Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if the Government will adopt a list of specific high-value datasets similar to the European Commission’s Directive on open data and the re-use of public sector information which was entered into force on 16 July 2019.

The UK Government Licensing Framework is designed to support our drive to open up access to publicly held information and datasets, promoting transparency and enabling wider economic and social gain.

The Framework mandates the Open Government Licence, a set of terms and conditions which facilitate the re-use of a wide range of public sector information free of charge, as the default licence for Crown bodies, and recommends it for other public sector bodies. It is our policy that public sector information should be licensed for use and re-use free of charge under the Licence, with only a few exceptions.

In the global recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, open data and sharing of best practice will be more vital than ever. Data will underpin our future resilience and future economy, and further detail will be set out in our National Data Strategy, which we are aiming to publish later this year.