earlier this month, Ordnance Survey ­ – which has a significant proportion of its intellectual property covered by Crown Copyright rules ­ – published proposals on how it would change the way it makes its map information available to the public – ­ though it will not make the information free. Instead, it has created a trading entity to explore “commercial opportunities”.

Elsewhere, the government was accused of trying to stymie progress on e-government initiatives.

It was accused by an all-party Commons Committee of deliberately dragging its heels over the introduction of an effective system of e-petitions for Parliament.

An e-petitions system already exists for 10 Downing Street and allows the public to petition the prime minister directly online.

Commons leader Harriet Harman had originally backed proposals made by the Commons Procedure Committee (CPC) for a similar system for Parliament, but government enthusiasm for the idea appears to have waned.

A report from the CPC released last week stated: “We very much regret that the government now appears to lack the will to see this project through to its conclusion by approving funding at a level that would ensure the robustness and effectiveness of the e-petitions system that we outlined.”

An e-petition system for Parliament

The Commons Procedure Committee (CPC) has backed proposals for a Parliament e-petition system, similar to the one hosted by the 10 Downing Street web site. The Commons had already approved the CPC proposals – all it needed was the government to put the proposals into action.

But the government wants the committee to scale back its proposals to cut costs, outlining a target of £500,000 for the setup of the parliamentary system and £840,000 for annual running costs.

Greg Knight, chairman of the CPC, said the system agreed last year is more sophisticated than the one on the 10 Downing Street site.

“The need for security and robustness means that such a system, if it is to be effective, is never going to be cheap,” he said.

“We are therefore very disappointed that the government’s initial enthusiasm for e-petitions appears to have evaporated.”

The system will be more expensive than the Downing Street system, which costs just £100,000 per year to run, because it is more complex and offers citizens the chance to lobby MPs at various different stages of the legislative process, rather than just providing a list of names, as the existing site does.