This report was prepared for the Office of Fair Trading to inform its market study into the use and commercial re-use of information collected, stored and disseminated by public bodies. The report details the operations of six case study public sector information holders – Companies House, the Ordnance Survey, the Met Office, the UK Hydrographic Office, HM Court’s Service and the British Geological Survey – and assesses the extent and nature of competitive pressures upon them at different stages of their operations (including the upstream collection and management of information and the downstream creation of value-add services). It also examines the extent and effectiveness of cost allocation mechanisms and pricing policies in place and the degree to which guidance from various parts of government is used within each body. This report can be downloaded here or as Annex C from the OFT’s main report, found on its website.
