FINAL REPORT

Open Data FSB Project
By:
James Addy
James Barber
Dandan Chen
Yawen Guo
Asif Hossain
Jack Tomlinson
Zhouqi Wei
Executive Summary
This report analyses the global influence of open data and how it has developed to
become a major influence on business operations. The analysis then leads on to discuss how
and why the North East should improve its open data service. We have conducted research
into the availability of data across the world and how it is being utilised to improve people’s
lives. Then we have focussed on different regions in the UK and specifically the North East,
aiming to discover how the region can improve its open data platform and increase
awareness for small to medium sized businesses. For this we have made suggestions as to
how the message can be spread and how it can make a difference in the business
community.
There are numerous reasons to improve access to data as it can lead to a range of useful
information being made available for citizens to; improve quality of life, increase
government transparency and encourage the adoption of more efficient planning and
production processes. This stimulates business and economic growth and can lead to
increased innovation that also saves the government money in the long run.
In the first section we have presented our research into the availability of open data across
the world and the massive variance in how it is being utilised. This ranges from natural
disaster relief in Asia to local bus timetables in Chicago amongst a wide spectrum of
possibilities. We have found that the most developed countries in the world are heading the
field in terms of open data accessibility such as the UK, USA and Germany. These countries
have a vast number of published datasets which are free to use for the public and data
analysis shows that this access is helping businesses to thrive.
Following this we have performed detailed research into all regions in the UK and looked at
which cities have the most advanced open data resources along with the most successful
business use of the data. The most populous cities are clearly the most well equipped to
provide a wide database of information for businesses to take advantage of. In particular;
London, Leeds and certain counties in the South East have well developed data portals and a
large amount of the companies which take advantage of open data. The success of these
regions is characterised by large tech industries and councils with dedicated open data
strategies.
1

In the data analysis section we have discovered that the North East is currently the fastest
growing region in England. Construction is the largest industry and small businesses play a
vital role in every industry. However, the North East also has the highest unemployment rate
in the UK and there is a low proportion of people in high-level jobs such as management and
people with high-level qualifications. In contrast, skilled trades are popular with a high
proportion of people in apprenticeship schemes. Global trade is very positive in the North
East with it being the only region in England that continually has a trade in goods surplus.
Machinery and transport is a particularly popular export.
In terms of open data the North East is not doing relatively well at promoting the use of
open data by companies, with only 1% of UK open data companies operating in the region
meaning that initiatives must be enforced to attract these businesses. The majority of open
data companies are small businesses and the most popular form of data used is
geospatial/mapping. Sunderland council has invested heavily in creating a data intelligence
hub but councils must work together to ensure that the full region can feel the benefits.
Organisations such as Engie and UTMC should be encouraged to find the best uses for the
currently available data so that businesses and local government can save money and
hackathons should also be used to promote the possibilities.
Overall, we think that the North East can improve its provision and use of open data through
well supported hackathons, financial incentives or prizes for app development and
increasing the amount, quality and range of formats of data including social, economic and
geographical. Local governments must work cooperatively to ensure that this data is at its
most useful and private companies must have explicit targets and frameworks for the
release and promotion of open data. A marketing plan has been set out in a separate
document to outline the strategy which we think should be rolled out across the region.
2

Introduction
Since 2009 open data has been becoming rapidly more prevalent following action by
the UK, USA, Canadian and New Zealand governments, to name but a few. But what is open
data and why is it becoming one of the best options for government investment in a time of
austerity? (http://opendatahandbook.org/guide/en/introduction/)
Open data is any content or information that anyone is free to access, use and share with no
legal, technological or social restrictions placed upon the data. This means that open data is
usually shared online, in an accessible and easy to download format. There are a range of
kinds of open data including cultural, which is data about cultural artefacts and works such
as titles and authors, generally collected and held by galleries, libraries, museums and
archives; Science – data which is produced as part of scientific research into astronomy and
zoology; Financial data such as government expenditure and revenue and information on
financial markets, such as stocks, shares and bonds; Statistical data such as the census and
key socioeconomic indicators usually produced by various statistical offices; Weather data
includes the many different types of information used to understand weather and climate;
Environmental data is data such as the presence and level of pollutants, the quality of rivers
and seas and other such data which affects the natural environment, and also Transport
data such as timetables, routes and punctuality statistics. (https://okfn.org/opendata/)
The best examples of open data are those where the entire data set is provided (the data is
provided in bulk), access to the data is without charge, the data is machine readable (for
example a PDF is useful for humans but is not a good format for machines, microformats,
XLS and RDFa are better formats for machine readings) and in a convenient and modifiable
form, the data is provided on a timely and up to date basis, the data should be subject to no
reproduction costs, and finally the data is subject to an open license.
The possibilities of open data are endless; it can be used to improve education, make people
healthier, more productive and aid with city planning. This is usually done by making the
data more accessible in the form of an app or search engine, or by evaluating open data in
order to ensure that government and businesses are using the best methods available to
them. Furthermore open data can make governments more transparent and can foster trust
and involvement within politics. Open data can be utilised at hackathon events, which are
gatherings of innovators for collaborative computer programming.
(https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=define+hackathon&oq=defien+hackathon&aqs=chrom
e..69i57j0.5443j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8)
Open data is predicted to become one of the strongest areas of a developed economy. 270
UK open data firms studied by the open data institute provided over 500,000 jobs and had
an annual turnover of £92bn, showcasing the potential open data has for the UK (open data
firms are those which use, produce or otherwise invest in open data as a key aspect of its
work. It could be a data publisher, making data open for others or a user, creating services
with data available by other platforms or even an enabler training or advising others how to
utilise open data). (http://theodi.org/diverse-uk-companies-open-data)
Studies undertaken by the world bank also indicate that open data could have a cumulative
value of $13 trillion over the next 5 years in G20 countries.
(http://blogs.worldbank.org/ic4d/open-data-economic-growth-latest-evidence)
3

Across the globe
Open Data has developed at widely varying speeds in different parts of the world. In
this section we will examine the extent to which open data is available in different
continents; Asia, North America, Africa, and Europe. We will present research into the
different initiatives being enforced across the world and the extent to which they have
improved access to open data and the successful use of data by businesses and
communities.
Open data in Asia
Quality of data
In many parts of Asia the release and use of open data is in its infant stages. This can serve
to demonstrate the raw power which open data can have on developing nations that
require solutions to a wide range of problems. Jeni Tennison, Deputy CEO and CTO of the
ODI, said: “Open data has the power to solve our most challenging sustainability problems”.
For example, how can we provide all the world’s people with adequate nutrition, whilst
protecting our precious natural resources? We can see evidence of open data use in Asia
that has saved lives, influenced development and has the potential to significantly improve
lives even further. This can be seen in examples ranging from natural disaster relief to apps
for public transport.
There are now over 1 billion internet users in Asia but in many countries we have seen
governments acting slowly to open their decision-making processes and data repositories.
Freedom of Information is an important tool to encourage the process of open data
initiatives. India, South Korea and Hong Kong passed such acts in the 1990s and have all
since published open data portals. These help individuals to locate parking spaces or map
public services like parks and restrooms. In India, the government hosted an OpenDataApps
challenge (a hackathon) to raise awareness among young entrepreneurs from the tech
industry about data-driven information for civic purposes.
(http://asiafoundation.org/in-asia/2014/02/19/the-power-of-open-data-in-asia/)
Examples
One of the most active Open Data sites in Asia is the Seoul Open Data Plaza
(data.seoul.go.kr) managed by the Metropolitan Government of Seoul. The plaza is an
online channel to share and provide residents with all of Seoul’s public data, such as
real-time bus operation schedules, subway schedules, locations of public Wi-Fi services,
shoeshine shops, and facilities for disabled people. In Singapore, the most active partner to
promote public data re-use is a private organisation called “UP Singapore” which stands for
“Urban Prototyping Singapore” and describes itself as “ground-up innovation platform that
makes creative use of technology and data to improve our urban environments and
regularly organises thematic hackathons”. UP Singapore describes itself as a “new
movement where people from the public, private and people sectors come together to
tackle the wide range of social and environmental challenges facing our cities”
(https://knowledgedialogues.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/open-data-asia-09-2014.pdf).
The Fukushima earthquake in 2011 and level 7 nuclear disaster were the starting points for
many open data projects related to recovery assistance, creation of open API for spatial,
energy and environmental data. Hackathons and app contests addressing power shortage,
4

