Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information

David Rhind

Professor David Rhind is Chairman of the government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI) as well as of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust and of the Bank of England Pension Trustee. He is also a Non-Executive Director of the UK Statistical Authority and is a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation. He was a Non-Executive Director of the Bank of England until summer 2009 and was Chairman of the Statistics Commission for 5 years until March 2008. Until July 2007, he was Vice-Chancellor of the City University, London and before that he was Director General of Ordnance Survey Great Britain. Awarded the CBE in 2001 for services to social and geographical sciences, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society and an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of various books and numerous academic papers.

Peter Wienand (Deputy Chair)

Peter Wienand is a partner at Farrer & Co specialising in intellectual property law. He is a member of the British Computer Society and Intellectual Property Institute. He advises clients in the media, cultural, technology and academic sectors. Among his particular interests are rights management, IPR policies and copyright in the visual arts. He chairs the Museums Copyright Group and sits on the Board of MDA (which advises museums, galleries and archives on collections management). He lectures regularly (recent audiences having been the New Ventures class at INSEAD, the New Technology Ventures class at London Business School and at Museums Association seminars) and has contributed to such publications as Art Antiquity and Law, The Art Newspaper and Museums Journal. He edited and co-authored ’A Guide to Copyright for Museums and Galleries’ (Routledge 2000).

Neil Ackroyd

Neil Ackroyd is the Executive Director responsible for Data Collection and Management at the Ordnance Survey. He manages the production activities involved in the capture and maintenance of the data supporting the National Geospatial Database using ground, aircraft and space -based resources. He also has the responsibility for managing the content and quality of this extensive database.

Prior to joining the public sector Neil was employed in by the GPS & Location Based Services company Trimble as their European, Middle-East and African (EAME) Technical Manager and the responsible Business Manager for the construction market segment. From 1990 to 2001 he was heavily involved in the adoption of GPS across many varied downstream applications in navigation, location-based services, surveying and timing during a period of rapid growth for the company.

He started his career at Racal-Decca Survey Ltd as a Systems Data Analyst and was involved in operational surveying in many countries around the world.

Neil is the author of many papers and the book - Global Navigation - A GPS Users Guide and holds a number of GPS related patents.

Professor Mike Batty

Professor Michael Batty CBE FBA FRS is Bartlett Professor of Planning and Director of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at University College London (UCL). He is currently Chairman of the JISC-ESRC Census Advisory Committee. His research is primarily on the development of computer models of cities and regions, with a recent focus on large data systems, and visualisation using virtual reality methods, GIS and Web 2.0 technologies. He has written many articles and books, the most recent of which is Complexity and Cities (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005). He is editor of the journal Environment and Planning B, a Fellow of the British Academy and was awarded the CBE in 2004 for services to geography. In 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from the State University of New York for his work in computing and planning and in 2009, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Stefan Carlyle

The Environment Agency for England and Wales’ biggest asset is its people and the know how they possess. The second biggest asset are the data, maps and information it holds. Stefan is responsible for implementing the ‘Head of Profession’ role for data, mapping, knowledge and information (DMK&I) management by shaping the Environment Agency’s strategies on DMK&I management and embedding them in the organisation; owning and maintaining the information architecture of the Environment Agency; maintaining an overview of the calibre and capacity of the people in the Environment Agency involved in DMK&I management to identify critical skills and maintain capability; supporting custodians of DMK&I throughout the Environment Agency in maintaining these assets; understanding and formulating opinions on major UK and EU initiatives, projects and legislation that affect DMK&I management; and providing a single source of expertise and authoritative advice on DMK&I management.

He was a member of the Knowledge Council, the EU Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) Directive Expert Group and the AGI Council. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Intra-Governmental Group on Geographic Information (IGGI) and represents the research and environment sector on the Location User Group, which advises the UK Location Council on usability and customer needs.

His focus on these groups is on improving efficiency and on raising standards in the management of Government data, mapping, information and knowledge and developing new ways to increase and improve access to public sector data, information and knowledge for all users.

