miscellaneous factZ – The online home of Rufus Pollock

The lead article of Prospect Magazine’s February issue is a piece by by James Crabtree and Tom Chatfield entitled “Mashing the State”. It’s an in-depth look at the recent launch of data.gov.uk and its place in the wider context of government policy in relation to information — as well as information’s relation to governance (that “mashing” of the state …).

Where Does My Money Go gets a mention as does the “Cambridge” paper on pricing models at trading funds.

There’s an interesting 6 month fellowship at OPSI for work on economics of public sector information being funded by ESRC and National Archives. Deadline for applications is 6th August:

Valuing information: an economic analysis of public sector information and its re-use

Length of Fellowship: Six months

Proposed start date: Autumn 2009

Applications to be submitted as soon as possible (and by 6 August)

Location of Fellowship: The National Archives’ sites (Central London and Kew)

As part of its Placement Fellowship Scheme, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and The National Archives welcome applications from academic economists interested in working in a research capacity in the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI). OPSI is part of The National Archives, a member of the Ministry of Justice family, working to set standards, deliver access and encourage the re-use of PSI.

The Placement Fellowship Scheme encourages social science researchers to spend time within a partner organisation to undertake policy relevant research and to develop the research skills of partner employees. The Fellowship will be jointly funded by the ESRC and OPSI while the Fellow remains employed by his or her institution.

See the document below for further details on the Placement Fellowship: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/esrc-placement-fellowship-june-09.pdf

The Government announced last summer a further review of how trading funds supply PSI. The results of this review had been expected with the budget.

However, instead of the results of a review, trading funds were included in the report of the Operational Efficiency Programme in the section on “Asset management and sales” in the “final report”. Box 3A p.41 summarized the trading fund assessment exercise:

The first phase of the Trading Fund Assessment considered how a number of Government businesses could open up the information they create or hold as a result of carrying out their core public duties. The businesses were Met Office, Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, Companies House, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and UK Hydrographic Office.

…

The Assessment identified key principles of good practice relating to information produced by all Trading Funds. These principles are:

• information easily available – where possible at low or marginal cost;
• clear and transparent pricing structures for the information, with different parts of the business accounted for separately;
• simple and transparent licences to facilitate the re-use of information for purposes other than that for which it was originally created; and
• clearly and independently defined – with input from customers and stakeholders – core purposes (“public tasks”) of the organisations.

The Office of Public Sector Information will provide enhanced oversight and governance to ensure application of these principles across the Trading Funds that create significant amounts of information.

A new business strategy for Ordnance Survey has been developed (see Box 3.H) which also will ensure easier and simpler access to high-quality information. Further work on the future business plans and models for specific Trading Funds – as well as consideration of the effectiveness of the Trading Fund model – will now be incorporated into the Operational Efficiency Programme.

So what we have is:

• A vague (”where possible”) commitment to “low or marginal cost” pricing but with “low” undefined — thereby leaving plenty of ‘wiggle room’. In any case the main PSI trading funds are explicitly excepted from this it seems — see below.
• Some centralization of oversight in OPSI (though not clear what power OPSI will have)
• Public tasks that are clearly and independently defined (though not clear who ensures independence)
• More pricing transparency within trading funds (though again little detail as to how this will be managed or enforced)

There were separate, specific, assessments for 3 of the trading funds mentioned in Box 3A: the Land Registry (box 3.E p.45), the Met Office (box 3.F p.46) and Ordnance Survey (box 3.H p.47). Each of these assessments consisted of just a few paragraphs (the assessments are excerpted in full below).

The Land Registry and Met Office assessments were, in essence, “pats on the back” with clear endorsements of their current operational model — albeit with an encouragement to expand commercial operations and be more efficient. Pricing policies weren’t mentioned.

For Ordnance Survey the tone was slightly different with a stated need for the OS to be “more customer-focused and commercially driven”. However, again there was no mention at all of pricing policies.

Where was the assessment of marginal cost pricing (or other pricing model) for “raw” bulk data — the recommended option from the Cambridge study (of which I was a co-author)? Where the detailed discussion of the regulatory model that needs to put in place to ensure that the system works well? Entirely absent! This is truly disappointing and one can only feel that the a serious opportunity has been missed here.

Trading Fund Assessments from the OEP Report

Box 3.E Land Registry

Land Registry maintains and develops a stable and effective land registration system throughout England and Wales, providing the cornerstone for the creation and free movement of interests in land. Giving a state-backed security for title to registered estates and interests in land for the whole of England and Wales, and ready access to up-to-date and guaranteed land information, enables confident dealings in property and security of title.

In addition, Land Registry produces property price reports and delivers a range of non- statutory added-value products and services. Land Registry is committed to providing high quality, cost-effective services which are delivered promptly to all customers. A review of the business model was undertaken as part of the OEP. This concluded that in light of current market conditions and recognising the need to retain responsibility for the creation, recording and guaranteeing of title to land within Government, the following improvements to the operating framework of the business have been identified and will be delivered;

• realising significant efficiency savings through a programme which includes estate and operational rationalisation and market testing of support functions that will result in a more streamlined, resourceful organisation;
• developing opportunities for the provision of wider commercial services and products;
• identifying synergies with the functions and data requirements of other public sector bodies with a view to achieving efficiency improvements through greater collaboration; and
• exploring opportunities to accelerate these initiatives through joint ventures and/or outsourcing of activities to third party providers.

Box 3.F Met Office

The Met Office is a world-leading provider of weather forecasts and climate change modelling and advice to the general public, specialist customers throughout the public sector and an increasing number of private sector customers.