reuse of geospatial information and crowd sourced infographics relating to mitigating and
monitoring disasters. Safecast and Fukushima Wheel are examples of crowdsourced open
data applications. The Open Cities Project can also be compared to this as it aims to achieve
sustainable development and disaster resilience through the use of community mapping
and open data. This is a project across three cities in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in
order to meet the problems that increasing urbanisation and development provide
(http://www.opencitiesproject.org/cities/). In 2013 the UK’s ODI (Open Data Institute)
signed an agreement with Taiwan’s ODA (Open Data Alliance) to ‘promote and explore the
potential that open data holds for the public, private and academic sectors in both
countries’. The agreement will see the ODI and ODA collaborate on a range of potential
activities and share expertise, knowledge and best practice to design support for open date
driven businesses and develop open data technologies
(http://www.information-age.com/industry/uk-industry/123457526/uk-and-taiwan-collabo
rate-on-open-data).
Success of open data
Examples such as these can be used to show how releasing open data in the poorer
countries of the world can have huge impacts on the reduction on corrupt government
practices and help to create societies with improved public service delivery and a powerful
involvement from residents. Since open data has political, economic and technical
dimensions, it is a challenge for governments to develop public policies that address all
aspects. Setting up data portals with a few datasets, focusing only on the ICT and business
community and advocating technological rather than societal innovation will make it
difficult to realise the full benefits of open data. Data markets need to be developed; the
supply of public open data does not automatically create demand; and the value of publicly
available data is often not visible or quantifiable. Removing barriers that cause friction in
accessing and using data will be easier if the long-term social and economic benefits of an
open information environment are better understood as necessary conditions for
development.
Open Data in North America:
Quality of data
The US government has its own open data portal (http://www.data.gov), and there is also
18F (https://18f.gsa.gov) which consists of a team of designers and developers who work to
“transform government services by building world-class software products and raising
standards of software development throughout the government.” 18F has developed
websites such as ‘myRA’ which gives individuals a retirement account to help them plan for
the future. Also in development are applications such as; ‘MYUSA’ - a digital services
platform for people to manage ongoing transactions with Federal Government services, and
‘FBOPEN’ which helps small businesses search for opportunities to work with the US
government - a concept that could be of interest to businesses in the North East of England.
North American cities have considerable amounts of open data available. Chicago was the
first municipality in the USA to have a Chief Data Officer (CDO)
(http://beyondtransparency.org/chapters/part-1/open-data-in-chicago-game-on/) - this
made a statement about the importance of the open data initiative. Perhaps the North East
of England or Newcastle City Council should appoint a CDO to illustrate that they are serious
5

about open data in the region/city. Chicago launched its open data portal
(https://data.cityofchicago.org) in 2010 and since then it had over 15.6 million views.
Between 2012 and 2013 open data downloads grew from 2 terabytes to 6.4 terabytes – an
increase of over 200%
(http://www.socrata.com/case-study/chicago-growing-open-data-economy/).
Since then many other cities in the USA have open data portals, for example New York City,
Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Detroit. The quality of data in these cities varies as some cities,
for instance Chicago and New York, update their portals very regularly. These cities also
release varied data sets, some of which are rather unusual and their purpose and usefulness
can be questioned. However the open data on San Francisco’s data portal is of less use to
residents and businesses because many of the datasets are saved as files that are less
common on standard computers, thus this prevents people from being able to extract the
data and acts as a barrier to access open data. Therefore if open data were to be opened up
in the UK or North East, it must be ensured that the file types are familiar with the
population, such as HTML or XSL.
Canada also hosts its own national open data portal (http://open.canada.ca/en) containing
varied datasets. The focus is on “create greater transparency and accountability, increase
resident engagement, and drive innovation and economic opportunities through open data.”
Within Canada most major cities, (Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary) have
open data portal, however the quality and amount of data is at different stages.
Different approaches
In most cases local governments and mayoral offices provide the open data. Socrata
provides the platform for most open data portals within the USA, and is continually pushing
for further data to be opened since they argue only when all available data is released will
the full potential of open data be maximised (http://www.socrata.com/company-info/).
Any business can release data to the public for free access. Code For America has been at
the forefront of unleashing open data by non-governmental organisations.
http://www.codeforamerica.org/apps/ has many applications available for public use. For
example ‘Development FastPass’ combines parcel data, land use, zoning, building
occupancy, and business incentives to help business owners research the best options to
locate their businesses within Las Vegas. This has dramatically improved efficiency of Las
Vegas companies.
Examples
In most US cities they have several open data sets available, organised into many categories
such as; business, local government, education, health and transportation etc. These can be
of great use to local communities and businesses by creating their own featured projects.
In Chicago they have developed a traffic tracker using the GPS in city buses. They track the
average speed at which buses are travelling along roads and relay this back to a central
system which allows local residents to access real-time traffic/speed information on the
streets of Chicago
(https://data.cityofchicago.org/Transportation/Chicago-Traffic-Tracker-Congestion-Estimate
s-by-Re/t2qc-9pjd). This has helped businesses in Chicago to improve productivity as they
can avoid congested areas. Furthermore Chicago has released the current salaries, names
6

and position titles of all City of Chicago employees. This could enable businesses in Chicago
to identify certain socio-economic groups and support them with their marketing strategy.
In New York City the Mayor’s office has released governmental open data. There is a
spreadsheet available of the demographic, social, economic and housing by community and
district in the five New York Boroughs
(https://data.cityofnewyork.us/City-Government/Demographic-Social-Economic-and-Housin
g-Profiles-b/kvuc-fg9b). For example anyone can see that there are 2,922 people working in
manufacturing in Manhattan District 6. Furthermore there are 3,982 people unemployed in
Brooklyn District 4. In addition to this the demographics are also broken down into zip codes
and shows how many residents claim benefits. This could assist businesses in the City with
their marketing campaigns when it comes to targeting different demographics.
There is also open data that has led to the development of an application called Tunnel
Vision; which uses turnstile and schedule data to get travel information from the subway
when users hold their smartphone over a map. The map then comes to life
(http://www.tunnelvisionapp.com). Moreover open data on traffic cameras has been
released so anyone can view any camera in New York City via their smartphone. This can
enable residents and businesses to plan their journeys more effectively.
In Philadelphia open data on enterprise zones is released. An enterprise zone is a specific
federal area designated to attract and support businesses in blighted areas (high
poverty/unemployment) (https://www.opendataphilly.org/dataset/enterprise-zones). This
information being readily available for businesses can support their planning and growth as
they can easily identify locations where they may receive some tax relief or incentives.
In Chicago open data has led to the creation of start-ups such as: Purple Binder which
aggregates social services information so healthcare professionals have an up-to-date source
of data available to their clients: DataMade which creates apps for the city: Cartografika
which uses building footprints datasets to create maps for the city.
(http://www.socrata.com/case-study/chicago-growing-open-data-economy/).
However open data has also been beneficial to existing companies, for example Rob Paral &
Associates. They have been in the business of social services policy consulting for more than
25 years, but thanks to open data they have enjoyed greater efficiencies and capacity
expansion. This highlights how open data can not only help start-ups flourish, but can also
be of vital benefit to existing businesses, which can lead to higher and more prosperous
economic growth.
Open Chicago also hosts weekly hacknights and hackathons at Chicago Startup Hub 1871
whereby developers and other participants are challenged to find solutions to civic problems
using data. The hacknights include presentations by local innovators and generate a huge
amount of interest, so much so that they are often standing-room only. Furthermore the
Office of the Mayor attends these nights to converse with the developers; Brenna Berman,
Commissioner and Chief Information Officer at Department of Innovation & Technology for
the City of Chicago says that, “Through open data, Chicago has been able to serve residents
in the 21st
century. The growth of the open data portal has been exciting for those in
government and the entire city.”
7

