A large number of databases holding public information will soon be released online by the Greater London Authority (GLA) giving software developers the chance to create a host of new consumer applications.

London mayor Boris Johnson said that the aim is to make the government more accountable to the UK population.

The data, which is collected by the GLA, will include contentious subjects such as the rate of abortions in the capital, the number of teenage pregnancies and the number of crimes attributable to alcohol.

Also included will be information on pupil numbers and schools, the length of hospital waiting lists, ambulance rates, the number of job seekers' allowance claimants, and the number of households on local authority waiting lists.

"The superb new London Datastore will unleash valuable facts and figures that have been languishing for far too long in the deepest recesses of City Hall," said Johnson.

"I firmly believe that access to information should not just be the preserve of institutions and a limited élite. Data belongs to the people, particularly that held by the public sector, and getting hold of it should not involve a complex routine of jumping through a series of ever decreasing hoops."

The mayor said that the move will also give software developers the chance to exploit the commercial value of public data, and create applications for consumers.

Supporting his efforts, Channel 4's 4iP announced that it will make £200,000 available to software developers to produce the most innovative ideas using data from the Datastore.

"We are not really sure yet what kind of applications will be made," said a spokeswoman for the GLA.

Johnson has always sought to increase the transparency of publically held data, campaigning for crime maps two years ago, for example, even though this was initially opposed by the Metropolitan Police.

The mayor will discuss the Datastore this afternoon with US president Barack Obama's chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, and Nasa's chief information officer, Linda Cureton.

All the data is set to be released by the GLA and its associate organisations by 29 January, and 50 sets of data will go live today.