Re-Use Request for Public Rights of Way Information

The request was successful.

Dear Cambridgeshire County Council,

First I must apologise for making what might appear to be a duplicate request of the one I made previously at [1]. Unfortunately this is necessary for two reasons:

1/ Since your release of your Rights of Way GIS data at [2], the data available and the means by which it can be accessed have changed.

2/ The Information Commissioner has indicated that he does not regard the "purpose for reuse" that I gave in my original re-use request [1] meets the requirements of RoPSIR regulation 6. He is therefore unable to investigate any complaints regarding that request, and has suggested that I should make a fresh one.

I would therefore be grateful if you could consider the following amended re-use request under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations (2015):

I would like to request permission to re-use the Public Rights of Way information you recently supplied in the form of an ESRI Shapefile, in response to my previous EIR request at [2]. The purposes for which these documents are to be re-used are: (a) to help improve the mapping of Rights of Way in OpenStreetMap, and (b) to convert the dataset to a more convenient format, and then make it available for others to re-use under an open licence. To achieve these, I would like permission to re-use the information under the Open Government Licence v3 [3], without any additional restrictions or caveats.

Regarding possible charges, please note that since the information is now available directly from the WhatDoTheyKnow website, the marginal cost to you of "reproduction, provision and dissemination" of the documents is now precisely zero. Since RoPSIR 15(3) does not apply to you as a Council, you are therefore not permitted to make any changes for re-use.

Regarding conditions for re-use, please note that my re-use purpose (a) requires the use of a perpetual open licence that is forwards-compatible with the ODC's Open Database Licence [4]. The Open Government Licence v3 meets these criteria, but a custom licence or any additional conditions would likely not. I would regard the imposition of any such other licences/conditions as contrary to RoPSIR 12(2), as they would "unnecessarily restrict the way in which the document can be re-used". That any additional restrictions would be unnecessary is evident from the fact that other Councils already allow Re-Use of their Rights of Way data under the Open Government Licence.

When considering both the re-use licence and the charges you wish to impose, you may find it helpful to refer to the EU Guidelines at [5], which explain how the Directive that underpins the UK's Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations should be interpreted.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Whittaker

[1] https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...
[2] https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...
[3] http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/o...
[4] http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/
[5] http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/...

FOI, Cambridgeshire County Council

Dear Mr Whittaker

Re: Freedom of Information Request ref 5997

Thank you for your email of 4^th December 2015 in which you requested
information about Re-use request for public rights of way information.

Your request will be dealt with in line with the Freedom of Information
Act and its regulations. In accordance with the Act, the Council aims to
respond to all requests within 20 working days, in this instance, by 4^th
January 2016.

If we require further information, clarification or a fee in order to
fulfil your request we will contact you again. Please quote the reference
number above in all future correspondence concerning this request.

Yours sincerely

 

Information Governance Team

Cambridgeshire County Council

 

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FOI, Cambridgeshire County Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Whittaker

Thank you for your email received on 4 December 2015, in which you
repeated your request to re-use public rights of way information.

Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and I can confirm that Cambridgeshire County Council does hold this
information.  Please see the Council's attached response for further
information.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review of our decision,
you should write to Catherine Preston, Information Governance Manager, c/o
Information Governance Team, Box SH1001, Shire Hall, Cambridge CB3 0AP or
by email to [1][Cambridgeshire County Council request email] within 40 days of the date of
this letter.

If you are not content with the outcome your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF or via their website at
[2]https://ico.org.uk/concerns/getting/.

Yours sincerely,

Jo Withey

Information Governance Officer

Cambridgeshire County Council

SH1001

Shire Hall

Castle Hill

Cambridge

CB3 0AP

01223 729164

[3]www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk
[4]www.cambridgeshire.net

 

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2. https://ico.org.uk/concerns/getting/
3. file:///tmp/www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk
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5. http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/

Dear Cambridgeshire County Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts reviews under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information (RoPSI) Regulations.

I am writing to request an internal review of Cambridgeshire County Council's handling of my request 'Re-Use Request for Public Rights of Way Information', which is available online at [1]. My grounds for complaint are as follows:

A/ Your response was almost a carbon copy of your response to my previous request, and failed to consider any of the specific arguments I put forward regarding charging and conditions on re-use. I therefore believe that you have failed to comply with RoPSI regulation 8(1), by not responding "promptly". Given the lack of consideration needed for this latest response, I can see no reason why you could not have provided it sooner.

B/ I believe that your conditions for re-use -- in particular the restrictions on downstream re-use, and the fixed term / non-perpetual nature of the licence -- are contrary to RoPSI regulation 12(2)(a), in that they unnecessarily restrict the ways in which the information can be re-used. I specifically asked for permission to re-use the information under the standard Open Government Licence (OGL) v3, in order that it can be used for my stated purposes. The conditions you have imposed prevent both of these uses. As I explained in my request at [1], it is evident from the fact that other Councils already allow Re-Use of their Rights of Way data under the OGL that any additional restrictions above those contained in the OGL are unnecessary.

In a previous response you mentioned that the time-limit on the licence was to ensure users only made use of relatively up-to-date data. While I would obviously like to be able to take advantage of any updated data-sets as often as they are made available, for my intended uses it is important that the right is retained to re-use any old data that may still be present in products made/compiled in the past. In terms of OpenStreetMap it is important that any data entered can be re-used in perpetuity, as it would be impossible to remove it and all the associated editing history at a later date, even though the aim would be to update the map as often as updates to your data are available. You don't, for instance, force Ordnance survey to stop selling maps they've already printed based on your RoW data from a year or more ago, so why should any similar restrictions apply to me?

