Principles of the Scheme
To join the scheme, a Chief Executive will make a personal commitment to information fair trading. The wording of the commitment can be found in the next section and is based on these five core principles:
Openness
The Chief Executive commits that in principal all information created by the organisation will be licensed for any use, by any customer. While there might have to be exceptions to this, whether limiting the material licensed, prohibiting uses or limiting the customer base, the Chief Executive will be reluctant to allow exceptions and will explain why they are necessary.
Transparency
Applying for a licence, not only the process, but prices, the considerations influencing pricing policy, and any exceptions to the principle of openness, should be explained clearly and simply in accessible public statements.
Licensees and applicants for licences should be given reasons for decisions and the reasons should be consistent with public statements and Information Fair Trader principles.
Fairness
All applicants and licensees should be treated alike for the same types of re-use.
The organisation should not use its market power to compete unfairly.
Compliance
Chief Executives agree to test their organisations by an independent verification to find out whether they have the infrastructure to deliver their commitments to openness, transparency and fairness.
The verification tests whether the administrative processes are actually followed in practice.
Challenge
The organisation has a complaints process empowered to reconsider incorrect licensing decisions.
The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) can investigate the organisation's licensing decisions if they appear to be wrong.
