Commons committee criticises 'unnecessary' addition of Postcode Address File to flotation
Ministers were strongly criticised by a Commons committee on Monday for selling off public data as part of the privatisation of the Royal Mail.
The Commons public administration committee said that including the Postcode Address File (PAF) in the Royal Mail flotation was "unacceptable and unnecessary" and that "its disposal for a short-term gain will impede economic innovation and growth".
In a report, the committee said that the Danish government's decision to release its address file as open data generated a return worth up to 40 times the cost of the original investment because of the ability of information to stimulate economic growth.
Ministers defended the decision to sell the PAF on the grounds that it was a key and costly Royal Mail asset. Small firms continue to have free access to the data for now, but the committee said there were doubts about how long this would continue.
Although the government is committed to making official data publicly available, the committee said that its direction of travel was unclear, that there was confusion about its stance and that it should legislate for a right to data.
It also said, despite ministerial claims that releasing government data would lead to the emergence of an army of "armchair auditors" adept at scrutinising Whitehall and local government spending, that there was no evidence this was happening.