During 30 years in industry, regional, central and international Government, he has worked in environmental regulation and research and in data and information management. He has also held diplomatic positions at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in France, working with the Nuclear Energy Agency and in London at the Oslo and Paris Commissions, as Scientific Secretary of the North Sea Scientific Task Force. He was most recently Programme Director of the UK Location Programme.

Christopher Corbin

Christopher Corbin retired in June 2006 after 47 years of working in the private, public and self employed sectors. He has an Information, Communication and Technology background. He is currently an Advisor to the European Public Sector Information Platform funded by the European Commission to monitor and support the re-use of public sector information. ( http://www.epsiplatform.eu/ ) Over the period 2006 through to 2009 he was an Analyst within the European Commission eContentplus programme funded ePSIplus Thematic Network that supported the implementation of the European Directive on Public Sector Information Re-use, in the period leading up to its review in 2008. Over the past 10 years he has also been involved and contributed to a number of European projects and initiatives related to public sector information that included GINIE (Geographic Information Network in Europe), MEPSIR (Measuring European Public Sector Information Resources), ePSINet, ePSINet-CEE and SPREAD (Stimulate and promote good practices in the field of digital content in Eastern and Western Europe). He has also contributed to the OECD initiatives on Public Sector Information policy principles and is a member of the Open Knowledge Foundation Advisory Board.

J Eric Davies

Eric Davies is currently Consulting Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University. From 1999 to 2007 he was Director of LISU, a national research and information centre concentrating on performance assessment of libraries and related cultural services, which is based in the Research School of Informatics and the Department of Information Science at Loughborough University. Prior to that he was a Lecturer in the Department and acted as the University's Copyright Officer. His experience of professional library practice includes over 25 years in academic library management. He also has experience of public libraries and special libraries. His main interests lie in statistics and performance assessment in information management, strategic management of libraries, the impact of ethical and legal issues on information management, and the dissemination of scientific and technical information. He has been active in professional association affairs for many years and has served on the governing council of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and chaired its Policy Development Committee. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Library and Information Research Group of CILIP. He is a Member of the Standing Committee of the Statistics and Evaluation Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and a member of the Editorial Board of Library Management. He has published widely and delivered numerous conference papers and workshop presentations. He received his Doctorate based on his research into data protection from Loughborough University in 1997.

Keith Dugmore

Keith Dugmore is Director of Demographic Decisions, a consultancy advising on the use of demographic data, and also founded the Demographics User Group (which represents large commercial users of public data to Government). He previously held a number of directorships and managerial posts in the private and public sectors. He is a Fellow and former Council Member of the Royal Statistical Society, has chaired its Statistics User Forum, and is an invited member of various Economic and Social Research Council advisory committees. His appointment is as an expert member in statistics.

John Gray

John Gray, a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and the Royal Society for the Arts, having enjoyed a long lengthy periods of employment in both the Public and Private sectors of the UK economy. He currently divides his interests between a mix of executive and non-executive Board appointments with business concerns and trade associations that enjoy an active interface in the re-use of public sector information - namely DCF (the Digital Content Forum), Psiphon Ltd, PSI Consulting (UK) Ltd and CoPSO (The Council of Property Search Organisations). He also continues to provide specific advisory services to the property information industry through a consultancy vehicle and in the recent past, has also contributed heavily to a number of Department for Communities and Local Government Working Groups with particular reference to the Government’s HIP (Home Information Pack) legislative programme and the 2005 Office of Fair Trading Property Information Study.

Michael Jennings

Michael Jennings retired in July 2009 as the Acting Deputy Chief Executive at Surrey County Council. Before that he held a succession of director posts at the County Council, and prior to that management posts at the Greater London Council. He has been involved in public sector information since 1988 when he was asked by the local government associations to take the lead nationally on information and statistics for the sector: since then he has been Co-chairman of the Central-Local government Information Partnership (CLIP); Chairman, successively of local government’s Geographic Information, Information Management, and e-Government Groups; Founding Chairman of the Local Government Information House Ltd (LGIH); a Member of the Statistics Advisory Committee (a predecessor of the Statistics Commission and Authority); a Member of the Census 2011 Review Group; and a Member of the info4local.gov Steering Group. He remains a Director of the Local Government Information House Ltd; is a Non-Executive Director of the Kingston Hospital NHS Trust; and the Director of Way Ahead Associates Ltd.

