Saturday 18 October 2008 1:29:24 pm
Intransigent Public Sector Information Holders
An interesting question was asked at the UK Office of Public Sector Conference titled: Unlocking the Potential of Public Sector Information
http://www.epsiplus.net/reports/opsi_conference_08
The question arose during the panel discussion titled: Public Sector information & the Web.
The question put to the panel was:
“What would panel members do with an Intransigent Public Sector Information Holder with respect to complying with the re-use of public sector information regulations?”
The response from the panel that included a UK Cabinet Office Director was that:
If the public sector body refused to adjust to the UK policy on the re-use of public sector information then the body should be abolished (closed down)! The answer was backed up with the statement that public sector bodies have been abolished and in recent time 7 or 8 have been closed down.
There is evidence to support the statement from the panel as Ministries are clearly merged, split up into new entities. Public Sector Agencies reporting to the Ministries have been privatised, split up and closed down.
Within the context of public sector information public sector agencies that are solely data producers that do not use the data and information to deliver their public task are clearly at risk, especially if much of the data that they produce already exists in the open market place or could be if the conditions were right. Bodies such as National Mapping Agencies increasingly fall into this category.
In comparison with the private sector the public sector is slow to stop activities, functions and processes that are clearly not delivering.
So we have heard the Conference panel approach but what would be your approach if you were an elected politician or a Senior Civil Servant within the Cabinet Office when the regulators, other parts of the public and wider society re-users of public sector information constantly knocked at your door to say: “Public sector body xxxx does not adapt to the changes in Government policy”?
