Charging for PSI!
Members of the UK Parliament question the Minister of State Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about the Department and the public bodies that report to the Department selling public sector information on a commercial basis.
Parliamentary material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO on behalf of Parliament
“28 Jan 2010 : Column 1092W
Departmental Disclosure of Information
David Davis: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether (a) agencies and (b) non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible sell information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations. [313217]
Mr. McFadden: Government Departments and agencies and non-departmental public bodies that have Crown status, make most of their information available for free re-use under the PSI Click-Use Licence. Government trading funds, such as the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), for which BIS have ministerial responsibility, are able under their trading fund status to charge for the services they provide in order to cover their costs. This covers information and its supply provided to other public bodies, commercial organisations and individuals. In common with other Government policy, some information is sold as priced publications.
I have approached the Chief Executives of the Department's executive agencies and they will respond to the hon. Member directly.
Information on Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) is not held centrally and due to the number of NDPBs, this would incur disproportionate cost.
Letter from Sean Dennehey, dated 25 January 2010:
I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 20 January 2010, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The Intellectual Property Office makes available value added public domain information it has relating to Patents, Trade Marks and other Intellectual Property on normal commercial terms to companies, individuals and other bodies. It also has some publications on commercial terms covering the latest developments in IP law. This represents a small part of the Trading Fund's business.
Letter from Gareth Jones:
I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 20 January 2010, UIN 313217, to the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Companies House sells details of directors, copies of annual accounts, incorporation documents and other company information to members of the public, companies or public sector organisations. This is sold on a cost recovery basis.
Letter from Peter Mason, dated 22 January 2010:
I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office (formerly National Weights and Measures Laboratory) to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 20/01/2010 [reference 2009/1032] to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, asking whether the agency sells information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations.
The agency does not sell any information to any companies, individuals or organisations. Information that we previously charged for hard copies is now available free by download from on our website. We provide certain information such as our annual report free of charge to the Office of Public Sector Information, which makes a charge for hard copy material through The Stationery Office. We make this information available as free downloads from our website.
Letter from Stephen Speed:
I write with reference to your question, raised in Parliament, in which you asked:
28 Jan 2010 : Column 1093W
"To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether (a) agencies and (b) non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible sell information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations."
I have been asked to respond to your query as Chief Executive of The Insolvency Service.
Before responding in detail, however, I should clarify that the Insolvency Service does not sell any of the information it holds on a commercial basis.
The main database of information published by my agency is the electronic Individual Insolvency Register (eIIR), which holds details of:
Current bankruptcies, and those which have ended within the last three months;
Current individual voluntary arrangements and fast track voluntary arrangements;
Debt Relief Orders; and
Current bankruptcy restrictions orders and undertakings.
Access to the register is freely available through the Insolvency Service's website, http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/bankruptcy/bankruptcysearch.htm, and no charge is made to view the data.
The full database of information is also available in a processed format, for which an administrative charge is levied. The charge is calculated on a cost recovery basis.
I trust that the above information will prove useful to you.”
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“Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent estimate he has made of the percentage of land not registered with the Land Registry; and what assessment he has made of the likely effects of the Land Registry accelerated transformation programme on the prospects for registration of such land. [313419]
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Mr. Wills: Over 70 per cent. of land in England and Wales, including most urban land, is now registered with Land Registry in about 21 million registered titles. The registered area has increased from 45 per cent. in 2004, when data on geographic coverage first became available. This growth is principally attributable to Land Registry's strategy of persuading landowners of the benefits of voluntary first registration. A large percentage of the land that remains unregistered is in rural areas or includes large estates or public landholdings.
One of Land Registry's strategic objectives is to "Extend the benefits of Land Registration by creating a comprehensive land register". The accelerated transformation programme proposals assume that Land Registry will continue to dedicate resources to voluntary registration and set challenging targets annually to drive the achievement of the comprehensive register.”
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“Departmental Disclosure of Information
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether (a) agencies and (b) non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible sell information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations. [313229]
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Mr. Wills: Government Departments and agencies and non-departmental public bodies that have Crown status, make most of their information available for free re-use under the PSI Click-Use Licence. Government trading funds, such as Her Majesty's Land Registry, for which I have ministerial responsibility, are able under their trading fund status to charge for the services they provide in order to cover their costs. This covers information and its supply provided to other public bodies, commercial organisations and individuals. In common with other Government policy, some information is sold as priced publications.”
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Public Sector: Disclosure of Information
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many requests made to the Office of Public Sector Information's Public Sector Information Unlocking Service beta have been (a) accepted and (b) refused. [312166]
Mr. Wills: The Unlocking Service is a service to gather and assess requests for the re-use of public sector information from the Office of Public Sector Information, part of the National Archives.
57 primary requests have been accepted. Users can add comments in support of existing requests joining in to the dialogue, rather than create a new request for the same information.
26 Jan 2010 : Column 735W
A further 10 requests have been rejected. This is because they are outside the defined scope of the Unlocking Service, not relating to the re-use of public sector information or Government data.”
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“26 Jan 2010 : Column 775W
Departmental Disclosure of Information
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether (a) agencies and (b) non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible sell information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations. [313221]
Mr. Simon: The Royal Parks do not sell information on a commercial basis to companies or individuals in the private sector and other organisations.
It is not possible to provide full information for the extensive range of NDPBs for which my department is responsible, as the information is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate cost.”
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