PSI Income static!
The Members of the UK Parliament have asked Ministers questions on the financial income public sector information holders have receive from commercial licensing of the data that they hold. The answers provided by the Minister refer to the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) Information Fair Trader Scheme (IFTS). The five year financial figures provided in the answers indicate that the financial income is static and for the two public sector information holders mentioned the combined total is in the region of £2.4 million per annum.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) Information Charter ( 6 pages – format PDF )
The Driving Standards Agency (DSA)
Parliamentary material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO on behalf of Parliament
“Departmental Databases
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what (a) guidelines and (b) safeguards his Department has in place for the commercial licensing of its departmental databases. [271992]
Mr. Hoon [holding answer 30 April 2009]: The Department for Transport has published an Information Charter
www.dft.gov.uk/about/informationcharter
which sets out its commitment to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 in the use and disclosure of personal data. Similarly, each of our agencies has published its own Information Charter which can be viewed on their websites.
Furthermore, the Department has issued guidelines on the reuse of its information for commercial purposes. These make clear that, among other requirements: resources must not be diverted from core functions (including any resources involved in anonymisation/preparation of the information, or in setting up and running the scheme); a third party must not own the intellectual property rights; only anonymised data should be used for bulk sharing with private sector bodies; and that the production of the information is not outside core functions of DFT.
13 May 2009 : Column 769W
Two of the Department's executive agencies, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Driving Standards Agency (DSA), have a derogation from the Office of Public Sector Information to license the re-use of their information and are accredited under the Information Fair Trader Scheme. The information they sell is anonymised and the licences and corresponding contracts restrict how the data can be used.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which of his Department's (a) centrally managed and (b) agency managed databases are commercially licensed for the use of private companies; to whom each is licensed; and how much revenue his Department has received for each licence. [271993]
Mr. Hoon [holding answer 30 April 2009]: None of the central Department for Transport's databases or those of its agencies are commercially licensed in their entirety for the use of private companies. Two of our agencies, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Driver Standards Agency (DSA), license information extracted from their databases for commercial re-use. This is done in accordance with their derogation from the Office of Public Sector Information and their accreditation under the Information Fair Trader Scheme.
DVLA sell extracts from their Vehicle Database, consisting of anonymised vehicle data. The following figures show DVLA's total annual income from this over the last five years.
2003-04 £993,000 2004-05 £1,093,000 2005-06 £1,722,000 2006-07 £2,051,000 2007-08 £2,005,0002008-09 £1,710,000 (Provisional)
A list of the companies that DVLA have licensed to re-use this information has been placed in the House Library.
The individual income from these companies could not be calculated without incurring disproportionate cost.
DSA license the use of the Official DSA Theory Test question banks and 16 simulated Hazard Perception Test video clips for use by other publishers by way of a Crown Copyright Licence Agreement.
There are currently 140 licence holders, some of which are private companies and others are sole traders (e.g. driving instructors). Income derived from royalty-paying licence holders over the past four years is as follows:
2005-06 £452,000 2006-07 £352,000 2007-08 £427,0002008-09 £392,000
A list of company royalty-paying licence holders has been placed in the House Library. The amounts paid by individual licence holders cannot be disclosed for reasons of commercial confidentiality.
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“12 May 2009 : Column 698W
Mr. Todd: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster pursuant to box 3.A of the final report of the Operational Efficiency programme, what additional resources are to be made available to the Office of Public Sector Information to enable enhanced oversight of trading funds. [274198]
Mr. Wills: I have been asked to reply.
The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) will deliver enhanced oversight and governance from within existing resources. Balancing impact, priorities and resourcing continues to be a priority and OPSI will continue to focus on ensuring fair and transparent access to public sector information through the range of initiatives and responsibilities within OPSI's remit.”
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