UK PSI Regulation!

Source:

PSI in Action – Transforming the Information Landscape: 3 days to go!

Brighton: 17 October 2009

On Tuesday the 20th October 2009 the UK Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) together with Civil Service World will be hosting the PSI in Action – Transforming the Information Landscape conference.

An important part of the public sector information re-use framework as set down in the European Union Directive 2003/98/EC and transposed in the UK by Statutory Instrument 1515 of 2005 is ensuring that the framework is complied with – in other words part of the framework requires a regulatory framework to be in place. With respect to the PSI in action – Transforming the Information Landscape conference the question then arises can the landscape be changed without regulation?

Well according to the UK Locus Association the answer for the UK at the current time appears to be NO! The experiences of the Locus members that re-use public sector information commercially shows that the UK regulatory framework is weak for a number of reasons, which include:

  1. The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) has a multi-faceted role with respect to public sector information in that OPSI is involved in policy, implementing policy, raising information standards, a publisher and is part of a larger public sector information holder body namely the National Archives to name but just a few.
  2. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that to date has been the only competition regulator within Europe that has undertaken a market study on public sector information and reported that the market was under performing. The CUPI report also reported that there were indeed unfair practices being adopted by some UK public sector information holders and that these should be addressed. It is now near on three years since the CUPI report was published yet the issues identified by the OFT have still not been resolved.

This then raises a question as to whether the UK PSI regulatory framework should be separated from the policy and standards frameworks and if this was done in the UK would that then result in the Information Landscape being transformed? The Conference on the 20th October 2009 provides an opportunity throughout the day for this to be considered and debated.

The approach of separation is one that has been adopted by other European Union Member States – for example Slovenia, where interestingly the Information Commissioner of Slovenia is responsible for the access, privacy and re-use frameworks and is strong. In Sweden the Competition Authority has made strong recommendations to the Swedish Government about ensuring the public sector does not constrain the market and according to the Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden the Government intends to implement the Swedish Competition Authority’s recommendation and a special Court will be established in Stockholm that will be operational from 1st January 2010.

The programme for the Conference includes in the second half of the day four break out sessions one of which is titled: Competition and Discrimination – Hindrance or help? The Head of Advocacy Team at the Office of Fair Trading will facilitate the session. The programme promotes the session as:

An effective information market thrives on healthy and fair competition and the concept of the level playing field is central to the process. How can competition issues best be managed and how can areas of discrimination in conditions of re-use be identified and eradicated? Can fairness be achieved in the current climate or is competition being stifled?

So here is YOUR chance (assuming you are in attendance) to join in the debate on this topic – it is clear that the problem has been recognised in the UK as the issue appears in the program. The question then arises: Why has this not been addressed in the UK?

Recommended viewing and reading in preparation for the Conference:

Related news topics

APPSI in the Chair!

OPSI: A hot topic!

OFT considers options post CUPI

Commercial use of public information