The proposed Public Data Corporation should make data freely available where possible rather than aiming to turn a profit, the chief executive of the National Archives has said.

Speaking in an interview with Civil Service World, Oliver Morley said that he recognised that “there’s clearly a balance between the wider economic benefit that you get from providing public sector information for free, and the immediate financial needs of government organisations who wish to sell it,” but argued that providing public data without charge would foster economic growth. “We – naturally, because of our regulatory role – balance quite strongly towards providing information for free,” he said.

Entering into an ongoing discussion over whether the government should monetise public sector data, Morley accepted the need for departments to break-even when releasing information. “We are conscious that there is a need to cover costs and to provide investment,” he said.

However, he argued that information which originates in digital form should be available without charge because the reproduction costs are minimal and “there are huge economic benefits from that kind of born-digital data being as available as possible to developers and users more generally.”

The National Archives is in charge of regulating the use of public sector data online, and is involved in discussions about setting up the Public Data Corporation.

Morley accepted that gathering some information is very expensive, but argued that releasing it as cheaply as possible would be the best way to maximise public value. “Mapping or location information is not a trivial investment, but having said that, there is a huge opportunity for society and the economy as a whole to be able to have open access to that,” he said.

Written by Joshua Chambers