Releasing and re-using some public sector information should become mandatory, according to the chair of the government’s advisory body on public information.

Speaking during a panel discussion at a Whitehall & Westminster World conference, Professor David Rhind, the chair of the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI), said there was a “huge amount” of useful data that could be re-used, but the release of information should be made mandatory through the revision of the EU directive on public sector information.

“How do we actually get people to release that information when sometimes they don’t know about the benefits or they don’t have the resources?” Rhind asked, in answer to a question from a conference delegate. “I suspect it would be helpful if we had, in the revision of the EC directive, some greater mandatory reform to make [information] available and greater incentives for so doing.”

He said his organisation had written to ministers explaining the need for greater compulsion for public servants to re-use information, noting that “a substantial number” of local authorities were refusing to participate “unless it is absolutely necessary”.

Rhind was participating in a discussion chaired by his predecessor as chair of the APPSI, Professor Richard Susskind, and including William Perrin, deputy director of transformational government at the Cabinet Office, and Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Computer Science at Southampton University.

In a broad discussion, subjects ranged from the impact of technological developments in the so-called ‘semantic web’ and how it impacted upon public sector information, to the revenue potential of such data. Susskind, who stepped down from the chairmanship of APPSI earlier this year, said there was a tension on views of public sector information between those who see it solely as a public good and those who see in it greater potential for profit.

Perrin said the current government – through the ongoing ‘Power of Information’ review and the transformational government agenda – had placed a “very strong emphasis” on information as a public good. By way of an example, he said the vast archive of health literature held by the NHS could be made available to developing countries: “I don’t think we should be charging for that.”

But he warned that encouraging civil servants to find innovative means of exploiting public information could be dangerous, citing his advocacy of online petitions to Downing Street, the popularity of one of which – criticising road pricing – led to his being described by the then deputy prime minister as a “complete prat”.

Professor Shadbolt said the explosion in user-generated content of the past few years had been “almost inconceivable”. More training was needed to enable public servants to help service users to benefit from new technologies and released data.


Read our interview with Richard Susskind