David Lammey

David Lammey is Head of the Information Management & Central Advisory Branch, in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM). He was previously Head of the Central Freedom of Information team in OFMDFM and, before that, Head of Records Management and Administration in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), where he worked for 17 years. During that time he was responsible for the Annual Sensitivity Review ('30-year rule') exercise in Northern Ireland, and was Secretary of the Sensitivity Review Group. He also took the lead in implementing the White Paper on Open Government (1993), which involved the re-review of closed files and the early block release of records not yet 30 years old.

He represented PRONI regularly: most significantly on committees of the Library and Information Services Council (NI), and on a number of project boards, including the Irish Genealogical Project (funded by the International Fund for Ireland), and the Virtual Library of the Irish Act of Union (funded by the New Opportunities (Lottery) Fund. On taking up his current role in OFMDFM, he succeeded to the Chair of the Northern Ireland Civil Service’s Freedom of Information Practitioners’ Group. The Group is composed of the Departmental Information Managers of the twelve NI Departments, and represents the Service’s most senior network on compliance with access to information legislation, including the Environmental Information Regulations, Data Protection Act and the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations.

David is the author of a wide range of official publications concerning records management and access to information issues. A keen historian, he has also published articles in academic journals on Anglo-Irish relations in the modern era and, most recently, contributed several biographies to the New Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press).

Hector MacQueen

Hector MacQueen is a Scottish Law Commissioner and Professor of Private Law and member of the AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Edinburgh University (where he has taught since 1979). He is also a Co-Director of SCRIPT, the AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Edinburgh. He was Dean of the Edinburgh Law School 1999-2003 and has also held visiting appointments at the Universities of Cornell (USA), Utrecht (Netherlands) and Stetson University College of Law, Florida (USA). He was Dean of Research in the College of Humanities and Social Science in Edinburgh University 2004-2008 and Deputy Head of the College 2006-2008. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Intellectual Property Institute and the Law Society of Scotland Working Party on Intellectual Property. He was also Chair of the Scottish Records Advisory Council 2001-2008, and a member of the Legal Advisory Board of Creative Commons UK. He has published extensively in the field of intellectual property, notably (with Waelde and Laurie) Contemporary Intellectual Property: Law and Policy (2007, 2nd edn forthcoming), Copyright, Competition and Industrial Design (2nd edn, 1995) and the Intellectual Property chapter of The Laws of Scotland: Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia (1993). Professor MacQueen's other main research interests are in the history of law (he is Literary Director of the Stair Society), and in various areas of private law, including contract, delict and unjustified enrichment. He has published a wide range of books and articles in these areas. He also has an active interest in legal education, and has published an introductory guide to the study of Scots law. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, being also Vice-President (Humanities) of the latter body.

Hilary Newiss

Hilary Newiss was a partner and Head of Intellectual Property at a city firm of solicitors. Since leaving the city she has concentrated on public service and policy in the Intellectual Property, health/science and technology fields. She has served on the Human Genetics Commissions for 6 years and the Intellectual Property Advisory Committee. Currently she is a trustee of the Roslin Foundation, Charleston and a member of the National Information Governance Board for Health and Social Care.

Michael Nicholson

Michael Nicholson BSc(Hons) FRICS, left the partnership of Knight Frank & Rutley (Chartered Surveyors) in 1984 and set up Property Intelligence plc, the provider of FOCUS, the first online information source for the commercial property industry. Consequently he gained considerable practical experience of the re-use of PSI and the commercial potential of Web technology.

