Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, April 27, 2006

Making public data accessible to some and not all

Michael Cross, Is NHS data there for any company - or just one? The Guardian, April 27, 2006. Excerpt:
Few repositories of public sector information contain more political dynamite than those in NHS data sets. This week it was NHS staff numbers; next week it could be surgeons' death rates. Earlier this year, the official custodian of the NHS's data raised eyebrows by announcing a special relationship with a commercial firm. At least one competing business has questioned whether a level playing field is possible under the new arrangement. The case provides an example of the potential conflicts created by the government's policy of earning commercial returns on public sector information - a policy challenged by Guardian Technology's Free Our Data campaign....

Locus, a body set up to represent businesses relying on public sector information, said any exclusive supplier deal was a cause for concern. Richard Pawlyn, the chairman of the Locus Association, said: "This is symptomatic of the lack of clear guidance from government. The Office of Public Sector Information advocates fairness, transparency and common sense, yet other parts of government promote exclusive supplier deals and create new natural monopolies such as this." He said the association would be asking the Office of Fair Trading, which is investigating the market in public sector information, "to get a hold of these anomalies so the private sector can invest with confidence rather than be wrong-footed and excluded".