“All this data has been paid for by taxpayers. So the … mission will be to make sure that we can all make the best use of it”The argument that the data is already paid for is interesting & used to form the basis of the pricing policy for Government publications; in the days when printed paper was the only option. marginal cost pricing meant covering the costs of printing & distribution only, content was free at that point to the user. As an undergraduates we could be expected to furnish ourselves with a copy of some relevant Government White Paper or statistical digest which, from memory, generally used to cost less than 2/-, cheap even in 1960s money.
As far as Government statistics were concerned however this came to an end with the publication of the Rayner review of 1981.
“There is no more reason for the government to act as universal provider in the statistical field than in any other”And that wasn’t all: rather than provide data at marginal cost we were to start charging what the market would bear. Which of course posed a problem when the market may, in part, consist of students or members of the public keen to participate in debate as informed citizens of a democracy, & in other parts of businesses to whom information offers great potential for profit & who can therefore afford to price small none commercial users out of the market.Cmnd 8236: THE GOVERNMENTS STATISTICAL SERVICES.
