The European Union Public Sector Information Directive requires public sector organisations to make their information available for re-use in most cases. It came into force in the UK in 2005 and, following a recent review, Member States were required to implement the amended directive no later than July 2015.
Re-use typically means that the information can be used for purposes, including commercial, other than that for which it was originally collected.
Information can be referred to as any content whatever its medium (written on paper or stored in electronic form or as a sound, visual or audiovisual recording). In respect of datasets rather than other media, it should be made available in an open and machine readable format, e.g. CSV, XML. Leeds City Council is working hard to open up as much of its data as possible and publish it onto the city's open data repository,
Leeds Data Mill
The directive covers all information where the council is regarded as the data owner and which has been collected in the process of carrying out its core role and functions as defined in legislation or established through custom and practice (referred to as the ‘public task’)
Leeds City Council has published its Public Task Statement which provides further information on what information it can make available for re-use and how you can request information under this directive.; Additionally, it should be noted that any information which is made available in response to a Freedom of Information request and made available through the council’s Publication Scheme may be re-used subject to the conditions as outlined in the National Archives' Open Government Licence
Further information about the EU Re-Use of Public Sector Information Directive can be found on the National Archives website
Please email us at open.data@leeds.gov.uk
for further information.
