Author: Nick Gulliford

What NEED does this meet?

All the people who are frustrated by HMG, local authorities and government sponsored agencies when they won’t provide information that should be publicly available. It would make it much easier to complain to the Information Commissioner if it were possible to produce chapter and verse illustrating who precisely is being uncooperative.

What is the APPROACH?

The ONS [Office for National Statistics] – which Gordon Brown says he is going to make independent of HMG – is the obvious publisher for public information. In many cases it does a superb job. However, there is a catch; the ONS says it does not ‘own’ the data. Much of it is obtained from government departments, local authorities, health trusts etc. The plan is for your new web site to list the communications directors of all the agencies that have information which should be in the public domain and make it easy for members of the public to ask them and the ONS to publish it routinely, if it is not already available.

What are the BENEFITS to people?

It will make it easier to complain to the Information Commissioner if the relevant procedures are built into the system. The recipients of requests for information are more likely to comply if they know that failure on their part to do so is likely to mean they will have to contend with a well presented case to the Information Commissioner.

What is the COMPETITION?

The current system of trying to get your MP to ask a question in the House of Commons or to write to a Minister is really only suitable for the very determined. The idea of having an ‘Essential Information Request’ service that is inexpensive to operate and publicly accessible would soon become very popular, possibly even to MPs, but certainly to their constituents.

What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?

To someone with access to the relevant names and addresses and to the sort of software you have already developed, my guess is that it would be in the £50,000 to £100,000 range. Conceptually it is quite simple and fits well with your current product range.