It is essential that the Met Office’s unified approach to short, medium and long term forecasting and climate modelling, which is the most efficient and sophisticated in the world, is preserved. The Met Office also performs a number of key government roles, especially in international data collaboration and UK representation. In order to maintain the quality of its services it will require long-term investment and the freedom to develop its operations. There remains potential to expand commercial operations at the Met Office beyond those already provided, possibly through the introduction of private capital in some areas.

Over the coming months the project team will:

• work closely with the MOD as the owner department and HM Treasury to identify improvements to its business model, ownership structure and financial framework in order to reduce the administrative burden, maximise its development and to fully exploit the market opportunities open to it;
• work with other public sector bodies to achieve efficiency improvements through greater collaboration or transfer of functions;
• explore increased commercial activities, for example weather warnings to industry and helping business understand the impact of climate change;
• seek opportunities for private sector partners to develop specific services to complement the Met Office’s business; and
• maximise operational freedoms and reduce bureaucracy in the interface between the Met Office and the MOD.

Box 3.H: Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey collects, maintains and publishes high quality and up-to-date geographical information for the whole of Great Britain. Ordnance Survey provides data and services to customers both directly and indirectly through its network of commercial partners. The Government is committed to stimulating innovation in the geographical information market, increasing competition where it would be beneficial to consumers and to making geographical data and services more easily available.

The OEP has concluded so far that Ordnance Survey needs to be more customer-focused and commercially driven. The Government is therefore publishing a new commercial strategy for the Ordnance Survey on their website. The new strategy balances the requirement to maintain the highest quality standards with the need to significantly enhance ease of access to geographic data and services for both commercial and non-commercial use.

The new strategy seeks to equip Ordnance Survey to thrive in and better support competition and innovation in a wider geographical information market that is being transformed by advances in technology. It is a significant and ambitious programme of change. The Government has set key milestones for delivery in 6 and 12 months’ time and beyond, as well as a process for independent review and challenge of progress. If sufficient progress is not made to promote competition and innovation in these timescales, the Government will consider further reforms. Opportunities to accelerate the delivery of initiatives through introducing further commercial experience and capabilities will be fully explored over the coming year.

When our report on PSI provision at trading funds was published alongside the budget in March, the Government promised further investigation. They have now commissioned another review this time done by the Shareholder Executive/HMT (full ToR on Shareholder Executive website:

The review, announced as part of Budget 2008, will be conducted by the Shareholder Executive and will consider the benefits to the wider UK economy from any potential changes to the trading funds’ business model.

The review will examine the impact on the trading funds’ business models of any changes to the current pricing, accessing and licensing regimes with the aim of:

• distinguishing more clearly what information is required by Government for public policy

• ensuring that this information is available as widely as possible in order to maximise the benefits to the wider UK economy, at a price that balances the provision of such access with the need for users to make a fair contribution to the cost of collecting the information in the long term.

  The policy objectives of each of the trading funds will not form part of the assessment, but the review will consider the future of the trading fund model and how it impacts on the delivery of these objectives.

…

The priority group of Trading Funds to be included in the assessment includes Ordnance Survey, Meteorological Office, UK Hydrographic Office, HM Land Registry, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and Companies House. Others are listed in Annex A of the Terms of Reference. The Review will be carried out within the framework of current data protection legislation.

Update: my slides from a presentation at the European Commission in May 2008 are now online

The research report entitled Models of Public Sector Information Provision via Trading Funds was published today to coincide with its mention in the budget (para 3.49). This report was commissioned by HMT and BERR and jointly written by myself, Professor Newbery and Professor Bently (all at Cambridge University).

The formal announcement and details of the context in which the report was commissioned can be found here on BERR’s website. To quote at some length from the section dealing with this report:

As part of the response [to the OFT’s report on the Commercial Use of Public Information], the Government commissioned Cambridge University to do some analysis specifically around the pricing of public sector information held by trading funds[i].

This analysis has been released today as a Study Report (11 March 2008 – see Related Documents), and it sets out estimates of the costs and benefits of marginal-cost pricing, based on the assumptions used by the Cambridge team and the data they were able to collect.

Going forward, the Government will look closely at the public sector information held by trading funds to distinguish more clearly what is required by Government for public tasks, ensuring this information is made available as widely as possible for use in actual and potential downstream markets.

In the lead up to the next spending review, it will also ensure that it is priced appropriately. The underlying principle will be that information collected for public purposes will be made available at a price that balances the need for access while ensuring customers pay a fair contribution to the cost of collecting this information in the long-term.

[i] The study was commissioned jointly by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and HM Treasury in July 2007. The terms of reference for the study are available upon request by contacting the BERR Enquiry Unit

Meanwhile the budget had this to say (chapter 3 and chapter 5)

3.49 [Commercial Use of Public Sector Information] The Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) market study into the commercial use of public information15 highlighted important issues around access to public sector information for commercial or other re-use. The Government commissioned Cambridge University to analyse the pricing of this information. This analysis is published alongside Budget 2008. The Government will look closely at public sector information held by trading funds to distinguish more clearly what is required by Government for public tasks and ensure that this information is made available as widely as possible for use in downstream markets. In the lead up to the next Spending Review the Government will ensure that information collected for public purposes is priced so that the need for access is balanced with ensuring that customers pay a fair contribution to the cost of collecting this information in the long term. These issues will be considered in conjunction with the assessment of trading funds (see Chapter 5).

….

5.14 [Asset management and sales] The Government is committed to managing the stock of public assets to deliver optimal results for society and the economy. Following the 2007 CSR, departments are publishing asset management strategies setting out how they will deliver best value from their assets. To support the introduction of asset management strategies the Treasury and Shareholder Executive will undertake an assessment of the governance, business plans and future development strategies of each of the trading funds and a selection of public corporations (excluding those already subject to central government review).