Further information about RPSI

What organisations does RPSI apply to?

Bodies covered by RPSI are referred to as public sector bodies and include central and local government, and a number of other specified bodies. RPSI applies to Coventry City Council.

RPSI also applies to:

  • libraries (including university libraries)
  • museums
  • archives

Documents held by educational and research establishments, public service broadcasters and cultural and performing arts bodies (other than libraries, museums and archives) are excluded.

RPSI is UK wide. It applies to public sector bodies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

What is public section information for RPSI purposes?

Public sector information is information that the council produces as part of its core role and function (otherwise known as public task), as defined in legislation or established through custom and practice.

Information that is not held as part of our public task would not be covered by RPSI.

RPSI does not apply to information that would be exempt from disclosure under information access legislation, such as the Data Protection Act (DPA), the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) and the INSPIRE regulations.

Information that would be exempt under section 21 of the FOIA, because it is already reasonably accessible to a requester (for example because it is on the council’s website) would normally be available for re-use.

RPSI does not apply to recorded information we hold if someone else holds the intellectual property rights (for example copyright or database rights). We can only permit re-use if we hold the intellectual property rights for the information.

Publishing an information asset list

The council is required to publish a list of the main information it holds within its public task. This should include information that we already publish proactively, as well as unpublished information. This information is contained within the council's Publication Scheme. 

Charges

We are able to charge for permitting re-use, but with some important exceptions.

We can only charge for the marginal costs of reproducing, providing and disseminating the information. For example, if we provide a copy of a dataset on disk for re-use, we could charge for the cost of the disk and postage.

In many cases, these costs will be negligible, and if we are publishing the information on our website, it is unlikely we will make a charge. As highlighted under the Open Government Licence, information is made available for re-use free of charge.

The exceptions to the default position of marginal cost concern when we are required to generate revenue to cover either:

  • a substantial part of the costs relating to our public task
  • documents for which we are required to generate revenue to cover a substantial part of our costs
  • libraries, museums and archives

We will use Regulation 15 of RPSI when considering the charge, which sets out how the charge should be calculated. 

Licences 

We may impose conditions on re-use however, the conditions will be as open and non-restrictive as possible.

The easiest way we will do this is to use the Open Government Licence. This allows re-use of public sector information without charge for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, with minimal conditions.

However, other licences may be appropriate in particular situations, including where there is a charge for re-use. The UK Government Licensing Framework includes other types of standard licences.

Generally speaking, we will not enter into exclusive licensing arrangements with a particular person or organisation, but there are some limited exceptions to this. 

Datasets under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 

The dataset provisions in FOIA, introduced by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, are to do with making datasets that have been requested under FOIA available for re-use. They cover the format in which such information should be made available, charges and licences for re-use. RPSI makes certain amendments to these provisions. As a result, the requirements relating to datasets under FOIA are now as follows.

Where the council makes a dataset available in response to a FOIA request, we will, so far as is reasonably practicable, make it available in a re-usable electronic form. We will also endeavour to make requested datasets available in our publication scheme in a re-usable form unless we are satisfied that it is not appropriate to do so.

If the dataset falls under RPSI, for example because it is produced as part of our public task, then we will calculate any charges for allowing re-use and deal with any licences under RPSI and not FOIA. This applies to providing the dataset in response to a request and making it available in the publication scheme. Therefore, for any dataset that is covered by RPSI, the FOIA applies to the format in which it is made available, but RPSI applies to the charges and licences for re-use.