The latest station usage information is based on ticket sales in the financial year 2007-08 and covers all National Rail stations throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The station usage figures are subdivided by ticket type (full, reduced and season tickets), whilst information on the county and region of each station is also provided.

Source: Office of Rail Regultion

This is an Output Area file which contains a measure of distance from households to various services for England, this file has been made available to allow users to develop their own bespoke analysis of access to services data.

Source: Commission for Rural Communities
For more data sets see Rural Services Data Series

The Government’s flagship e-borders programme is in disarray and could breach EU law, major transport operators said.

The £750 million programme to collect electronic records of everyone who enters and leaves the UK will also miss Home Office deadlines, they said.

…

Firms also fear that by taking passport data they may breach French and Belgian law which states only law enforcement officials can do so.

Bulk transfer of passenger data could also breach EU data protection rules, he said.

Requiring passengers to provide the information could fall foul of the right to free movement enshrined in EU treaties.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Recognising the huge value and importance of individuals’ identity information and tackling variations in how information is used across Government, ‘Safeguarding Identity’ is the focus of a new strategy launched today, 23 June 2009. The initiative has been led by IPS on behalf of Government and involved more than 12 departments and agencies. Building on a wide range of work already underway (including Directgov and the National Identity Service), it aims to deliver a common framework for the use and handling of individuals’ identity information.

Source: Identity & Passport Service
Hat tip: Improbulus

“Bang. That makes a hat-trick of Ideal-Government agenda nails hit on the head by Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition this week. Liam Maxwell’s CPS pamphlet ‘It’s ours - Why we, not government, must own our data” is a must-read. And a tonic.

…

As Maxwell sets it out:

A clear choice is emerging for the future of government IT:

− Either to continue with the Transformational Government
agenda. This relies on the State holding, in the words of the
Treasury’s adviser, a “deep truth about the citizen, based
on their behaviour, experiences, beliefs, needs and rights”,
with huge centralised databases directing public services
to the point of need (as judged by the State).

− Or to abandon expensive and failing centralised IT
projects and yield control of personal information to
individual citizens. This is the approach that has been
increasingly effective in the private sector.

Source: Ideal Government

The Labour Government has now published, without bothering to consult the general public, its first public UK Cyber Security Strategy …

Some obvious Spy Blog questions:

Does either the Office of Cyber Security or the Cyber Security Operations Centre

• have an elected Cabinet Minister directly responsible for it, and democratically accountable for its failures (or, in theory, responsible for its successes) ?
• have even a junior elected Minister directly responsible for it, and democratically accountable for its failures (or, in theory, responsible for its successes) ?
• have even a senior Civil Servant of Permanent Secretary rank directly responsible for it, and professionally accountable for its failures (or, in theory, responsible for its successes) ?
• have any independent budget to spend on Cyber Security ? If so, then how much ?
• replace any of the other existing bureaucratic agencies, offices, departments, quangos, non-departmental government bodies etc, ?
• have any planned strong statutory legal enforcement powers i.e. criminal prosecutions with fines and or prison sentences ?
• have any planned weak statutory legal enforcement powers e.g. like the Information Commissioner ?
• have the power to cancel or amend Government IT projects and IT contracts if they are fail the Cyber Security standards ?
• have the power to cancel or amend Government IT projects and IT contracts if they fail the Privacy and Liberty Proportionality criteria ?
• be easily and securely contactable by the general public via secure SSL/ TLS encrypted web response forms, or PGP encrypted emails or by (freephone) telephone ?
• be easily and securely contactable by the people who look after Critical National Infrastructure systems via secure SSL/ TLS encrypted web response forms, or PGP encrypted emails or by (freephone) telephone ?
• be easily and securely contactable by the general public or by Critical National Infrastructure people, most of whom work in the private sector, 24hours a day, 7days a week, including holidays ?

If, as we suspect, the answers to most of these questions is “no”, then this UK Cyber Security Strategy is worse than useless, and is just some more Must Be Seen To Be Doing Something political propaganda.

Source: Spy Blog

The PM said an Office of Cyber Security will be formed, and a Cyber Security Operations Centre will provide coordinated protection of critical IT systems from Cheltenham. Mr Brown said the internet and the flow of information has risen dramatically around the world, which has in turn increased the risk.

“Some terrorist groups are using the internet in a wholly exploitative way and of course we have got to beware of any threats to our country.”

The PM added:

“Just as in the nineteenth century we had to secure the seas for our national safety and prosperity, and in the twentieth century we had to secure the air, in the twenty first century we also have to secure our position in cyber space in order to give people and businesses the confidence they need to operate safely there.”

Source: Number 10

The Government supports the principle that, where new software is being developed by the Timely Information to Citizens pilots, this should wherever possible be released under open source licence and available for use by other local authorities.

Source: Number10.gov.uk
Hat tip: Caroline

The music industry would be in better shape now if it had engaged with Napster rather than fought it.

So says Geoff Taylor, head of music industry body BPI, in a column written for the BBC.

In the column, Mr Taylor expressed “regret” that the music industry did not move faster to work out how to use the net to promote and sell records.

Source: BBC News

David Cameron has accused Labour of creating a “control state” and vowed a Tory government would hand power back to voters with a new “right to data”.

In a speech, the Tory leader set out plans to give voters access to information in 20 key areas.

These would include crime statistics, the performance of schools and hospitals and road traffic data.

Source: BBC News