Government Publishes New Data Code
June 28th, 2010 by adminThe government has stated its intentions to prepare for the sharing of government information with members of the public. The government has set down a code by which it shall follow on the release of government data to the general public.
The government has made a pledge to create public access to certain information within one month from the date of the information’s initial publication. This is so that the public is up to date on the contemporary issues faced by the government. Within one month from the coalition government being formed, they had adhered to their promise and issued a database accessible by the public called COINS (Combined Online Information System), which shall release information on public concerns such as spending.
The Public Sector Transparency Board (PSTB) monitors the publication of data and has issued a set of principles by which all governmental publications shall follow. The primary focus of these principles is to ensure the data released by the government is useful to the public to know.
Further to this, the PSTB has said that all statistics and data released by the government should be free for re-use by public bodies. This is to encourage accuracy when statistics are used and published by third parties and to encourage third parties to promptly publish the government facts and figures to encourage communication and accuracy in a bid to quash the effect of Chinese whispers.
The purpose of public data shall be to present factual statistics and data to public services such as local councils and education centres on which many policies are based to promote a transparency between members of the public and the government, and perhaps even encourage trust.