Open data in Africa:
Open data in Africa is widely available on the http://opendataforafrica.org/ website,
however there is a large range of quality and quantity of open data between nations. For
example Bunkina Faso is ranked 59th
with a 36% open data score, Nigeria is ranked 73rd in
the world with the government receiving a 29% openness rating according to the global
open data index (http://index.okfn.org/), however on the same scale Algeria doesn’t even
appear. The World Bank has also provided a range of open data for African countries.
The Government in Bukina Faso set up their institute for open data in the summer of 2014,
this institute now has 140 data sets from 28 public sector organisations. This was done to
make the new government – following a popular uprising against the previous long standing
president – more accountable and transparent. They use this open data to compare and
evaluate local schools according to performance and amenities to target resources to the
schools most in need in the “our schools, our data” project. Following a $300 thousand grant
from the World Bank the government is also looking to expand the open data information
available with a focus upon drought risk, which aims to help businesses and individuals alike
in this largely agrarian society. The focus on open data is hoped to boost jobs in the IT sector
and is pivotal in preventing corruption and fostering trust in government.
(https://theodi.org/what-is-open-data).
(http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2015/03/12/open-data-in-burkina-faso-2/).
In Nigeria they use open data in the Follow the Money initiative, this initiative collects,
publishes, and visualises data on government spending and aid spending.
(http://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/open-data-ground-nigeria-s-follow-money-initiative)
Open data is also being used to track funds given to communities in the wake of 2012 floods
which occurred in Nigeria. (http://followthemoneyng.org/floodvictims.html).
Open Data in Europe:
Quality of data
Europe has been granting access to huge amounts of open data. According to the open data
index (2014), among the top ten countries for the open data, 6 of them were from Europe.
This includes the UK, Denmark, France, Finland, Norway and Germany, respectively. The UK
heads the top of this index.
The EU have taken initiatives which include making sure the relevant legal framework and
the policies are data-friendly, and also making sure that the public resources and research
data infrastructures are extensively shared, used and developed. The EU has started to
realise the potential of open data and the need for development using the open data.
Therefore, they are implementing new strategies to drive innovation. One example includes
Horizon Prize, which is offering up to €100,000 for development of a food scanner which will
provide important feedbacks on a scanned food. This will, in the long run, help to prevent
health related problems such as obesity, diabetes etc.
Examples
FlightRader24
8

Further examples include FlightRader24, which is a Swedish company that provides real time
flight tracking service. The data used in FlightRader 24 is gathered through a network of
7,000 ADS-B receivers around the world. Which are used to track the live position of the
flights. It gained wide recognition and usage by the media during 2014 following several high
profile airline crashes. In 2012 this helped to expose the Malaysian Prime minister when he
took a private trip to the US and Italy and did not include the expenses in the annual report.
Using FlightRader24, the media was able to find that the private jet of the prime minister
stopped in US and Milan which helped to expose the act.
SmartCities
Due to growing population and greater economic burdens, more innovative strategies are
demanded to improve quality of life. It is important to boost the efficiency and reduce the
cost through the usage of open data. The open cities and Common for Europe projects seeks
to provide solutions for these administrative problems. Coordinated by ESADE Business
School, the ultimate goal of these European projects is to enable open innovation
mechanisms in the public sector in seven European cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin,
Bologna, Helsinki, Paris and Rome
One of the initiatives of Amsterdam smart cities includes the mobile based app Mobypark,
which allows owners of public spaces to rent out the parking spaces for a fee. This will not
only help the resident to find parking spaces but also helps the government to determine
the demand of parking and the traffic flow of the city. Furthermore, the street lights of
Amsterdam have been upgraded which allows the municipalities to control the level of
brightness of the street lights based on the pedestrian usage, thus reducing the wastage of
electricity. Amsterdam also monitors real time traffic and informs motorists on the current
travel time on certain roads. Similar initiatives are also used in Stockholm. In order to
increase the usage of open data further, Amsterdam organises app development
competitions to create apps based on government data in order to improve quality of living
even further.
Improvements attributed to the use of open data include; using natural resources more
efficiently in farms, improving efficiency and productivity in shops and better traffic
management by live tracking the traffic flow and making the required changes. Also,
improvements in the diagnosis and decision making processes in medical departments is
made possible by analysing data and finding the best and most efficient problem for a
medical issue.
9

United Kingdom
It is estimated that by 2017, the use of data will create 69,000 new jobs in UK alone.
Which will help to reduce the 5.4% (ONS, 2015) unemployment rate in the UK. Gault and
Koers (2015), suggested that open data will further improve research and speed up
innovation.
Despite high usage and utilisation of open data in Europe it is necessary that there is
efficient utilisation of open data in order to achieve their long term goal of strengthening
economies and improving the standard of living. Open Data has reached different stages in
different regions of the UK. Some regions/cities are very advanced, and some still have a
long way to go to truly experience the benefits of open data. The United Kingdom ranks in
first place in the worldwide open data index (index.okfn.org), with 97% of governmental
data available. The UK leads the way in publishing accessible data on everything from flood
risks to late trains and it is changing British industry. In January 2010 the UK Government
launched ‘data.gov.uk’ a project to make available non-personal UK government data as
Open Data. There are now more than 9,800 datasets available through ‘data.gov.uk’ from all
central government departments and a number of other public sector bodies and local
authorities (https://www.mrs.org.uk/article/item/1136). However, to take full advantage of
open data local authorities must do all they can to encourage easy access and awareness. In
this section we will present our findings for the current situation in all areas of the UK.
Scotland
Scotland has made significant progress in publishing open data. Almost all the districts in
Scotland have their own council to push the open data strategy. However, there are less
open data companies in Scotland compared to other regions in UK.
(http://theodi.org/diverse-uk-companies-open-data)
Availability of open data
Public sector organisations across Scotland are publishing their key open data sets and
making the metadata available through the Scottish Spatial Discovery Infrastructures.
(http://scotgovsdi.edina.ac.uk/geonetwork/apps/tabsearch/) Authorities including Glasgow,
Edinburgh and Aberdeen City have been working to make much wider sets of data from
their cities open and available for re-use. For example, Open Data Scotland is a program that
has involved four of Scotland’s local authorities since Spring 2014 - Edinburgh, Aberdeen,
East Lothian and Clackmannanshire. In South West Scotland the Crichton Institute is leading
on a regional approach.
Different approaches
National actions include providing training, developing a resource pack (The resource pack
will be a living document which will include case studies, examples of best practice and
guidance on wide range of areas including; publication plan template, creation and use of
metadata, format and available technologies, licensing.) and Data Discovery Website, and
etc. What’s more, they have come up with the Digital Public Services Measurements and
Benefits Framework in order to assess the progress.
(http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Economy/digital/digitalservices/MandBframework)
Examples
1. Active Aberdeen and MatchTheCity
10

