Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information

Today, the Chair of APPSI, David Rhind, has written to Michael Wills, Minister of State for Justice, updating him on the presentations and discussions at the APPSI meeting on 23 July 2009 which was attended by two external speakers:

• Michael Cross, journalist and founder of the Guardian Free Our Data campaign
• Andrew Stott, Director of Digital Engagement, Cabinet Office

See Letter-to-MW.pdf (38.42 KB) and AnnexA-APPSI-minutes.pdf (66.19 KB)

The Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) responded to key recommendations set out in the final Power of Information Task Force Report before the Government made its response to this report in May 2009.  APPSI's document incorporates both APPSI’s and the Government’s responses to key recommendations pertinent to APPSI’s remit.

• See APPSI-response-POI-Taskforce-Report.pdf (290.37 KB)
• See the Government's response to the Final Power of Information Task Force Report
• See the Final Power of Information Task Force Report

APPSI has learned from a letter by Councillor Ian Swithenbank CBE, Chairman of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) to the Rt Hon John Healey MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning that Sir Michael Scholar, Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority and Dr Tony Wright MP, Chairman of the Public Administation Select Committee have also sent letters to John Healey on the topic of a national address register.

The letter from Ian Swithenbank asserts that the IDeA and Local Government Association (LGA) are also pushing for a national address register but disputes have hampered its development. IDeA is now proposing that it has discussions at Chair and Board level with Ordnance Survey (OS) to discuss possible changes to OS's licensing terms, the processes of creating and collating address data, and the definition of OS's Public Task. The letter says that both parties have committed to an open and positive dialogue to seek solutions which should reach a conclusion by October 2009.

See Ian-Swithenbank-letter-re-national-address-register.pdf (553.22 KB)

Sir Rob Margetts, Chairman of Ordnance Survey responded to Ian Swithenbank's letter on 4 August, pointing out that OS also recognises the moves towards a single national address register, and more importantly, towards establishing this as a maintained dataset must fully take into account the funding of the costs associated with creating and maintaining a definitive, authoritative and comprehensive database. Equally importantly, any viable solution must recognise the various roles and commercial or other interests of the key players involved, including Local Government and Royal Mail, together with their commercial partners, as well as Ordnance Survey.

See Sir-Rob-Margetts-letter-to-John-Healey-MP-4-Aug-09.pdf (555.19 KB)