Written question asked by Lord Beaumont of Whitley (Other (affiliation)), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Davies of Oldham (Labour) on Thursday, 3 April 2008.

Public Sector Information

Question: Whether in light of the finding of the recently commissioned study Models of Public Sector Information Provision via Trading Funds that there is a net benefit to society if trading funds release unrefined information at marginal cost, they will review the financial and legal restrictions on all unrefined information held by public bodies.

Answer: As announced in the Budget, the Government will look closely at public sector information held by trading funds to distinguish more clearly what is required by Government for public tasks and ensure that this information is made available as widely as possible for use in downstream markets. In the lead-up to the next spending review the Government will ensure that information collected for public purposes is priced so that the need for access is balanced with ensuring that customers pay a fair contribution to the cost of collecting this information in the long term. For central government bodies other than trading funds, the clear policy is that raw information should, subject to any statutory provision, be freely available or provided at the marginal cost of dissemination. In drafting the report Models of Public Sector Information Provision via Trading Funds, Cambridge University relied on the co-operation of and provision of data from trading funds. Some of the financial data provided was commercially confidential and was therefore not published in the report. This did not alter the overall conclusions of the report.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 700 c203-4WA; 2734
Session: 2007-08
Subjects: Disclosure of information Fees and charges Information Public sector Trading funds
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk