Environment Agency responds

UK Environment Agency responds to EC Consultation on PSI Directive

Bristol: 18 October 2008

The UK Environment Agency has published their response( 4 pages) to the European Commission public consultation on the review of the Public Sector Information Directive. The announcement includes a summary that states:

“The Environment Agency has developed an effective and efficient approach to fulfilling obligations under the Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive. This approach also meets the obligations and underlying objectives of related legislation, such as Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information and the UK Freedom of Information Act, in an integrated, seamless manner. Our views, based on considerable practical experience, set out that:

• A reasonable approach to safeguarding intellectual property through licensing information need not form an unnecessary or unfair barrier to widespread access to information.
• Reasonable charges for re-use of information are not a deterrent to its incorporation in private sector products and services.
• Re-investment of the income generated through reasonable re-use charges has significant benefit in improving the quality and range of information available to the public sector body, the private sector and the general public.
• There are further gains to be made in improving the consistency of approach across different public sector bodies. This can be achieved by further clarification of the Directive, and by public sector bodies adopting licensing principles that facilitate re-use.”

“The Environment Agency recommends that:

• Any improvements to the Directive should be based on a clear distinction between the desire to guarantee widespread access to information held by public sector bodies, and the purpose of the PSI Directive in providing a practical framework for re-use.
• Recognition is given to the fact that reasonable charges for re-use of information need not be a deterrent to widespread access to information, or its incorporation in private sector products and services.
• The Directive continues to provide the basis for improving the quality and range of information available to the public sector body, the private sector and the general public by allowing for re-investment of the income generated through reasonable re-use charges.”

The response includes the statement:

“2.3 We note that in many member states, there are no general ‘Freedom of Information’ laws and we therefore believe that some of the arguments put forward to support the free re-use of PSI are at least partially confused by the desire to guarantee access to information.”