The app Active Aberdeen allows users to find activities to do based on their preferences. It
was based on the dataset MatchTheCity, which was developed by Aberdeen City Council to
hold a standardised set of data about venues and activities taking place at these venues.
MatchTheCity has been enhanced to allow people to create their own organisations and add
their own events for people to find out about. This worked as a very good demonstration to
encourage other data holders to make their data available.
2. Clackskids
Clackskids, developed by Clackmannanshire Council, is a mobile friendly web app that can
provides a quick and useful means of identifying childcare options available to parents and
carers. It can map, filter and search services based on location, category, pricing, age,
schedule and keywords. Services available on Clackskids include sport clubs, scout groups,
nurseries, and support groups.
Northern Ireland
Not included in the UK National Action Plan, Northern Ireland has not been at the forefront
of open data to date. However it developed an open data portal which provides easy access
to the procedural information published by the Northern Ireland Assembly and is based on
the Assembly Information Management System (AIMS), a central database which records
and publishes information on MLAs and the procedural business of the Assembly. The
Assembly IS Office has developed this site to provide the public with access to Assembly
procedural information in a user-friendly way.
(http://www.nicva.org/article/new-open-data-culture-northern-ireland)
Examples
In 2014, DETI and DFP run the 'Northern Ireland Open Data Challenge' competition aimed at
finding new and innovative ways to use open data. It had over 30 applications involved with
the winning pitch by Datactics showcasing an app which helps make tourism data more
usable for tourists, tourism providers and policy makers
(http://www.northernireland.gov.uk). For example, the Bank of Ireland (NI) use Datatics
technology to import, standardize, cleanse, address enhanced and de-duplicated its
customer data, one transparent approach that has enhanced the bank’s confidence in the
SVC solution, empowering it to constantly monitor and analyse data quality.
(http://www.datactics.com/perch/resources/bank-of-ireland-3.pdf)
New strategy for open data
In February 2015, DFP Minister Simon Hamilton unveiled a strategy document for the
implementation of open data as a default. This strategy contains the framework and
principles by which the government aims to build capacity for delivering open data. The
implementation of this strategy will build capacity for open data in Northern Ireland and
develop an open data ecosystem with public sector bodies being proactive in publishing
their data. This will drive innovation across public and private sectors and encourage new
commercial opportunities. (http://www.dfpni.gov.uk)
11

Wales
Open data in Wales is still in its initial stage with only one government data page of the 22
local authorities. The most available data is found with the Programme for Government
which provides access to data in an easily accessible format, however the volume of data is
rather small and of niche interest. A search on data.gov.uk returns 4216 published datasets,
nearly 1/3 of which are made available under open government licence.
(http://thesatorilab.com/2015/02/the-birth-of-open-data-in-wales/)
Examples
In 2013, a commission from the Welsh Government resulted in new functionality for
Mapumental, which can plot transit times from multiple points and provide raw data for GIS
applications. For example, transit times by public transport to secondary schools in Wales
are available on the map so that the public can find how accessible the nearest schools are
regarding the country’s mountainous landscapes, rural populations, and sometimes
infrequent bus services (https://www.mysociety.org).
North West
In the North West of England there are also clear attempts to improve open data
accessibility. Open Data Manchester is an organisation ‘for people who are interested in
realising the potential of open data to benefit residents, businesses and public bodies in
Greater Manchester and beyond’. It is a diverse community of developers, activists, artists,
journalists and public sector employees. It holds regular meetings, hack days and
information events which are generally free and open to all. This encouragement has led to
the creation of companies such as Swirrl which aims to create data solutions for
organistations that want to open up their data (http://opendatamanchester.org.uk/).
Also in Manchester, the GMDSP (Greater Manchester Data Synchronisation Programme) has
been established. This is described as ‘a ground-breaking linked open data programme to
allow the free flow of data between public sector organisations across Greater Manchester,
and to create a public facing mechanism for the release of open data’. 5 councils in the area
are working together on this programme to create resources and toolkits based on open
datasets which highlights the importance of cooperation in releasing open data
(http://futureeverything.org/projects/greater-manchester-data-synchronisation-programme
/#about).
Elsewhere in the North West, Lancashire County Council embarked on an open data project
in 2013 with the focus of releasing previously unpublished data and developing the back
office and front-end delivery to make its use more efficient. In a review of this project the
council found that it was too early to tell what the impact has been but it provided a
platform to build upon, and a structured and robust process to do this
(http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/11655/Lancashire+Evaluation+for+LG+Open+D
ata+Breakthrough+Project+final.pdf/a3b3e436-8738-45cc-8697-cbbf45cfaef7).
12

Yorkshire & Humber
In Yorkshire, a new open-data platform has launched in Leeds with backing from the Cabinet
Office’s Release of Data Fund and Leeds City Council. Leeds Data Mill aims to kick start a new
generation of data-driven cities and businesses, and has already helped a Yorkshire creative
consortium secure Nesta funding to rollout a second data mill in York in the autumn. The
project is believed to be the first platform in the country to bring together open data
information from a range of sectors across the city, uniting public, private, and third sector
data. By collecting open data from multiple sources in a single website, Leeds Data Mill
enables people and organisations to explore the different complex relationships between
the city’s services and businesses, offering a greater insight into the workings of the city than
ever before.
Following the government’s open-data ‘Whitepaper’ in 2012, which encouraged local
authorities to publish open-data sets, Leeds City Council has published over 60 in
collaboration with Leeds Data Mill, many of which have never been seen before. Data sets
include ten years of hourly footfall in Leeds city centre; every fine issued to vehicles for
unauthorised use of bus lanes or illegally parked; six years of completed road works; five
years of completed planning applications; and road traffic accidents since 2009. It is hoped
that by autumn 2014 over 100 different open-data sets will be available to download by the
public, and will be of special interest to anyone who is interested in defining ideas,
conceiving solutions and prototyping services that can improve the quality of life in Leeds
(http://www.information-age.com/technology/applications-and-development/123458025/o
pen-data-set-transform-yorkshire-cities-launch-%E2%80%98data-mills).
Sheffield city council also has a clear policy on open data and is working closely with the
Open Data Community and other partners to publish a number of datasets in a simple
format. The Air Quality+ project has been set up by the council to ‘paint a big data-driven
picture of air quality in Sheffield’ and is one of a number of projects to show how open data
can be used to improve the city
(https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/your-city-council/policy--performance/how-we-will-deliver/o
ther-strategies-plans-and-policies/open-data.html). In a recent Nesta publication, Leeds,
Sheffield and York were 3 of only 5 areas determined to have excellent open data
availability, highlighting Yorkshire’s efforts to be leaders in the field of open data.
East of England
Open data is less developed in east of England compared to other regions in the UK. All
regions have their own open data online landing pages, but only South Cambridgeshire and
Peterborough have open data portals. (http://www.owenboswarva.com/localopendata.htm)
Important figures of open data in east of England can be found on open data communities
websites.(http://opendatacommunities.org/showcase/dashboard) Open data portals are
seperate portals fro open data, whereas landing pages are where the open data is
incorporated into a councils exisiting website.
In Cambridgeshire, there is a specific project, which is called ”Open data business” and
aimed at using open data to push business development. East of England forecasting model
(http://www.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/eefm) is also available on the data portal and it
can be of great help to know more about the economic trends. According to the open data
13

