CROSS CUTTING REVIEW
OF THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY REVIEW
OF GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
FINAL REPORT
Introduction
A Review of Government
Information was carried out during the Government's Spending Review
2000 as part of the Cross-Cutting Review of the Knowledge Economy, co-chaired
by Andrew Smith, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Patricia Hewitt,
DTI Minister for Small Businesses and e-Commerce. It was concerned particularly
with the availability of information subject to Crown copyright for
reproduction and reuse by the information industry.
The new Freedom
of Information Act will provide a general right of access to government
information, other than information which is exempt because, eg it is
the subject of judicial proceedings, or is personal or commercial information
supplied to government in confidence, etc. (Any reference to the Freedom
of Information Bill in this report can be read now as a reference to
the Act.) The general right of access is additional to information which
a public authority publishes, or intends to make available to the public.
There is also a requirement under the Act for each authority to agree
a "scheme for publication" with the Information Commissioner and to
publish information in accordance with this scheme. In preparing publication
schemes under the Act, government departments and other bodies which
have Crown status may be able to draw on work on preparing Information
Asset Registers setting out the classes of information they hold for
publication on the internet.
Material produced
by Government qualifies for Crown copyright protection under an earlier
Act, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. While this report
from the Review of Government Information touches on initial publication
of information, the key issue for the review was the licensing of the
reproduction and reuse of Crown copyright material. The scope of this
review did not extend to other forms of intellectual property.
New plans to boost
the knowledge economy by improving the way government information can
be acquired and reused by publishing and internet businesses were announced
by Ms Hewitt on 6 September. (A copy of the announcement is
attached at Appendix A.) This report contains material considered
by the Chief Secretary and the e-Minister before the announcement, including
a full list of the recommendations which were summarised in the announcement.
The Chief Secretary
to the Treasury has asked that each relevant government trading fund
prepare an action plan setting out where they are now, and how they
propose to open access to their information further using the principles
for improving its pricing and dissemination set out in the report. The
move by departments and agencies (other than trading funds) to a policy
of marginal cost pricing for the licensing of basic "raw" data will
come into effect from 1 April 2001, the start of the period covered
by the Spending Review 2000. HMSO are working to finalise the draft
of the new on-line licence (a copy of the current working draft is at
Appendix F) and will shortly be elaborating on the proposals set
out in this report for their future role as the regulatory body for
government content as part of continuing consultation with the information
industry.
HM TREASURY
December 2000
2. Background
and Terms of Reference
3. The Information
Market in the UK
4. The Role of Government
Information in the Market
5. The Economics of
Government Information
6. The Licencing of
Government Information
7. Countering Departmental
Inertia: Remedies for Users and the
Simplification of the Licensing Process
8. Other Issues
9. List
of recommendations
Appendices
A. Announcement
6 September 2000
B. Terms
of Reference
C. Economics
Paper
D. List
of Trading Funds
E. Background
Paper on Licensing Crown Copyright Material
F. Draft
Class Licence
Glossary
List
of Certain Government Publications to which reference is made in the
report
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