At a meeting on 1 November to celebrate 5 years of free law via BAILII, Richard Susskind outlined current developments regarding re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI). He chairs the Advisory Panel on PSI whose job is to advise the Government so that this asset is protected and exploited and its value is maximised. Central to its deliberations is the 2003 European Directive on the re-use of PSI which will be implemented in the UK on 1 July 2005. This creates a new, harmonised regime, aiming to remove obstacles that stand in the way. The Panel “strongly supports the aspirations underlying the PSI Directive, and believes that it provides a basis for developing more ambitious ways of exploiting the intellectual capital of the public sector.” He is confident that provision of PSI will move from being reactive to the requests of citizens to being proactive to their needs. Information on PSI and the Panel, including their 2004 report are on HMSO.
