Draft Law on Open Data (UA0038)

Developing and submitting to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in due course a draft law on amending some legislative acts of Ukraine on access to information in the form of open data and reuse of information

✪6. Open data draft law

Commitment Text: 6. Developing and submitting to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in due course a draft law on amending some legislative acts of Ukraine on access to information in the form of open data and reuse of information.

Commitment 20. Open data regulations

Commitment Text: 20. Preparing and submitting to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in due course proposals on the development of a procedure for disclosure of open governmental data on the Internet.

Editorial Note: These two commitments are evaluated together since they relate to the same subject.

Lead institution(s): State Committee on TV and Radio Broadcasting (Commitment 6); State Agency on E-Governance (Commitment 20)

Supporting institution(s): Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Regional Development, State Statistics Committee, Administration of the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, State Agency on E-Governance, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Renaissance Foundation, other unspecified NGOs and international organisations (commitment 6); Ministry of Regional Development, State Committee on TV and Radio Broadcasting, State Archive Service, National Centre for E-Governance of the State Company  Derzhinformresurs, UNDP, International Renaissance Foundation, other unspecified NGOs and international organisations (Commitment 20)

Start Date: Not specified                                End Date: 31 December 2015 (Commitment 6);                                                                                                31 May 2015 (Commitment 20)

Commitment aim

Prior to the commitment, Ukrainian legislation lacked provisions for machine-readable data as well as their proactive publication by authorities and re-use by private actors. Both commitments aimed to develop a legal framework for public access to information held by public authorities in an open data form and in machine-readable formats. This was supposed to boost investment and create a new data-driven sector of the economy.

Status

Midterm: Completed

The commitment to develop a draft of the Law on Access to Public Information in Open Data Form was fully completed. The draft law was developed with the support of the UNDP at the end of 2014. The president submitted the draft law^{[Note 95: http://bit.ly/1MwZ63f. ]} to Parliament, which passed the law in April 2015. Initially, the government planned to develop its own regulations on open data. However, since the law was passed swiftly, it developed, instead, relevant regulations to implement the new provisions. Government regulations (adopted in October 2015) defined the minimum list of datasets (more than 300) to be disclosed by various public agencies (not only those subordinated to the government, but also the parliament, judiciary, and national bank) on their websites and the government’s open data web portal. They also determined the procedure for publishing open data and the requirements for data formats.^{[Note 96: Ibid, 68.]}

End of term: Completed

In October 2015, the government adopted regulations on open datasets and procedures for their publication. In September 2016, the government agreed to adhere to the International Open Data Charter,^{[Note 97: http://bit.ly/2jadLON. ]} and instructed the E-Governance Agency to develop an action plan to implement the Charter. In November 2016, the government assumed regulations on the Unified State Open Data Web Portal,^{[Note 98: http://bit.ly/2iEA9g8. ]} and the Ministry of Regional Development adopted a Roadmap for Open Data Development in February 2016.^{[Note 99: http://bit.ly/1XnhtPa. ]} As of December 2016, the government open data web portal (http://data.gov.ua) contained more than 9,700 datasets, all of which were uploaded by some 1,000 public authorities that hold information.

Did it open government?

Access to Information: Outstanding

The commitments aimed to introduce in Ukrainian law, for the first time, regulations on the reuse of public sector information in open data formats. The law on open data was potentially transformative insofar as it established the basic legal framework for public access to open datasets (i.e., information in machine-readable formats), and allowed for their free reuse. Regulations providing procedures of open data disclosure also represented a major step in implementing the new law.

The law provided for both passive and active access to open data information. Any person can submit a request to obtain certain datasets available from a public agency. Agencies also proactively began publishing information in open data format on their websites, which simultaneously submitted it to a central depository (i.e., the government-operated web portal of open data, http://data.gov.ua/). The law introduced important principles for open data reuse. That is, it allowed further use of open datasets free of charge and for any purpose, provided the source of information is cited. Unlike in many other countries, Ukrainian law allows free, non-paid commercial use of government-held open data information.

The State Agency on E-Governance maintains the central open data web portal.^{[Note 100: Data.gov.ua. ]} This portal was created from a website developed by civil society actors. In addition to the central government’s deposits of open datasets, several public authorities have started publishing information they hold in machine-readable formats. For example, Parliament posted material on its open data web portal, http://opendata.rada.gov.ua; the Ministry of Justice published a number of public registers it maintains;^{[Note 101: http://bit.ly/2hTrLux.]} Tax Administration publicised various tax-related datasets;^{[Note 102: http://bit.ly/2j5vzqg. ]} and the register of e-declarations of public officials^{[Note 103: http://bit.ly/2iJ8qgz. ]} and public finances and their use (see http://spending.gov.ua; etc.) are available online. Civil society organisations and government agencies have organised several public contests (hackathons, etc.) to develop IT tools using available government open data (e.g., http://egap-challenge.in.ua).

Carried forward?

The commitments were completed, and were not carried over to the next action plan.