Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 104 of his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14, on how many occasions the National Information Infrastructure has been accessed; and what assessment he has made of the economic and social effects of making datasets more widely available by means of that infrastructure.

The National Information Infrastructure (NII) dataset has been viewed nearly 1,000 times.

This government has prioritised the release of open data for economic growth in the belief that people outside government are better placed to add value and build tools and services using this data. A report by Deloitte for the Department of Business Innovation and Skills from May 2013 calculated the value of public sector information to consumers, businesses and the public sector in 2011/12 was approximately £1.8 billion. However, the use and re-use of public sector information has much larger downstream impacts affecting all areas of society beyond the direct customer.

Adding this social value estimate to the calculated value of public sector information to consumers, businesses and the public sector, gives an aggregate estimate of between £6.2 billion and £7.2 billion in 2011/12 (2011 prices).

In 2012 we launched the Open Data Institute (ODI) to help incubate startup companies that use and/or produce open data. To date the ODI has worked with over 15 small businesses. Their first cohort of startups secured over £2m in contracts and investments.

We are currently working on a second iteration of the NII with a view to furthering its impact.