Exceptions to Marginal Cost Pricing
Source: Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), UK
OPSI publishes the exceptions to Marginal Cost Pricing for UK PSI
London: 8 January 2010
The UK Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) has published the exceptions to marginal cost pricing for public sector information.
The announcement states:
“Most government information should be available for re-use at marginal cost. In practice this often means free of charge, especially where the information is published online. This maximises the social and economic value of the information, and supports the Government’s response to the recommendations made by the Power of Information Taskforce.”
The announcement includes two documents that set out the conditions:
- 1. Criteria for Exceptions to Marginal Cost Pricing
- 2. How we deal with an application for exception to marginal cost pricing (a flow chart)
The introduction to the criteria states:
“Most government information is available for re-use at marginal cost, which often in practice means free of charge, especially where the information is published online. There are some cases where a department has added value to the information to create a commercial product. In those cases the policy is to charge for re-use at full cost plus an appropriate rate of return. In such cases, Departments and Agencies are required to justify their charges to the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) part of The National Archives, in its role as manager of Crown copyright and as lead in the public sector information (PSI) agenda in the UK. This does not apply to members of the Information Fair Trader Scheme (IFTS), such as trading funds.
This set of criteria has been developed after public consultation, and OPSI will judge applications from departments and agencies to depart from marginal cost charges against these criteria. This is to ensure that the Government does not restrict or present unnecessary barriers to re-use. The criteria are designed to test compliance with the core principles of PSI policy, and particularly:
- Maximisation of access, re-use and innovation
- Openness and accountability
- Competitive neutrality
Departments and agencies that satisfy the criteria and application process will be given the authority to license the information. This will be subject to compliance with the IFTS and OPSI verification that IFTS principles have been met.”
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Exceptions to Marginal Cost Pricing