Welcome for greater online disclosure - but concern that contracting out will encourage greater secrecy

Press release 4 August 2011

The government’s plans, announced today, to publish more information online about the quality of public services was welcomed by the Campaign for Freedom of Information. “The more that is published proactively, the less opportunity there will be for individual authorities to resist disclosure when the figures show that their performance is poor” the Campaign said.

But the Campaign said that some government policies, risked undermining openness. It highlighted the large-scale contracting out of local authority functions proposed by the Localism Bill. “The more council functions are carried out by contractors, the harder it is to rely on the Freedom of Information Act to scrutinise what is being achieved. There are potential solutions to this, which the government is so far refusing to support. Someone making an FOI request to the council should be able to obtain any information about the contract held by the contractor, unless it is exempt. At the moment, access can be blocked by a confidentiality clause agreed between the contractor and council.”

Campaign says measures to remove copyright restrictions on datasets could be easily circumvented

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has expressed concern that the measures to remove copyright restrictions on datasets in the Protection of Freedoms Bill could be easily circumvented and has called for copyright to be removed on all information released under the FOI Act, except material which a public authority is commercially exploiting.

The Campaign's concerns are set out in a submission to the Commons' committee dealing with the Protection of Freedoms Bill. It follows the Campaign's oral evidence to the Committee on 24 March 2011. You can watch the evidence session here or read a transcript here.

Evidence to Protection of Freedoms Bill Committee

The Information Commissioner and Campaign for Freedom of Information gave oral evidence to the Protection of Freedoms Bill Committee on 24 March 2011. You can watch a recording of the evidence session here.

A note submitted to the Committee setting out the Campaign's views on the Bill is available here. The Information Commissioner's written evidence to the Committee is here.

Campaign welcomes FOI changes in Protection of Freedoms Bill but calls for them to be extended

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has welcomed the changes to the Freedom of Information Act set out in the Protection of Freedoms Bill, published today.

Requiring public authorities to publish data sets proactively, under the ‘publication schemes’ that all authorities are required to have under the Act, was a positive step, the Campaign said. It was also helpful that when applying for datasets applicants would be entitled to specify that they be released in a reusable electronic format. The Campaign said that should prevent authorities deliberately turning a spreadsheet into a pdf, before releasing it, to stop requesters running their own analyses of the spreadsheet itself.

However, the Campaign said the Act’s provisions on the form in which information should be released needed further improvements, to allow requesters to specify that they wanted photocopies of original documents. At present, requesters can only express preference between obtaining information in hard copy or electronic form or inspecting records but are not entitled to specify that they want photocopies of actual correspondence or documents.

The new Bill also seeks to prevent authorities invoking copyright to prevent requesters republishing datasets released under the Act, where the authority is the copyright holder. The Campaign said this was a positive step which should be extended beyond datasets. Authorities frequently insist that requesters apply to them for a copyright license to reproduce information about the authorities’ own policies and performance. It said this was an unnecessary restriction which obstructs the use of information which has no commercial value to the authorities themselves.

The Campaign also welcomed the decision to bring companies that are jointly owned by several public authorities under the Act.

Open Government Licence enables re-use of information

The National Archives
30 September 2010

The National Archives is today launching a new Open Government Licence, which makes it faster and easier than ever before to re-use public sector information.

The UK Open Government Licence is a key element of the Government's commitment to greater transparency. It provides a single set of terms and conditions for anyone wishing to use or license government information and removes some of the existing barriers to re-use.

Developers and entrepreneurs wishing to use government data to create new websites and applications will no longer need to register or formally apply for permission to re-use the data. The new licence is interoperable with other internationally recognised licensing models, such as Creative Commons.

Bringing information to life

Commenting on the launch of the new licence, Lord McNally, Minister for The National Archives and Public Sector Information, said: 'The National Archives isn't simply a repository of our nation's history, its task is to bring information to life, make it accessible and enable its re-use. This innovative licence gives everyone the opportunity to create products and services which benefit society.'

The licence covers a broad range of public sector information, including Crown Copyright, databases and source codes and can be used across the entire public sector.  It is published today in a machine-readable format on the Information management section of The National Archives website.

To support the UK Open Government Licence, The National Archives has developed the UK Government Licensing Framework which sets out the Government's overall policy on licensing and the re-use of public sector information.

See also:
http://data.gov.uk/blog/new-open-government-license