Thread by @JeniT

One of the key pieces of legislation supporting public sector #OpenData in the UK is at risk.
🧵

The public sector holds a lot of useful non-personal data, for example about transport, education, healthcare.

Access to it helps drive innovation, service efficiency, and accountability, from Citymapper to Open Prescribing.
openprescribing.net

Government's interest in public sector open data has stagnated, fallen between the cracks of @DCMS and the CDDO @cabinetofficeuk.

But the legal and regulatory regime underpinning it has stayed in place.

The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 says public sector bodies can only charge marginal costs for data.

In effect this makes data free at the point of use, and data held by the Crown is available openly.
legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1415…

But this is EU derived legislation.

The new Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill means unless action is taken before end 2023, it (along with thousands of other pieces of legislation) will be revoked.
bills.parliament.uk/bills/3340

Without the Re-use of PSI Regulations, and with unprecedented pressures on the public purse, public bodies will start charging for data.

Services using it will become more expensive. Some will close down. Others just won't be built.

Access to public sector data is a driver of growth and efficiency. At a minimum, we need this legislation to stay in place.

@cabinetofficeuk can you assure us that it will?

/cc @OpenGovUK @ODIHQ @OKFN @mySociety

P.S. As @owenboswarva points out this was one of the pieces of information legislation identified by @Mishcon_de_Reya in their post at mishcon.com/news/governmen… BUT the Re-use of PSI Regulations aren't owned by @DCMS or @DefraData but by @cabinetofficeuk ...

... and the Retained EU Law Dashboard at gov.uk/government/pub… does not include it.

I'm worried they've forgotten about it and it'll get revoked by accident.