assessments published by http://gb-city.census.okfn.org/, Cambridge ranked the second
among UK cities.
Though Suffolk doesn’t have its own data portal but it does have an online data landing page
on which there is an abundance of available open data. Take the data of active enterprise as
an example. The data ranging from district level to East of England level are
machine-readable and quite useful in xls format.
(http://www.suffolkobservatory.info/IAS/dataviews/view?viewId=295)
Open data is developing faster in Peterborough and there is a data portal with a large
amount of datasets. What is worth mentioning is that the public can not only acquire data
on the websites but also compare data and check the data trends through different charts
which are produced automatically.
(http://data.peterborough.gov.uk/)
East Midlands
The East midlands has 2% (5) of all open data companies in the UK and a number of cities in
the area have made a concerted effort to improve the provision of open data.
Nottingham has made data from the location of bus stops to council tax bands and charges,
provided in spreadsheet format (CSV) and when applicable in GeoJSON, which is used in
mapping software. This publication of open data has led to a series of websites being set up
such as “My Property” which gives information about your property and the surrounding
area including information such as when bin collection day is, council tax bands, school
catchment areas, local doctors and the location of libraries. There is also a report a problem
application which is used to report problems such as broken street lights, there is an
interactive map and it is possible to see if the problem has already been reported. Another
app called “there’s a rat in the kitchen” uses open sourced information from the food
standards agency to show the food standards rating. Nottingham was rated top in a census
on open data in cities conducted by Oliver O’brien a researcher at UCL Department of
Geography.
(http://www.opendatanottingham.org.uk/dataset.aspx?id=2)
(http://www.opendatanottingham.org.uk/gallery.aspx)
Derby Council has next to no open data available, only 4 datasets are provided and these are
the ones which are required under the open data agenda. However there are a range of file
formats available.
Leicester city council have a moderate amount of open data available, more than Derby but
less than Nottingham. They have however built in a programme which allows the data to be
input into a map making it easy to analyse trends and see patterns, however this looks to be
a work in progress as currently only 3 datasets have been implemented in this format.
West Midlands
Quality of open data
According to open data index West Midlands accounts for 5% of the open data companies in
the UK, which puts it in 5th place after London, South East, East and North West
(http://theodi.org/diverse-uk-companies-open-data). The West Midlands has its own
dedicated website for data (http://opendatawestmids.org.uk/). However, a separate city
14

council website also provides specific open data about individual cities. All the open data is
provided in PDF, or CSV format so that it is easy for the public to access and understand. For
most of the cities such as Wolverhampton, they do not have adequate amount of open data,
other than the usual expenditure, budget and financial statements. For smaller towns like
Walsall, they do not have any open data in their council website, rather they have just
provided links of open data communities and data.gov. Dundly provides information about
the number of public toilets and their locations. Coventry provides information on all the
government-owned CCTV cameras and Birmingham city council offers an adequate amount
of open data, which consists of information such as fixed assets register, payments over
£500, financial budgets etc. They also provide maps which show the routes where gritting
services are provided so that residents of the city are aware of maintenance of their roads.
South East
In the Southeast of England, almost every county provides easy access to governmental
data. Buckinghamshire county council provides a website to deliver open data services
where spending on items and services over £500, contracts and tenders, councillor
allowances and senior salaries can be found.
Similarly, East Sussex in Figures (ESiF) publishes the latest social, economic and demographic
statistics of East Sussex and its communities. Local authority provide information on sport
and leisure facilities, libraries, local transport and open spaces, they also have information
on opinions about local services, internet connection by region and the accessibility
indicators provided by the department of transport.
ESiF allows the users to view and analyse data in various different ways. For example, the
area profile function can be used to look for data or information about a specific area within
East Sussex (a ward, parish or, district).
Hampshire and Kent county councils also publish a range of information. Local authorities
collect and also publish a wide range of data for use by a variety of clients including the
councils themselves, other local organisations, business and the wider community. These
pages; produced, maintained and populated by the Research and Intelligence group provide
information on a series of catalogues but much of this data is centered around government
spending such as senior officer salaries, spend over £500 and contracts details to help
improve trust and understanding among residents.
Examples
It is reported that 27 companies in southeast of England (accounting for 18% in total) use,
produce or invest in open data as part of their business, using desk research, surveys and
interviews about their experiences, to make huge economic benefits. Government open
data are the source for 70 per cent of these businesses.
Transport API is a company that deal with transport information from thousands of sources.
It makes the packaged data available for a fee and its technology is also used by developers
to create transport apps. It is already turning over almost £500,000 a year.
Another business, Geolytix, has packaged and mapped information on more than 10,000
supermarkets in the UK and shared it as open data. It is now being used by chains to identify
market competition and opportunities for new stores.
15

In the case of Shoothill, a Shrewsbury software company, residents in flood zones, especially
in southeast of England, can monitor local river levels at 15-minute intervals with GaugeMap
— derived from Environment Agency data.
Generally speaking, open data has gained increasing importance in Southeast of England.
South West
In the south west region of England there is a relatively small level of access to open data ,
which is provided by each county’s council. However, the question is how useful are they
and what those open data are used for. According to the Open Data Institute
(http://theodi.org/diverse-uk-companies-open-data), there are only 3% of open data
companies in the South West, which is very low compared to London and the South East,
which consists of 51% and 18% respectively of all open data companies in UK.
Availability of data
Open data in this region is available in every county’s website. Data is often purchased by
the government from research companies and made public (open data). Almost all the
counties provide detailed data on parking spaces, financial reports and detailed
expenditures, which includes the details of the over £500 expenditures by the council.
Cornwall includes reports of cost of living and edge of poverty, which shows the households
which are struggling to meet their living expenses and are at the edge of poverty. Cornwall
further includes reports of Financial Stress which identifies an individual’s potential to
become over-stretched and struggle with further payments.
Compared to other counties, Bristol has more open data available and more usage. For
example, there is access to a map which helps to find any available electric car charging
spots nearby.
London
Quality and examples of open data
One may expect that London to be the most advanced in the UK when it comes to open
data. Indeed it has a very thorough open data portal called ‘London DataStore’
(http://data.london.gov.uk) with some datasets comparable to that of New York City, for
example statistics covering demographic, economic, social, and environmental for each
London borough (http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/london-borough-profiles). However,
some raw data collected in the 2011 census, such as housing, is not available due to the ONS
requiring a special license for it to be reproduced, therefore some data is only summarised
in report form or via infographics
(http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/2011-census-infographics).
The Office of the Mayor of London, controls the London DataStore which is updated
frequently. For instance, there is daily economic data available on housing, the labour
market and travel. Also, there is a nightly ‘Rough Sleeping’ report updated and published
everyday (http://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports). Within London a few borough
councils also have open data portals, specifically; Camden, Barnet and Surrey County. Many
other boroughs have the more simplified data landing pages
(http://www.owenboswarva.com/localopendata.htm).
16

