European Communities (Re-use of Public Sector Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 525/2015

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 27th November, 2015.

I, BRENDAN HOWLIN, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving effect to Directive 2013/37/EU of 26 June 20131 , hereby make the following regulations:

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Re-use of Public Sector Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2015.

Interpretation

2. (1) In these Regulations—

“Principal Regulations” means the European Communities (Re-Use of Public Sector Information) Regulations 2005 ( S.I. No. 279 of 2005 );

“Directive” means Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 20032 , as amended by Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 20131.

(2) A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and that is also used in the Directive has, unless the context otherwise requires, the same meaning in these Regulations as it has in the Directive.

Amendment of Regulation 2 of Principal Regulations

3. Regulation 2 of the Principal Regulations is amended by—

(a) the substitution of the following for the definition of “Appeal Commissioner”:

“ ‘Appeal Commissioner’ means the person who, for the time being, holds the office of Information Commissioner under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (No. 30 of 2014);”,

(b) the substitution of “a regional assembly” for “a regional authority” in the definition of “body governed by public law”,

(c) the substitution of the following for the definition of “Directive”:

“ ‘Directive’ means Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 20032 , as amended by Directive 2013/37/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013;”,

(d) the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘enactment’ has the same meaning as it has in the Interpretation Act 2005 (No. 23 of 2005);

‘formal open standard’ means a standard which has been laid down in written form, detailing specifications for the requirements on how to ensure software interoperability;”,

(e) the deletion of the definition of “functions”,

(f) the substitution of the following for the definition of “local authority”:

“ ‘local authority’ means a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001 (No. 37 of 2001) (as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014 (No. 1 of 2014));”,

(g) the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘machine-readable format’ means a file format structured so that software applications can easily identify, recognise and extract specific data, including individual statements of fact, and their internal structure;”,

(h) the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘open format’ means a file format that is platform-independent and made available to the public without any restriction that impedes the re-use of documents;”,

(i) the substitution of “regional assembly” for “regional authority” in the definition of “public sector body”,

(j) the deletion of the definition of “regional authority”,

(k) the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘regional assembly’ means a body established in accordance with section 43 (as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014 ) of the Local Government Act 1991 ;”,

(l) the deletion of “functions falling within the scope of ” in the definition of “re-use”, and

(m) the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘university’ means a public sector body that provides post-secondary-school higher education leading to academic degrees.”

Amendment of Regulation 3 of Principal Regulations

4. Regulation 3(1) of the Principal Regulations is amended—

(a) in subparagraph (a), by the insertion of the following after “common administrative practice”:

“, provided that the scope of the body’s public task is transparent and subject to review;”,

(b) by the substitution of the following for subparagraph (c):

“(c) documents, access to which could be excluded by virtue of-

(i) the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003,

(ii) the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment) Regulations 2007 to 2014,

(iii) the Freedom of Information Act 2014 , other than section 15(2) of that Act,

(iv) the European Communities (Establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)) Regulations 2010 ( S.I. No. 382 of 2010 ), or

(v) any other enactment,

including on the grounds of the protection of national security, defence or public security, statistical confidentiality or commercial confidentiality (including business, professional or company secrets);”,

(c) by the insertion of the following subparagraphs after subparagraph (c):

“(ca) documents, access to which is restricted by virtue of the enactments referred to in subparagraph (c) or any other enactment, including where a person is obliged to prove a particular interest in order to obtain such access;

(cb) parts of documents containing only logos, crests and insignia;

(cc)(i) documents, access to which could be excluded or restricted by virtue of the enactments referred to in subparagraph (c) or any other enactment on the grounds of protection of personal data, and

(ii) parts of documents that are accessible by virtue of the enactments referred to in subparagraph (c) or any other enactment and contain personal data the re-use of which would be incompatible with the law concerning the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data;”,

(d) by the substitution of the following subparagraph for subparagraph (e):

“(e) documents held by educational and research establishments, including organisations established for the transfer of research results, schools and universities, other than university libraries;”, and

(e) by the substitution of the following subparagraph for subparagraph (f):

“(f) documents held by cultural establishments, other than museums, libraries and archives;”.

Amendment of Regulation 5 of Principal Regulations

5. Regulation 5 of the Principal Regulations is amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following for paragraph (2):

“(2) Subject to paragraph (2A), a public sector body shall, on receipt of a request under paragraph (1) in respect of a document held by it to which these Regulations apply, allow the re-use of the document for commercial or non-commercial purposes in accordance with the conditions and time limits provided for by these Regulations.”,

(b) by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (2):

“(2A) Where a request under paragraph (1) in respect of a document to which these Regulations apply is made to a library, university library, museum or archive that holds intellectual property rights in the document, the library, university library, museum or archive shall, if it approves the request, allow the re-use of the document for commercial or non-commercial purposes in accordance with the conditions and time limits provided for by these Regulations.”,

(c) in paragraph (3)(a)—

(i) by the substitution of “allows the re-use of a document” for “decides to make a document available for re-use”, and

(ii) by the insertion of “, through electronic means where possible and appropriate” after “a requester”,

(d) in paragraph (4)—

(i) in subparagraph (a), by the substitution of “subparagraphs (a) to (cc) of Regulation 3(1), or paragraph (2) or (2A)” for “subparagraph (a), (b) or (c) of Regulation 3(1) or paragraph (2)”,

(ii) in subparagraph (b), by the substitution of “Subject to subparagraph (ba), where the refusal” for “Where the refusal”,

(iii) by the insertion of the following subparagraph:

“(ba) Subparagraph (b) shall not apply to libraries, university libraries, museums or archives.”, and

(iv) by the substitution of the following subparagraph for subparagraph (c):

“(c) Any decision made on foot...