As Canada prepares to release its open data action plan, London announces it will spend to buy data from its departments for release to the public
LONDON -- The British government has earmarked £7 million for the fiscal year starting in April for the purchase of more data from its departments to be released for free.
So far more than 40,000 public data sets have been released on data.gov.uk, as part of Whitehall's transparency agenda.
A new independently chaired Data Strategy Board (DSB) will have access to the money, which will come from Trading Fund organizations and potentially other public sector organizations from efficiency savings. (According to Wikipedia, Trading Funds are parts of government departments. Some already sell information to the public and private sectors.)
The DSB's role will be to advise ministers on what data should be released. It will also work with the Public Data Group (PDG), which comprises Trading Funds organizations the Met Office, Ordnance Survey, Land Registry and Companies House, to develop a more consistent approach to improving access to government information.
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