The stated aim of the ICO is to update publication scheme requirements to increase the information proactively made available by public authorities including universities and colleges in England Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish Information Commission consulted on his proposals in 2010 and is currently piloting his new approach which will lead to final guidance. The ICO would like to see sustainable changes which would gradually improve the level and range of information routinely made available to the public and also reflecting user demands including those for information on open formats. The consultation document poses questions such as ‘are there any new classes of information which should be added the ICO’s current model publication’ and ‘are there any amendments which should be made to the types of information listed in the sector based definition documents.’
This consultation is in addition to the Government’s Open Data Consultation highlighted in our news item on 05 August 2011 at http://bit.ly/rtjusc and which closes for responses on 27 Oct 2011.
The consultation documents are available on the ICO website at http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/consultations/our_consultations.aspx and the closing date for responses is 21 December 2011. The ICO intend to publish their plan for publication schemes taking into account consultation responses shortly after this date. A summary of consultation responses will also be made available at the same time.