Government advisers are starting to listen. Next, ministers?
Today’s Guardian has an article – “One small step on a long-haul journey” – about the latest meeting of the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI), which discovers that the concept of the Free Our Data campaign has trickled through.
There’s a long and interesting interview with Professor Richard Susskind, who chairs the panel, forming part of the piece. One interesting – and cautionary – observation he makes about what might happen in a post-free-data world:
the government needs to be confident that in making information more freely available we can still be confident of its quality. It is also important to beware of replacing public-sector near-monopolies with private-sector ones. “If major private-sector bodies exploit the free data, which the taxpayer has paid for in the first place, then charging citizens and profiting substantially looks like citizens are paying twice and possibly over the odds.”
The other main barriers? No minister is in overall charge of what happens to government information; and nobody wants to be the person who signs something which notionally makes taxes seem to go up (by, say, revoking trading fund status).
Our response to the first – about replacing private-sector monopolies with public-sector ones – is to compare it with the availability of the Linux operating system, and its many variants. You can roll your own Linux; the source code is out there. Or you can get a service package from one of dozens of companies. None dominates. All are making an OK living from offering support for something which is free. The Linux economy, actually, is very big: it drives websites and handheld objects and all sorts. More secure websites use Linux than use Windows. Why do you think that is?
As ever, critiques of – or supporting evidence for – our argument are welcome in the comments.
- The following posts may be related...(the database guesses):
- Do ministers listen to advisory panels? The one on public sector information (PSI) isn't so sure (8 February 2007; score: 32.09%)
- Where we are today: chasing half a dozen ministers who won't take responsibility (12 October 2006; score: 27.49%)
- Trading Funds review: terms of reference (25 June 2008; score: 19.21%)
- New advisers (31 January 2008; score: 19.16%)
- Who's who after the reshuffle (12 July 2007; score: 15.94%)
June 5th, 2006 at 11:25 am
The concept of a Minister responsible for public sector data in the UK is an interesting idea. Such a Minister would be a cross-cutting Minister as they would need to work across the entire specturm of the public sector here in the UK. With the UK Government policy of every part of the public sector trading and having to be accountable it would give rise to some interesting accountability and managerial issues.
At the current time there is a Minister responsible for Crown Copy right that resides in the UK Cabinet Office. The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) and the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) report to that Minister.
It would be good in the first instant if the Minister could respond to the recommendations contained in the first two annual reports of APPSI. We are now on teh verge of the thrid annual report from APPSI being published. The lack of a Ministerial response is not only impolite but also demonstrates the lack of interest in one of the key assets of the public sector namely data and information. One could go as far as saying that the Ministers (as they have changed at each Cabinet Office reshuffle) are not being responsible to the UK tax payer as APPSI costs in the region oF£65,000 per annum to run. If no attention is going to be given to APPSI then why are we investing this amount of money in APPSI.
It is also interesting to note that the eGov Unit comes under the same Minister yet In the Transformational Government: Enabled by Technology document there was no mention of APPSI or data or information – this beggears believe when the technology that is in place is to capture, maintain, process data and produce information for the whole of the public sector. The same document however found space to mention the Geographic Information Panel (GIP) which has not been set up in accordance with Cabinet Office procedures and does not follow the democraic processes. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as it was then deemed it right at the time to just appoint the members to the GIP. Once again we see tax monies invested in developing well throught through and consulted upon procedures from the units within the Cabinet Office that the rest of central government chooses to ignore. Interestingly these procedures to be found on the UK Cabinet Office have been adopted by the European Union.
A further aspect of the APPSI is that within the Department of Constitutional Affairs Annual report on the Freedom of Information Act first year of full oepration within the annex APPSI has been added to the overall list of organisations that come under the FOI Act. No mention of the GIP!
There is also evidence to indicate that the public sector is unable to handle at the current time a networked structure as is evident at the local level where partnerships are formed of public sector organisations to deliver holistic services to the community and at the same time to benefit from the cost savings that this may bring especially with ICT. The concept of introducing a Minister responsible for all public sector data is enhancing the network structure that is evolving but for this to work one would need to address the silo accounting processes and mentality that still prevail at the higher levels including the Government at Cabinet level.
Perhaps comparisons with other European Union Memebr States that have a Minister of Informatics such as the Czech republic are also worth considering.
In summary a good idea but lets see what exists already work first and for Ministers and Senior Civil servants to take on their responsibilities in this area in a more open, democratic and accountable way.
June 23rd, 2006 at 3:29 pm
There’s been a further development in this area which we haven’t yet been able to report in the newspaper. The following is a press release from the Cabinet Office dated June 21.
