London,
11
November
2015
|
15:35
Europe/London

Camden commits to a new Open Data Charter

Camden Council has made a major step forward in transparency by committing itself to a new Open Data Charter.

The Council has made considerable progress in publishing its data openly over the last six months and sharing it with residents and businesses.

We now want to accelerate developments and stimulate services to think innovatively and act decisively about making their data available to the public so we can deliver services better and cheaper.

The Open Data Charter delivers on our ambition by making the Council ‘open by default’, meaning that Camden will now publish its data openly unless there are good reasons not to.

 

"Camden is leading the way across in our work on technology to improve public services and save money.  

“Now we are making our data as open and available for public and commercial use to improve transparency and local democracy as well as give new insights into Camden's environment, economy and budget-setting." 
Councillor Theo Blackwell, Cabinet member for Finance and Technology Policy

The charter will also act as a reference point and clear policy position to encourage council services to publish their data while providing an assurance that open data does not override privacy and data quality concerns.

Other local authorities who are at the forefront of Open Data include Bath and North East Somerset and Leeds who both have open data policies.

Open data is published on Camden's open data portal, developed in partnership with Socrata, at: https://opendata.camden.gov.uk/

Datasets on the open data portal will grow as more information is published and respond to demand from residents and businesses.

In June 2015 Camden Council was recognised for leading the way in digital innovation, having been awarded with the prestigious ‘UK Digital City’ prize at the annual Municipal Journal Awards.