Getting on with Government 2.0 - Department of Finance and ...

This builds on earlier efforts by the UK Government which established a whole of government
approach to Government 2.0 following the work of the Power of Information Review 74 in 2007
and the Power of Information Taskforce 75 on implementation which followed it. The taskforce’s
Show Us A Better Way contest generated over 500 submissions, made new datasets available for
the first time and has resulted in funding of some new applications.
The Power of Information Review and the Making Public Data Public initiative 76 have led to a
number of developments, including:
●●
●●
●●
●●
the appointment in 2009 of a Director of Digital Engagement located in the Cabinet Office,
with a mandate to work across government to implement the taskforce’s recommendations 77
projects and services publishing public transport, environment and planning notices using
semantic mark-up to make it easier to reuse
a test site, data.gov.uk, 78 for authorised developers with the aim of making government data
more widely available 79
the ‘Local democracy, economic development and construction Bill’, 80 which is expected to
shortly pass into law. It requires councils in England and Wales to provide local residents with
an online facility for both electronic and traditional petitions.
The UK has also been developing policies and implementing practices intended to make
government information more easily available for reuse for a number of years. The Office of
Public Sector Information (OPSI) is a part of the National Archives and works together with the
Information Commissioners 81 and the Cabinet Office on a series of initiatives intended to bring
greater coordination to making information more freely available.
The OPSI plays a key role in information policy by setting standards and encouraging the use and
reuse of PSI. OPSI has operated from within the National Archives since 2006.
Its functions include oversight of the Information Asset Register, 82 a central source for the
information resources of government (particularly unpublished resources) and the Information
Fair Trader Scheme 83 which requires public sector agencies registered under the scheme to
encourage reuse of public sector information.
Other aspects of information policy in the UK come under the umbrella of the Information
Commissioner’s Office. This office is an independent authority set up to promote access to
official information and to protect personal information, through its oversight of legislation
relating to data protection, freedom of information, environmental information and privacy and
74 http://www.england-legislation.hmso.gov.uk/advice/poi/power-of-information-review.pdf or http://tinyurl.com/
ylqqo7p.
75 http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/power_of_information.aspx or http://tinyurl.com/yhexqmz.
76 Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt were asked by the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in June 2009
to lead the Making Public Data Public project to advise on how government can best use the internet to make
non-personal public data as widely available as possible http://blogs.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digitalengagement/
post/2009/10/27/Stephen-Timms-reports-progress-on-Making-Public-Data-Public.aspx or http://tinyurl.com/
ylq6b8r.
77 http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/news_releases/2009/090513_digital.aspx or
http://tinyurl.com/oawvql.
78 http://www.kable.co.uk/data-gov-uk-beta-cabinet-office-23oct09 or http://tinyurl.com/y9pbqmm.
79 http://www.data.gov.uk.
80 http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/localdemocracyeconomicdevelopmentandconstruction.html or
http://tinyurl.com/6hh8sb.
81 Scotland has its own Information Commissioner who regulates the Freedom for Information (Scotland) Act 2002
which covers Scottish public authorities.
82 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/iar/index.
83 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ifts/index.
12
Engage: <strong>Getting</strong> on with Government 2.0 | report of the government 2.0 taskforce