Data law change offers potential revenue
Author: Ruth Keeling, the LGC |
Changes to the Freedom of Information Act which came into force at the start of this month will give requesters the right to demand datasets in a reusable format, allowing councils to charge in some cases.
Former ICO adviser Elaine Fletcher, a principal associate at law firm Eversheds, said: ?This potentially could have a very significant impact on revenue.
?Local authorities will be undertaking analysis to understand the value of the information and what return they had on that before these new provisions came into force.?
The changes mean that councils will have to provide responses to requests for electronic data in a reusable format, such as ‘comma separated values’ (CSV).
The FOI law change also gives requesters the right to reuse the data, even for commercial purposes. Ms Fletcher warned that this could lead to an increase in the number of requests to councils and public bodies.
?A lot of commercial organisations will see this as a good opportunity,? she said.
She could not put a number on the potential income stating that the changes were ?a lot for local authorities to digest?.
Councils have previously expressed concern about the number of requests coming from businesses, as reported in the past by LGC.
An extensive survey carried out by University College London in 2011 found that around 25% of the 200,000 or so requests handled by local government came from business, although one council said 70% of its requests were from firms.
Research author Ben Worthy said at the time: ?Officers feel it is OK for the public to use the act, but it is business that has really bugged them because they felt things like legal firms using FOI to find out details of people who have died without heirs was not the purpose of the legislation.?
The changes to FOI law which came into force this week have separately led the information commissioner to warn councils to ensure they understand the new rules in order to avoid a spike in complaints to the watchdog.
The commissioner’s office said the requirement to release reusable data had the potential to increase the risk of personal data being inadvertently released in electronic format.
Last week Islington LBC was fined 70,000 after it mistakenly released the personal data of more than 2,000 residents including names and details about sexuality, histories of domestic abuse, and health problems.
The accidental release occurred because the officer who released the data did not realise that the summary tables included a link to individual people’s data.