UK Office of Government Commerce accredited to IFTS
The UK National Archives (TNA) has announced that the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) gains full accreditation to the Information Fair Trader Scheme and has the verification report (27 pages). Report dated October 2010.
The TNA announcement states:
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has been accredited to the Information Fair Trader Scheme. The report on the re-verification of OGC against the IFTS principles has been published and can be found on our IFTS Members page.
The report on page 19 lists the following recommendations.
Principle
Ref
Para
Recommendation
Priority
Maximisation
1
27
The effectiveness of APM Group’s performance against its contractual obligation to maximise re-use of should be kept under review by OGC, which should consider publishing the results of these reviews.
H
Maximisation
2
29
OGC and APM Group should review the operation of the trademark and brand licensing activities to ensure that they do not restrict re-use of OGC information, and should consider publishing the results of that review.
H
Maximisation
3
30
OGC to survey its unpublished information holdings to identify any further material suitable for proactive release under Open Government Licence terms, or to be licensed under the Delegation of Authority, and to make that information available.
M
Simplicity
4
32
OGC should provide a Plain English introduction to its licensing activities on the OGC website.
M
Simplicity
5
33
OGC should use Plain English rather than legalese in its licensing correspondence, and should where possible have the confidence to give advice and take licensing decisions without reference to legal advice.
M
Simplicity
6
34
The licensing processes should be regularly reviewed by OGC and its partners to ensure that wherever possible procedures for re-users are simplified.
H
Simplicity
7
35
OGC should review the standard Licensing Agreement document at the earliest opportunity to address the issues raised in the licence review at Appendix 3.
M
Transparency
8
38
OGC should publish information on how it monitors, oversees and controls its partners so that they comply with the principles of IFTS.
H
Transparency
9
39
OGC to continue financial audits of APM Group’s contractual work for OGC, and to consider publication of the results.
M
Transparency
10
40
The points raised in the website review at Appendix 2 should be rectified when the OGC website is available to be updated again.
L
Transparency
11
41
OGC to draw up and publish a statement of its public task to define its responsibilities under the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations once its future role in the Cabinet Office has been settled.
M
Fairness
12
46
At the earliest opportunity OGC’s contract with TSO Ltd. should be reviewed so that it is fair both in terms of the fees paid by TSO Ltd. to re-use OGC information in its derivative works and in terms of the review process required before such works are approved.
H
Fairness
13
47
OGC and TSO Ltd. should agree a formal control mechanism to prevent unfair advantage of the position of the contract publisher to produce derived products early. OGC should consider publishing information about this control mechanism.
M
Challenge
14
51
OGC should regularly review the operation of its trademark and brands protection activities and challenge mechanisms to ensure that they do not restrict re-use.
M
Innovation
15
55
OGC to publish a clear encouragement to its customers to consider innovative re-use of OGC information.
L
Innovation
16
56
OGC to consider ways to encourage customer feedback and comment to encourage innovative re-use
M
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The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) a document titled: OGC FAQ re OPSI complaint report. The document states:
“The questions and answers below are intended to provide clarification of a recent OPSI ruling which deals with a complaint from Van Haren Publishing.”
Reactions to UK PSI Complaint Investigation
Decision of the Office of Public Sector Information July 2010
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