On 18 July 2015, the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/1415) (‘the New Regulations’) came into force, replacing the 2005 Regulations of the same name (SI 2005/1515).

The New Regulations permit individuals and businesses to apply to public authorities to re‑use public sector information (‘PSI’) that was previously generated for a different purpose. As the New Regulations implement a 2013 Directive (2013/37/EU), EU Member States have had two years in which to prepare for this change.

Among its provisions, the New Regulations:

• Impose a general duty on public sector organisations to permit re-use and provide guidelines as to how re-use requests should be treated, charged for, and responded to, thus making it easier for PSI to be re-used
• Introduce shorter time limits (20 working days) for public bodies to respond to requests
• Expand the reach of the rules to include libraries, museums and archives
• Allow public sector organisations to introduce conditions on re-use where they feel it is appropriate to do so, such as administration costs. Organisations will, however, still be prevented from imposing conditions which discriminate between applicants who seek re-use for comparable purposes.
• Amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’) when dealing with requests for specific information in certain datasets. As a result, re-use of those datasets will be subject to the New Regulations, rather than the FOIA.

Continue Reading Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 finally in force