Open Defra will have eight themes

Post: 11 July 2015

Open Defra, a recently announced UK initiative to release 8,000 datasets as open data within a year, will focus on the following eight themes:

  1. Animal Health and Welfare
  2. Countryside and Natural Capital
  3. Floods and Coastal Erosion Risk Management
  4. Food and Farming
  5. Marine
  6. Plant Health
  7. Resource, Atmosphere and Sustainability
  8. Water Environment, Services and Reform

This list was included in a letter circulated yesterday to Defra’s Evidence Directors, Chief Information Officers of Defra’s Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) and Data Governance Board members.

The letter has not been released publicly but the same list appears on an online pad maintained by the Cabinet Office team that runs Data.gov.uk.

The themes all broadly reflect Defra policy areas, but some organisations within the Defra Network are particularly associated with individual themes. Environment Agency holds most datasets related to FCERM, MMO holds marine data, APHA holds data about animal and plant health, etc. 

Resource, Atmosphere and Sustainability is a directorate within Defra that has oversight of air quality and noise data among other responsibilities. The last item on the list – Water Environment, Services and Reform – may suggest Ofwat is within scope of the Open Defra initiative.