In June 2012, the Open Data White Paper was published3. It set out how the Government is putting data and transparency at the heart of government and public services and making it easier for data publishers to release data in standardised,open formats.
The Open Data Principles, contained within the Open Data White Paper, and the Information Principles for the UK Public Sector4 have become a fundamental part of the process of government data publication. Public data will be published using open standards, and data from different departments about the same subject will be published in the same, standard formats and with the same definitions.