The National Archives and The Office of Public Sector Information to merge
The National Archives and The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), which is currently attached to the Cabinet Office, are to merge. The merger will create a stronger centre for information management in the public sector, enabling a more responsive approach to the challenges of new technology.
The merger was announced today in a statement made jointly by Hilary Armstrong MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in the Commons and Baroness Ashton of Upholland, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, in the Lords. They each said:
“I am announcing to the House that, as a result of joint work between the Department of Constitutional Affairs and the Cabinet Office, The National Archives and the Office of Public Sector Information will merge, under the joint name of The National Archives. The combined organisation will lead on information policy and support effective delivery of records and information management across government and the wider public sector. This merger will take effect in October 2006.�
Natalie Ceeney, Chief Executive of The National Archives, said:
“Bringing our two organisations together, and combining our specialist skills and services, creates a stronger organisation and presents exciting future opportunities. The National Archives can now help shape the future of information, as well as use it to illustrate the past. This is essential to help realise the true value of information, as well as to capture the records of today for tomorrow’s researchers”.
Carol Tullo, Director of OPSI, said:
�Our shared vision is to combine the complementary strands of our portfolio of information responsibilities and from a position of strength deliver greater value and service to our users. The new organisation will create a centre of gravity for information management in the public sector. I relish the opportunities that lie ahead.�
OPSI and HMSO will continue to deliver their services as part of The National Archives. The National Archives will continue to operate as a government department and as an executive agency of the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs.
Ends
July 11th, 2006 at 10:52 am
The merger of the current Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) with the National Archives is interesting:
First one could consider this as a negative as the OPSI was only formed in 2005 ahead of the Re-use of PSI Directive coming into force in all European Union Member States. The activity of ensuring the UK public sector complies with the Re-use of PSI Directive is far from finished as the percentage of public sector bodies that have complied (once they have decided to allow their data holdings to be reused commercially) is minimal. By merging the OPSI with the National Archive looses the emhasis that was on the word Public Sector Information. Again this was at the heart of one of the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information recommendations in their first annual report in 2004. As mentioned in another thread on this blog there has been no formal response from the Cabinet Office Minister that the APPSI reports to.
Second on the positive side the merging of OPSI with the National Archives brings together a series of data related laws and activities that all come under the Minister of State for Constutional Affiars (Department of Constittional Affairs (DCA)) these include:
1. National Archives
2. Crown Copyright
3. PSI Regulations 2005
4. Freedom of Information Act
5. Information Commissioner and Commissioners role related to the Data protection Act, FOI and Freedom of Access to Environmental Information
6. DCA data sharing within the public sector
What we are probably witnessing is a harmonisation of the public sector information in the UK (I say UK as their are close links with the devolved regions on thse topics)
The APPSI recommendation in 2004 recommended one public sector data policy regime and one could consider the above mentioned merger as a low key way of moving towards the recommendation without the need to realign all the legislation and trying to bid for Parliamentary time to introudce new legislation and amend existing legislation.
The third point is that Transformational Government programme mentions reducing the number of public sector web sites perhaps this might happen here. However every thime there is a merge of web sites the amount of information that is available seems to reduce.
The fourth point is that the merger could be considered to be part of the implementation of the Gerson recommendations.
The fifth point is that perhaps the above indicates that the Cabinet Office Ministers and Officials have given real thought to this merger and perhaps they have a hidden game plan that they have yet to share with us!
The sixth point is will following the merger there be a subsequent harmonisation related to regulators with regard to public sector information? It is interesting to recall that the Regulatory Impact Assessment on the Re-use of PSI Directive did in fact raise the issue of where the regulator should sit – with HMSO as it was at that time or with the Information Commissioner.
The seventh point is that one assumes the merger will provide the OPSI team with more resources to deliver their dual role as a custodian of Crown Copyright data and as a regulator and perhaps if they keep their regualtory role they will be able to be more forceful with those public sector bodies that do not abide by the overall objectives of the UK Government and the European union with regard to Public Sector Information and ensuring both the Member State (UK in this case) and the EU propser from the under utilised asset namely Public Sector Information
So returning to the original entry on this thread the need for a Minister responsible for Public Sector Information – it is possible that this has been partially acheived by the merge of OSPI and the National Archives all under the Minister for Constitional Affairs.
July 28th, 2006 at 8:46 am
Do we need a minister in overall charge of PSI, or do we just need the Treasury to put an end to government commercialisation of PSI?
March 24th, 2008 at 1:40 am
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