This was already mentioned in the Synergy guidelines. A coherent policy approach to management of information. In the public sector, except in France, no coherent policy approach to commercialisation could be found, except to use this to increase budgetary resources. In smaller countries, there are signs of a policy of developing local information to permit the country to have its own databases rather than simply rely on supply from other countries. Smaller firms need a sort of interface to help them find and consult the available information.
Nothing exists at present.
There is a widely-held view that the quality of public information is poor, as regards reliability, exhaustivity and most particularly updating. Mechanisms are needed for quality control. The difficulty is that the prime concern of the government department is to collect information for their own purposes, rather than supply of information for the needs of outside bodies. Departments should be encouraged to create units specialised in dissemination of information. Apart from France, there are no general regulations relating to marketing government information, although rules exist which influence some sectors.