Other datasets available include indices of multiple deprivation by London borough which
also includes the income scales in different boroughs, this could be useful for businesses
when it comes to targeting different socioeconomic groups. Data available on
apprenticeships by London borough is also open, which could be of vital importance as many
small businesses are complaining of a skills shortage. However this dataset could be
improved by publishing including what exact qualifications are obtained.
London has hosted hackathons similar to that hosted in Chicago, specifically “Flood Hack”
which was organised by Downing Street in February 2014 and was attended by Microsoft,
Facebook, & Google as well as local developers. It was focused on newly available flood
sensor data released by the Environment Agency. The aim of the hackathon was to solve
how the open data can be used to prevent further flooding in the UK
(https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/02/23/flood-hack-developing-solutions/).
Releasing open data promotes innovation and competition. For example Transport for
London releases open data on public transport, which has enabled local developers to create
their own applications. TransportAPI, Placr and BusMapper are all applications that would
not exist without TfL releasing the data that is core to their services. Therefore had TfL not
released this data and created their own application, there would be nothing competing
with it and there would be a lack of consumer choice. TfL would effectively have a monopoly
over the data which would remove the possibility for competition to increases firms’
efficiency and enable them to produce at a lower average cost in the long run, leading to
lower prices for consumers.
Other businesses that are based in London that use open data include; Adzuna, a job search
site; Doorda, specialising in local news, crime, and road safety; GeoLytix, a location planning
and spatial targeting business; Mime Consulting, a specialist data consultancy firm; and
Spend Network, specialising in government purchasing data procurement. Appendix 1,
figure 1.1 shows the location of 139 open data companies based in London. Camden,
Westminster, and Hackney are the most populous of Open Data companies within the
capital.
Open Data can enable “civic enterprise” whereby the private sector uses open data to
develop services that originally were provided by local councils. Civic Enterprise is going to
be essential as further budget cuts to local governments budgets’ are expected.
17

Data in the North East
The north east only has 1% (2 of 270) of the UK’s open data companies (companies that use,
produce, or otherwise invest in open data as a key aspect of its work. It could be a data
publisher, making data open for others to use. It could be a user, creating services with data
made available by other platforms. Or it could be an enabler, training or advising others in
how to work with open data.) (http://theodi.org/diverse-uk-companies-open-data)
Sunderland
Sunderland city council has taken a leading role in the provision of open data, recognized by
the cabinet as the only open data champion in the Northeast. They have also hosted
hackathons to explore how open data can be used to help tackle child poverty. The council is
also trying to imitate the apps for democracy scheme pioneered in the USA. Although they
have provided a large amount of open data, the data is on the council's website and is under
the heading “public data” which means it could be difficult to find. Sunderland can improve
their provision of open data by encouraging the use of the data they have provided.
(http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/feb/01/sunderland-council-open-data-
social-local)
(http://www.thejournal.co.uk/business/business-opinion/ted-salmon-north-east-can-93444
61) (http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4112)
Sunderland have partnered with Palantir in order to help open up their data at the cost of
around £5million, one reason Sunderland has performed so much better in terms of open
data is that they received a large sum of money as they are a deprived area, they have more
available funds than other councils.
Newcastle
Newcastle city council has shared its spending data (as required by law) on its website,
however it is in a PDF format which is difficult for machines to read (something that is
important for potential app developers or information service companies) and also seems to
be taking a very minimal approach to open data. Newcastle should focus on opening up
more data and making it more accessible.
(http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/your-council-and-democracy/open-data-and-access-to-infor
mation)
The north east does already have an app for its metro and bus services called nexus which
publishes any delays to services and also allows journeys to planned in advance and the
quickest modes of transport to be utilised. (http://jplanner.travelinenortheast.info/nexus)
Newcastle is, however, currently in the process of running 10 hackathons.
Durham
Durham has some open data available on the national data website of data.gov.uk but no
local portal or directory of open data. The search “open data” returns no results on Durham
county council’s website! Durham council needs to release and understand the possibilities
of open data.
Northumberland
Northumberland have 26 datasets on their open data portal and encourage people to make
the most of the open data, although the website is a good start it still seems to be in its
18

infancy. More datasets should be added in order to catch up with sunderland and the data
that has been released should. (http://opendata.northumberland.gov.uk/about/)
Gateshead
Gateshead’s open data is on the opendatacommunities.org website and does not have a
data portal or webpage of their own. The datasets provided here are mostly based around
the finances of the council, wellbeing and deprivation. In order to improve their data usage
the gateshead council could set up their own site for open data and improve the range of
data provided.
(http://opendatacommunities.org/showcase/dashboard/local_authorities/metropolitan-dist
rict-council/gateshead)
North Tyneside
North Tyneside are the second best in the region for their release of open data, their landing
page is relatively extensive, they are also partnered with Engie who recently sponsored a
“connect the city” hackathon in order to develop an app in order to help citizens understand
community services available to them, 4 prototypes were developed over the course of the
weekend and business partnerships were created after the event to continue to utilise open
data.
Reasons for the North East to develop open data
There are a huge number of reasons for local government in the North East to invest in open
data. The provision of open data leads to a range of useful information being made available
for citizens, such as that made available in ClacksKids, AirQuality+ and GaugeMap. This
information improves quality of life and also general economic prosperity. Open data also
makes local government more transparent and can foster participation as seen in the Follow
the Money initiative. Open data is a huge driver for business growth, it is estimated that it
could be the source of 69,000 new jobs in the UK in 2017. New firms such as Adzuna,
Geolytix and Purple Binder can be set up but existing firms can also take advantage of
increased open data, such as Rob Paral and associates. More efficient planning, production
and processes can also be adopted by government as well as the private sector following the
release of open data through services such as Smart Cities, Safecast and MobyPark. There
have also been examples where government investment in open data has been subsidised
by private companies, such as the York Data Mill which has received funds from Nesta, the
Open Data Institute have also previously invested in open data projects, so releasing credible
and useful open data may be even cheaper than previously envisioned. Furthermore, new
combinations of data can create new knowledge and insights which can lead to new fields of
application as companies begin to understand their markets more clearly. Finally, the
release of open data is likely to save the government money in the long run. For example,
My Property provides useful information for property owners in an easily accessible format
that otherwise may have had to be asked for directly from the council. The North East can
use open data to help residents report problems in their neighbourhood and give
information on sites that the council is currently working on.
Methods to improve open data availability and utilisation
There are a number of ways which local councils can use to stimulate the use of open data.
Firstly, councils should ensure that there is a large amount of open data available, subject to
an open license and also available in a range of formats. Some cities have helped to
19

encourage this and the use of their data through the appointment of a chief data officer and
also by providing resource packs for those interested in open data, as has been done in
Scotland. If the datasets can be compared on a map it helps to find trends between datasets
which has been used in Leicester among others. Data such as social, economic and housing
situations by area are especially useful as they help businesses target the best demographics
for their products and can lead to websites such as that in London which allows
apprenticeships to be searched for by area. It is important that explicit targets and a range
of frameworks are laid out for developing open data. This led to increasing efficiency in the
release and exploitation of open data in Northern Ireland. Hackathons, such as those
currently run by Sunderland County Council, and hacknights which run weekly in Chicago are
examples of ways to foster participation and the use of open data. Similarly, financial
incentives, similar to those offered by the EU, can lead to increased competition and vastly
improved use of open data. Councils can work together to release open data, similar to the
Greater Manchester Open Data Synchronisation Programme. It is also important for councils
to encourage companies to release their open data, such as transport companies who will
find that if they release their timetables and other information, competition in the market
will allow the helpful apps to be created similar to TransportAPI or BusMapper.
20

