FOI Man highlights a new draft Code of Practice under section 45 of the Freedom of Information Act.

It’s all go with FOI at the moment. No sooner have we had to wade through the ICO’s Anonymisation Code of Practice than another comes along from the Ministry of Justice – this time a draft Code setting out best practice for meeting the new requirements under FOI relating to datasets.

The draft Code is a supplement to the existing section 45 Code of Practice, setting out best practice for public authorities in complying with FOI. It is required by the amendments made to FOI by the Protection of Freedoms Act (which are not yet in force).

It provides clarification on interpreting the definition of dataset in the amendments, as well as setting out the three licences (developed by The National Archives) that public authorities will be expected to use when licensing re-use of datasets (ie open, non-commercial and charged). What isn’t yet clear is what fees public authorities will be able to charge for re-use. The amendments allow for the Secretary of State for Justice to lay down regulations to allow this, but there is no news yet on if, or when, such regulations will be forthcoming.

It should be stressed that the Code is a draft, and the Government is inviting comments on it via the gov.uk website. So if you’re interested in the open data agenda, or simply want to ensure the Code is clear enough, do go and make your views known.