In 2003, the FOCUS business was sold to the CoStar Corporation of the USA. Michael became Managing Director of a former subsidiary and now independent company, Intelligent Addressing Ltd, which initially helped develop a local authority-led dataset called the National Land & Property Gazetteer or NLPG and now continues to manage its updating and that of the National Street Gazetteer (NSG). Together they are considered to be amongst the most successful of the public sector’s e-Government initiatives.

Michael is Deputy Chair of the PSI Alliance; and former Chair of the Locus Association, a body of private sector companies concerned by the re-use of PSI.

Bill Oates

Bill Oates is Head of Cartographics at the Welsh Assembly Government. He is leading a programme to implement the INSPIRE Directive in Wales and to maximise the benefits of geographic information created and used by the 8000 staff of the Welsh Assembly Government and its associated bodies. He is also actively participating in other PSI initiatives in Wales, and is a member of the Delivery Board for the programme of works associated with the UK Location Strategy. Prior to taking up this post, Bill was a consultant specialising in geographical and environmental information. Projects undertaken ranged from IT systems development - creating an air pollution forecasting service, or building and delivering a pan-European flood warning database - to strategic commissions analysing the activities of PSI holders.

Shane O’Neill

Shane O’Neill is founder of a leading Public Sector Information strategic consultancy business (Shane O’Neill Associates).

Shane’s career has focussed on information publishing but in many different vertical markets. He has held Board appointments in the UK, USA, Germany and Australia. Thus he brings a wide and varied perspective to PSI related matters.

His private sector publishing career has interfaced with the public sector at several points: as publisher on behalf of the British Library’s Catalogues, Managing Director of the former Library Association Publishing and Managing Director at the privatised TSO (The Stationery Office).

Shane has also been consulted by and worked on behalf of several Government organisations to help them implement their PSI policies and procedures. These have recently included The Environment Agency, the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health.

He holds degrees from the universities of Sussex, Sheffield and Oxford where he obtained his D.Phil in Modern History.

John Ponting

John Ponting retired from the Met Office at the start of 2007. In his last job, he was the Head of Legal and Procurement for the Met Office which included overall responsibility for Intellectual Property, and reuse of information, as well as legal issues such as competition law and Freedom of Information. He had several different jobs in the Met Office mostly in IT and information management. He joined the Met Office in 1973 after getting MA and MSc degrees from Oxford University in mathematics.

Prabhat Vaze

Prabhat Vaze is a government economist at the Ministry of Defence. He is responsible for analytical services, providing statistics on defence and economic and statistical advice. He has also worked at the Department for Transport, looking at the evidence needed to make transport planning decisions at local and national levels, often drawing on public sector information. Until 2005, Prabhat was the Chief Economist at the Office for National Statistics. Amongst his responsibilities were improving secure access to public sector microdata for research purposes and looking at how information and communication technology improved productivity. Prior to joining government, Prabhat taught and researched economics in the UK and abroad. He holds a doctorate in development economics.

Phillip Webb

Phillip Webb was Chief Executive of the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) from 2001 until his retirement in March 2007. During a life long career in ICT he has acquired a wealth of high-level experience in information management within academia and government research organisations, including the Admiralty Research Establishment (ARE), the Defence Research Agency (DRA) where he was CIO and even a spell with MoD’s Applied Psychology Unit. Focusing increasingly on the introduction of technology enabled change necessary to consolidate and exploit organisational knowledge assets. He acted as a technical advisor in the drafting of the DTI’s Knowledge Economy White Paper, MoD’s Information Management Strategy, the European Commissions Joint Research Council’s Knowledge Management Strategy and the Home Office Identity Management Strategy.

Phillip is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS), Chartered IT Professional, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. He continues to enjoy regular lecturing engagements and has published and spoken extensively on ICT, Knowledge Exploitation and Risk Management. A former Chairman of the Board of Governors of Portsmouth University and a member of the Council of University Chairman (CUC) he remains active on numerous national and international committees and maintains a keen interest in education and scientific research. He is married with one daughter and lives in Hampshire. His leisure interests include travel, reading, history and collecting antiques.