4.3 Few studies have attempted to estimate the economic value of public sector information. Studies that have been carried out suggest a strong strategic economic case for enabling greater access to public sector information. However, the scale of the various estimates varies widely, owing to differences in approaches to benefits estimation and the assumptions of the economic models used.
4.4 A recent review of the literature on reusing public sector information put the value of public sector information in the European Union at around €140 billion a year. The author based the estimates on extrapolating from studies of the total economic impacts of geospatial information in Australia and New Zealand.26 Based on this review, the Government derived an estimate of £16 billion for the current total economic value of UK public sector information.27
4.5 The Office of Fair Trading produced an earlier study in 2006 on the commercial use of public sector information.28 They surveyed more than 400 public bodies to identify the income generated from public data release. They also commissioned research to estimate the economic value of UK public sector information. Based primarily on the survey results, the contractors estimated this value to be about £590 million in 2005.
4.6 Both studies have limitations. The Office of Fair Trading report notes that top-down approaches, such as that used in the EU-wide estimate, tend to overstate the economic value of public service information. This is because they do not factor in reasonable substitutes available if that information does not exist or is prohibitively expensive.29 Furthermore, the assumption of similar public sector information markets is crude given significant known differences between countries. However, the Office of Fair Trading report is likely to understate the economic value of public sector information. Their survey, and therefore the economic estimate, did not include all bodies likely to hold data of economic value - for example NHS trusts and local authorities. The Office of Fair Trading's report also pre-dates the extra datasets that have been released since 2006 as open data. When estimates of economic value vary this widely, it is difficult to assess the scale of effort or targeting needed to best build on that value.