The Information Fair Trader Scheme
The Information Fair Trader Scheme sets and assesses standards for public sector bodies. It requires them to encourage the re-use of information and reach a standard of fairness and transparency.
There are two levels to the Scheme, Full IFTS Accreditation and IFTS Online Assessment:
- Full IFTS Accreditation is our gold standard accreditation scheme. It involves an onsite verification and is aimed at major information traders who wish to meet a very high standard of compliance with IFTS principles and the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.
- IFTS Online Assessment is an online assessment tool aimed at all public sector bodies who wish to demonstrate basic compliance with IFTS principles and the Re-use of Public Sector Information 2005.
For more information about either level please see the links on the left or contact the Standards Team for further information.
What’s new in IFTS
IFTS Raises the Bar
The Information Fair Trader Scheme (IFTS) has been successful in raising standards in information trading across the public sector. Building on this success, OPSI has introduced three new IFTS principles:
- Maximisation – this changes the emphasis of IFTS so that information can be re-used unless there are strong reasons not to.
- Simplicity – facilitating re-use through simple processes , policies and licence terms;
- Innovation – where public sector organisations actively remove obstacles to re-use and introduce initiatives that encourage re-use.
These principles will sit alongside existing IFTS principles of:
- Transparency – being clear and up front about the terms of re-use;
- Fairness – applying terms fairly without any discrimination;
- Challenge – ensuring that re-use is underpinned by a robust complaints process.
Having considered stakeholder feedback, we have now published the IFTS Strategy (PDF - 54 kb) and our new Performance Management Framework (PDF - 29 kb) which will rigorously test these new principles.
