Revolution in data management? New law promises breakthrough in access to public administration data
Will it be data and not the citizens that will circulate between authorities, as the government promised in its manifesto? In April, the Digital and Information Agency published a draft of a new law on data management and controlled access to data. Its aim is to make the transfer of data between the public administration and the private sector more efficient.
The public administration has at its disposal a huge amount of data with significant information potential, but it remains unused. Currently, data cannot be accessed by external parties such as scientists, researchers, or journalists, and can often not even be shared between individual authorities. Moreover, the authorities themselves often do not know what data they have. This should now change.
The new bill aims to address the long-term problems associated with inappropriate data handling practices and set legislative rules for access to the data. It proposes to introduce controlled access, which will enable repeated access to data or their derivatives for statutory purposes in the public interest, and at the same time provide security against infringement on protected rights (e.g. as regards data containing personal data, trade secrets, or intellectual property of third parties).
Obliged entities will now have a general obligation to properly manage, maintain the sovereignty of, describe, and keep a catalogue of data. Entities may request controlled access to data for scientific research, the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and the right to information, ensuring the transparency and supervision of public administration, or for teaching and educational purposes. Requests for controlled access to data will be assessed by the Digital and Information Agency.
If the law is adopted, it should be possible to find out what data a particular authority has and obtain access to that data.