Government unleashes OPSI

Public sector information market set to explode under OPSI and IFTS regulations

The Government has created a new department to give greater access to public sector information, in accordance with EU directives from Brussels.

The new Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), incorporates such entities as Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO), and will oversee the implementation of the European Directive on Public Sector Information, which comes into force on 1 July.

A Cabinet Office statement describes the OPSI as having "responsibility for co-ordinating policy standards on the re-use of public sector information." Carol Tullo, former controller of HMSO, will now head OPSI.

The EU directive aims to promote the re-use of public sector information - a policy which results from a study by which found the European information industry to be worth £48 billion, five times less than the value of the US information industry. The US is uninhibited by Crown copyright, making it easier for businesses to re-use government information.

The policy aims to promote the "enormous scope for growth" in Europe's information industry, and to develop pan-European products and services, the OPSI website states.

Another principal aim of the OPSI is to establish and manage the Information Fair Trade Scheme (IFTS), creating a wider market in Crown copyright information. Among the bodies signed up to IFTS are the British Geological Survey, Driving Standards Agency, the Met Office, Ordnance Survey and HM Land Registry. OPSI will also manage a Government Information Asset Register, a database of government information resources.

Other than a press release on the Cabinet Office website, the entry of OSPI into the information industry has been kept extremely quiet. A spokesperson for The Stationary Office (TSO), a major HMSO supplier, said no announcement had been made to them. Information professionals at the Department of Health - covered by the EU Directive - were unaware of the OSPI arrival.