Data Analysis
§ All data analysis refers to figures presented in Appendix 1.
Figures 2.1 and 2.2 show that GDP of USA grew gradually throughout the whole time
period. Similarly, the value of GDP in the UK also increased but more substantially in 2014 of
9.85%*, considerably outperforming the other six members of the G7, particularly Japan and
Canada whose GDP declined in 2014. Total GDP of Japan was larger than other countries
except for USA. However Japan experienced a tremendous decline in GDP of 17.38% in 2013
and 6.47% in 2014. It is also noticed that Italy suffered a decline in 2012 of 8.91%, along with
France and Germany of 6.33% and 5.83% respectively, before increasing in the latter period.
Generally speaking the UK economy remains relatively stable for the past five years
compared with other developed nations.
*These figures are based on ‘The World Bank’ data in order to compare with other G7 countries,
however the ONS calculates UK GDP Growth in 2014 to be 2.6%.
(http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/gva/gross-domestic-product--preliminary-estimate/q4-2014
/stb-gdp-preliminary-estimate--q4-2014.html)
Figure 3.1 highlights how recent GDP growth figures for all UK regions is positive, with
Scotland having the highest quarterly growth of 0.6%. The North East has the joint highest
quarterly growth in England of 0.5%, along with the North West. Annual growth for the
North East is strong at 2.8%, however London surpasses all other regions with annual growth
of 3.7%. The East of England had the lowest quarterly growth of 0.2%, and Yorkshire &
Humber had the lowest annual growth of 2.3%.
Figure 4.1 shows that 2012-2013 was a poor year for many UK regions with the East
Midlands, East of England, South West, Wales and Northern Ireland all experiencing a fall in
the number of business in their regions. Despite this the North West saw a rise of 10.99% in
the number of businesses, and North East businesses grew by 1.74%. 2013-2014 was a more
positive year for business growth with all regions except for Scotland experiencing expansion
(Scotland saw a decline of 1.04%). The highest business growth was seen in Wales, which
grew by 12.51%. The North East had the highest business growth rate in England at almost
12% (11.96%).
Figure 4.2 shows different business growth rates at different GDP growth rates. Plotted
between these is a regression line that illustrates projected business growth for a given
value of GDP growth. For example if GDP growth is 2%, then it would be expected for the
number of UK business to grow by approximately 3%. However actual business growth can
vary considerably, as shown by the outliers on the graph.
From figure 5.1 it can easily be inferred that construction and professional, scientific and
technical activities take a large proportion of the total business in the North East, with
approximately 18.5% and 14.5% respectively. Other industries including manufacturing,
wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, administrative and support activities
and education account for about from 7% to 10%. It should be highlighted that mining and
quarrying and other necessities only plays a minimal part with about 1.1%.
21

Figure 5.2 displays the percentage of small business in a specific industry. In all industries,
small businesses play an important role in each industry and account for over 95% of total
businesses. Whereas it can be easily noticed that the percentage of small business in
manufacturing is the lowest compared to other industries despite small businesses also
making up the largest part.
Generally speaking, 5.1 and 5.2 show the great importance of small businesses in North East
industries and it cannot be denied that small businesses have huge potential in the coming
years.
As figure 6.1 represents, the North East has a considerably higher unemployment rate at
7.7% than other regions in the UK. The UK average is 5.8%, and so the North East is almost 2
percentage points higher than that average. The South East and East of England have the
lowest unemployment rates. All figures are from the March-May 2015 period.
From figure 6.2 it can be inferred that the percentage of people who want a job among
those inactive in the labour market is around 23% in most regions, except Northern Ireland
which has the lowest percentage with only 15.7% of economically inactive people wanting a
job. Nearly all UK regions are over 20%, in particular the North East where 25.6% of those
whom are economically inactive wanting a job, which is just below the figure of London at
26%.
The time-series graph of figure 6.3 highlights how North East unemployment has been
consistently higher than the UK average since 1992. In the 1990’s there was a relatively large
gap between the North East rate and the UK average, and in June-August 2000 the gap
reached a record 4 percentage points. Although in the mid 2000’s the North East
unemployment rate started to converge slightly with the UK rate, and the gap reached a low
of 0.4 percentage points in March-May 2006. However then the financial crisis in 2007
caused the credit crunch and thus recession, UK unemployment increased and North East
unemployment rocketed to 12% in September-November 2011. Since that time though the
unemployment rate has been gradually increasing along with the UK average.
Figure 6.4 shows that the North East has a lower proportion of people in employment in
Standard Occupational Classification 2000 (SOC2000) major groups 1-3 than the UK as a
whole. For example this includes managers, professional occupations, and professional
associates. Although the North East has a higher proportion of people in employment in SOC
groups 4-9. The North East has particularly high numbers of people working in skilled trades
and elementary occupations. The biggest occupation group in both the North East and the
UK is group 2, professional occupations. The occupation group with the smallest proportion
of people in employment in the UK and the North East is group 8, Process Plant & Machine
operatives.
From figure 7.1 it is clear that the North East has a lower proportion of resident population
with an NVQ 4 equivalent qualification, compared with the UK as a whole (28.4% compared
to 35.8%). However the North East does have higher proportions of NVQ 3, Trade
Apprenticeships, NVQ 2 and NVQ 1 equivalent qualifications than the UK as whole. This
could represent the North East having less academic qualifications but more vocational
qualifications. Although the North East does have a higher proportion of the resident
22

population with no qualifications whatsoever, 10%, whereas in the UK combined 9% have no
qualifications.
Figure 8.1 displays different regional weekly pay in the UK. It is obvious that full-time
employees in London earn the highest salary with £617.80 a week, followed by the South
East with £567 per week. However, in most of the other regions, the weekly payments are
under £500, especially the North East region, where people earn the lowest weekly wages of
£477.10, except for Northern Ireland who earn £456.80 per week.
Figure 8.2 demonstrates the comparison of average weekly earnings between the North East
and the UK. We can easily see that the weekly salary in North East remains consistently
lower than the UK average, despite there being an upward trend throughout the time
period.
Figure 9.1 emphasises that the majority of UK regions (and the UK as a whole) have a
persistent trade in goods deficit. Scotland tends to always have a trade surplus because of
North Sea Oil exports, and so does Wales because of its many ports. The South East and
London have the biggest trade in goods deficits – close to £50 million and £40 million
respectively. The North East is the only region in England that continually has a trade
surplus; this highlights how the North East sells more goods to the rest of the world than it
imports, meaning it is a net creditor with the rest of the world and therefore a net benefit to
the UK economy. The North West did have a trade surplus in 2012 however this is likely to
be an abnormality. ‘Unknown’ includes exports/imports that cannot be classified to a single
region.
Figure 9.2 includes the 10 Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) categories for
trade in goods, numbered 0 to 9. Moreover figures 9.3 and 9.4 are two pie charts displaying
these SITC categories in terms of North East exports and imports in goods in 2014. They are
shown as a percentage of total value of exports - not volume. It is shown that ‘Machinery
and Transport’ is the biggest industry in the North East for global trade, with it accounting
for 54.7% of exports and 51.9% of imports. ‘Chemicals’ is the second most exported sector
and ‘Miscellaneous Manufactures’ the second most imported sector. The North East does
not export any ‘Animal and Vegetable Oils’ and it only accounts for 0.04% imports, therefore
is the smallest sector for the North East for global trade.
The bar chart in figure 9.5 displays the net trade in goods balance in the North East for each
of the SITC categories. It is clear that ‘Machinery and Transport’ and ‘Chemicals’ both
achieve big trade surpluses of approximately £2.6 billion and £2.4 billion respectively, whilst
the biggest trade deficit is ‘Miscellaneous Manufacturers’ of approximately £750 million.
‘Manufactured Goods’ and ‘Other Commodities’ also achieve of surpluses, whereas ‘Food
and Live Animals’, ‘Beverages & Tobacco’, ‘Crude Materials’ and ‘Mineral Fuels’ have deficits.
Also of interesting relevance is North East net trade with each country group which is
exhibited in figure 9.6. The North East being a net exporter in goods is emphasised by the
fact that it has a trade surplus with each country group in the world except for Asia and
Oceania, where it has a deficit of £857 million. The North East’s biggest trading partner is by
far the European Union of whom it has a trade surplus of over £2.5 billion, and second is
23