C/ Although you have agreed to waive the charges in this instance, I believe that your stated intention to charge them in the future is contrary to RoPSI regulation 15(2), in that the items in your breakdown cover more than the marginal costs incurred in respect of the reproduction, provision and dissemination of the documents. As I explained in my request at [1], the marginal cost to you is now zero since the data is available from a third-party website. I also explained in [1] that RoPSI regulation 15(3) does not apply to you, so no additional charges can be levied.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Whittaker

[1] https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

Dear Cambridgeshire County Council,

I am writing to you concerning a request for a review under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information (RoPSI) Regulations. You can find a complete history of my request online at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

My request for a review of your decision was made on 4th January 2016, and I have yet to receive either an acknowledgement or a response from you. The RoPSI Regulations require you to determine my complaint "within a reasonable time ". In line with the ICO's position on other Information review procedures, I would regard the "reasonable time " to be up 20 working days in normal circumstances, and in any case no longer 40 working days. You only have 10 days remaining before the 40 working days is up.

Please could you confirm that you have received my request for a review of 4th January and that you are currently considering it. Please also let me know when you might expect to be able to provide a full response.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Whittaker

Richard Taylor left an annotation ()

The latter two messages were both accepted for delivery by the council's mail servers shortly after they were sent.

The relevant log lines which show an ok/accepted response along with an ID allocated to the message are:

2016-01-04 14:51:34 [3925] 1aG6Tt-00011G-LI => foi@cambridgeshire.gov.uk F=<request-305895-[removed]@whatdotheyknow.com> P=<request-305895-[removed]@whatdotheyknow.com> R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp S=4993 H=mail2.cpsn.org.uk [80.4.147.173]:25 C="250 ok: Message 17242474 accepted" QT=1s DT=1s

2016-02-19 13:23:14 [25207] 1aWl1d-0006YU-Vt => foi@cambridgeshire.gov.uk <FOI@cambridgeshire.gov.uk> F=<request-305895-[removed]@whatdotheyknow.com> P=<request-305895-[removed]@whatdotheyknow.com> R=dnslookup T=remote_smtp S=5411 H=mail1.cpsn.org.uk [80.4.147.174]:25 C="250 ok: Message 46183359 accepted" QT=1s DT=0s

CPSN is the Cambridgeshire Public Services Network (CPSN); and the domain is registered by the County Council:

http://www.nominet.uk/whois/?query=cpsn....

--

Richard - WhatDoTheyKnow.com volunteer

Robert Whittaker

Dear Cambridgeshire County Council,

I am writing to you again concerning the internal review I have requested of your decision in response to my Re-Use request under RoPSIR -- full details of which can be found online at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/r...

It has now been 52 working days since my request for a review, and you have sent me no response, no explanation for the delay, and not even any acknowledgement of my request.

As you will see from https://ico.org.uk/media/about-the-ico/d... the ICO agrees with my previous interpretation of what constitutes a "reasonable time" for you to complete your review, and you are now well outside his expected upper limit.

Please provide a explanation of your failure to respond to date, and an estimate of when you expect to have completed your review. I trust I will not have to wait for the ICO to intervene in order to get you to fulfil your statutory duty.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Whittaker

Robert Whittaker left an annotation ()

In the continued absence of any response from the Council, I complained to the ICO about a month ago. I've now had a response from the ICO, saying they've written to the council, recommending that they respond within (another) 20 working days. The Case reference number is FS50619465.

Robert Whittaker left an annotation ()

From the ICO on 2nd September 2016:

"I write further to previous correspondence on the above case. Having considered the council's initial response to the enquiries I made in this case, it has been necessary to make further enquiries to clarify the council’s position. Once I receive a response to those further enquiries, it is likely that I will contact you to seek your opinion on the issues before making a decision in this case."

Robert Whittaker left an annotation ()

I have today received the Decision Notice from the ICO on this case FS50619465. The ICO has found that the council has breached regulation 12(2) of RPSI and failed to comply with regulation 17(3). There was insufficient evidence to prove a breach of regulation 8(1), and the ICO declined to investigate compliance with regulation 15 as no charges have actually been levied yet.

Regarding regulation 12(2), the council is ordered to grant re-use of the requested information under the Open Government Licence version 3.0 within 35 calendar days of 4th April, unless they decide to appeal.

Robert Whittaker left an annotation ()

The Full Decision Notice is available at https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

FOI, Cambridgeshire County Council

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Whittaker

 

I write following the recent decision notice issued by the Information
Commissioner’s Office in relation to your complaint of 3rd March 2016. In
accordance with the Commissioner’s decision, I have attached a new licence
that allows Re-Use of the Public Rights of Way data under the Open
Government Licence. I have also attached a new version of the data in an
ESRI shapefile format so that you have the version up-to-date as of today.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Business Intelligence Team – Information and Records

Tel. 01223 699137,  Box No. OCT1224, Cambridgeshire County Council, Shire
Hall, Cambridge, CB3 0AP

 

The information in this email is confidential and may be legally
privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you receive this
email by mistake please notify the sender and delete it immediately.
Opinions expressed are those of the individual and do not necessarily
represent the opinion of Cambridgeshire County Council. All sent and
received email from Cambridgeshire County Council is automatically scanned
for the presence of computer viruses and security issues. Visit
[1]www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk

References

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