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STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

2005 No. 1515
PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION
The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005

	Made	7th June 2005
	Laid before Parliament	10th June 2005
	Coming into force	1st July 2005

The Minister for the Cabinet Office, being a Minister designated[1] for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972[2] for the regulation of the re-use of public sector information, in exercise of the powers conferred by that section enabling him on that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Citation and commencement
1. These Regulations may be cited as the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005 and shall come into force on 1st July 2005.

Interpretation
2. In these Regulations -

"the 1998 Act" means the Data Protection Act 1998[

"applicant" means any person who makes a request for re-use of a document to a public sector body;

"content" means information recorded in any form;

"document" means any content, including any part of such content, whether in writing or stored in electronic form or as a sound, visual or audio-visual recording, other than a computer program;

"government department" includes a Northern Ireland department, the Northern Ireland Court Service and any other body or authority exercising statutory functions on behalf of the Crown;

"information access legislation" means any legislation governing access to information including the 1998 Act, the 2000 Act, the 2002 Act, the 2004 Regulations and the 2004 Scottish Regulations;

"public sector body" has the meaning ascribed to it by regulation 3;

"relevant intellectual property rights" means any of the following rights -

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"re-use" and cognate expressions have the meaning ascribed to them in regulation 4;

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"writing" includes text which is -

Public Sector Body
3. - (1) For the purposes of these Regulations each of the following is a public sector body -

(a) a Minister of the Crown;

(b) a government department;

(c) the House of Commons;

(d) the House of Lords;

(e) the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission;

(f) Scottish Ministers;

(g) the Scottish Parliament;

(h) the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body;

(i) the National Assembly for Wales;

(j) a local authority;

(k) a fire and rescue authority constituted by a scheme under section 2 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004[

(x) an association of or formed by one or more public sector bodies.

(2) In the application of these Regulations to England, "local authority" means -

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    (3) In the application of these Regulations to Wales, "local authority" means a county council, county borough council or community council.

    (4) In the application of these Regulations to Scotland, "local authority" has the same meaning as in section 235(1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973[18] and also includes a joint board or joint committee within the meaning of that section.

    (5) In the application of these Regulations to Northern Ireland, "local authority" means a district council within the meaning of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972[19].

Re-use of documents
     4. - (1) Subject to paragraph (2), re-use means the use by a person of a document held by a public sector body for a purpose other than the initial purpose within that public sector body's public task for which the document was produced.

    (2) Re-use shall not include -

(a) the transfer for use of a document within a public sector body for the purpose of carrying out its own public task; or

(b) the transfer for use of a document from one public sector body to another for the purpose of either public sector body carrying out its public task.

Exclusions
5. - (1) These Regulations do not apply to a document where -

(a) the activity of supplying the document is one which falls outside the public task of the public sector body; or

(b) a third party owns relevant intellectual property rights in the document.

(2) These Regulations do not apply to a document unless it -

(a) has been identified by the public sector body as being available for re-use;

(b) has been provided to the applicant; or

(c) is otherwise accessible by means other than by making a request for it within the meaning of the 1998 Act, the 2000 Act (or where appropriate the 2002 Act) or the 2004 Regulations (or where appropriate the 2004 Scottish Regulations).

(3) These Regulations do not apply to documents held by -

(a) public service broadcasters and their subsidiaries, and other bodies and their subsidiaries for the purposes of the provision of programme services or the conduct of any activities which a public service broadcaster is required or empowered to provide or to engage in by or under any enactment or other public instrument;

(b) educational and research establishments, such as schools, universities, archives, libraries, and research facilities including organisations established for the transfer of research results; or

(c) cultural establishments, such as museums, libraries, archives, orchestras, and opera, ballet and theatre establishments.

    (4) For the purposes of paragraph (3), "public service broadcaster" has the same meaning as in section 264(12) of the Communications Act 2003[20], "subsidiary" has the same meaning as in section 258 of the Companies Act 1985[21] and "programme services" has the same meaning as in section 405(1) of the Communications Act 2003.

    (5) These Regulations do not apply in any situation in which a person is under a legal obligation to prove an interest in order to gain access to documents.

Request for re-use
     6. - (1) A request for re-use shall -