North America (£829 million). Therefore the North East is net creditor to every country
group in the world except for Asia & Oceania of whom it is a net debtor.
The ODI has surveyed 270 Open Data companies in the UK, which enables us to do some
data analysis on open data companies. Firstly the ODI has segregated them into regions,
represented in figure 10.1. It is clear that London has the highest concentration of open data
businesses, followed by the South East and then East of England. The North East is second to
last out of all UK regions, beating only Northern Ireland (just). There are two open data
companies in the North East compared to 139 in London. If the North East is to lead the way
in open data then it needs to be an attractive region for open data to companies to start-up
and locate.
Also highlighted in figure 10.1 is the total number of all companies in each region of the UK
(the red line), and as shown the North East has the lowest number (56,425) of companies
out of all regions in the UK. Therefore the appeal of locating in the North East is considerably
lower than other parts of the country. Incentives need to be created in the region in order to
attract businesses, such as the skills of the workforce, with potential employees having
qualifications in STEM subjects. There also needs to be suitable infrastructure in place (both
technological and physical), as well as investment in the economy.
Figure 10.2 demonstrates how of the 270 open data companies surveyed by the ODI, over
half of them (54%) are in the ‘Information & Communication’ industry. Second (21%) are in
‘Professional, Scientific, & Technical services’, followed by ‘Business Administration &
Support Services (11%). Of the open data companies surveyed, none of them worked in the
motor trade, property, agriculture, forestry & fishing, nor accommodation & food services.
However this does not mean there is no place for open data in these industries, as open data
could help existing businesses in these industries improve their services by streamlining their
operations and improving efficiency or expanding capacity. Compared to all UK companies,
the highest proportion (17%) are ‘Professional, Scientific, & Technical services’, whereas
‘Information & Communication’ only accounts for 8%, of all UK companies, thus the fact that
54% of surveyed open data companies are in this industry highlights how open data can help
the industry grow and prosper.
One may assume that all open data companies are recent start-ups, although this is not the
case as indicated in figure 10.3. 39% are more than 10 years old, and 34% are between 4 and
9 years old. Meanwhile only 10% are less than 2 years old. This represents that open data is
not a recent concept and has been used to generate profits for many years, however
perhaps it is only now in 2015 that open data is getting the widespread push from national
government, emphasising the potential that open data can bring to all companies of any age.
Perhaps of particular interest to the FSB is that of figure 10.4. 88% of open data businesses
are defined as ‘small business’ (by EU defintion
http://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/business-friendly-environment/sme-definition/index_en.
htm), since they have 50 employees or less. These open data companies could, or may
already be, members of the FSB and could use their services. Only 8% of open data
companies surveyed are classed as ‘large’ businesses by having more than 250 employees.
24

Figure 10.5 shows that 50 of 79 open data companies surveyed process open data, 47
provide insights based on open data, and 45 develop products based on open data. Only 32
of the 79 publish open data, which is what the government wants to be a lot higher, because
if more companies publish open data, then the greater effects of open data will be
exacerbated and felt throughout the country. It is worth noting that multiple responses were
allowed among surveyees.
Figure 10.6 represents what types of open data these companies are using, the majority
(57%) are using geospatial/mapping data, this could be anything from Ordnance Survey to
the Land Registry, for example. Those are just governmental examples, other
non-governmental examples include OpenStreetMap and Traveline. Also popular forms of
open data are transportation (43%) and environmental (42%), and these could include data
released by the Department for Transport or The Environment Agency. It is clear from the
graph that there are many opportunities for businesses to use open data in their daily
operations to improve efficiency. The least used open datasets used by those surveyed is
manufacturing data. Again, multiple responses were allowed.
25

Appendix 1
Figure 1.1: Location of 139 London Open Data Companies by Borough
Data Source: Surveyed by the ODI (http://theodi.org/open-data-means-business)
Figure 2.1: GDP of G7
Data Source: The World Bank
(http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?page=2)
26

Figure 2.2: GDP of G7
Data Source: The World Bank
(http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?page=2)
Figure 3:1: UK Regional GDP for Quarter 1 2015
Data source: RBS calculations using ONS Data
(http://www.rbs.com/news/2015/june/regional-growth-tracker-q1-2015.html)
27

Figure 4.1: Regional Business Growth
Data source: Business Population Estimates for UK Regions 2014
(https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/business-population-estimates-2014)
Figure 4.2: UK Actual & Predicted Business Growth given GDP Growth
28

Figure 5.1: North East Businesses per Industry
Figure 5.2: North East Small Businesses per Industry
29

Figure 6.1: Regional Unemployment:
Data source: North East Labour Market Profile
(http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/gor/2013265921/report.aspx#tabwfjobs)
Figure 6.2: Economically Inactive People who want a Job per Region
30

Figure 6.3: North East Unemployment
Figure 6.4: North East Employment by Occupation
31

Figure 7.1: North East Skills
No Qualifications: No formal qualifications held.
Other Qualifications: includes foreign qualifications and some professional qualifications.
NVQ 1 Equivalent: e.g. fewer than 5 GCSEs at grades A-C, foundation GNVQ, NVQ 1, intermediate 1 national
qualification (Scotland) or equivalent.
NVQ 2 Equivalent: e.g. 5 or more GCSEs at grades A-C, intermediate GNVQ, NVQ 2, intermediate 2 national
qualification (Scotland) or equivalent.
NVQ 3 Equivalent: e.g. 2 or more A levels, advanced GNVQ, NVQ 3, 2 or more higher or advanced higher national
qualifications (Scotland) or equivalent.
NVQ 4 Equivalent And Above: e.g. HND, Degree and Higher Degree level qualifications or equivalent.
32

Figure 8.1: Regional Weekly Earnings
Figure 8.2: North East Weekly Earnings
33

Figure 9.1 Regional Trade
Data source: HMRC – uktradeinfo
(https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/RTS/Pages/default.aspx)
Figure 9.2: 10 Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) categories
§ Colours correspond to pie charts in figure 9.3 and figure 9.4.
34

Figure 9.3: North East Exports by SITC* Figure 9.4: North East Exports by SITC*
*Refer to figure 9.2 on colour category definition.
Figure 9.5: North East Trade Balance by SITC Section
35

Figure 9.6: North East Net Trade by Country Group
Figure 10.1: Open Data Companies Location
Data source: Open Data Institute (2015) Open data means business: UK innovation across
sectors and regions. London, UK. Available at http://theodi.org/open-data-means-business

36

Figure 10.2: Open Data Companies Industry Classification
Figure 10.3: Open Data Companies Age Figure 10.4: Open Data Companies Size
37

Figure 10.5: Usage of Open Data Companies
Figure 10.6: Types of Open Data Companies

38

FINAL REPORT

Recomendados

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

La actualidad más candente

La actualidad más candente (20)

Destacado

Destacado (19)

Similar a FINAL REPORT

Similar a FINAL REPORT (20)

FINAL REPORT