Consultations

A consultation is a government request for opinions on various issues, be they proposed internal guidelines, draft legislation, or simply the route the government wants to take in a particular area.

Our list of current, open consultations explains what we are working on at the moment.

Consultations are usually distributed in the form of a draft document, and a list of questions about what people want out of the document, or what they think of it. Members of the public and organisations are invited to submit their take on the draft during a set period, and these opinions are then considered when looking at what the final version of the document is going to be. Replying to government consultations is of particular importance to the Open Rights Group and other advocacy organisations; it means we can get involved with shaping legislation without the need to contact all 650 MPs, and pre-emptively change (or seek to change) government policy. Consultations include topics of great importance; prior government requests we've responded to include subjects such as the Data Protection Act, RIPA and the current Freedom of Information legislation.

One of the areas volunteers can work on is drafting our responses to consultations - ensuring that the opinions we put forward are the ones our volunteers and donors share.

Current Consultations

Name	Department/Body	Subject	Date	Status
Communications Bill Consultation			2011	Working on

Past Consultations

Name	Department/Body	Subject	Date	Status
APIG DRM Inquiry	All Party Internet Group	Digital Rights Management	2006	Submitted
BBC.co.uk Public Consultation	BBC	Copyright, Digital Rights Management	2007
BBC On Demand Services Consultation	British Broadcasting Corporation	Digital Rights Management	2007	Submitted
Consumer Confidence in the Digital Environment	European Parliament	Digital Rights Management
Content Online in the Single Market	European Commission	Digital Rights Management, Anti-Piracy, Copyright licensing	2006	Submitted
Content Online in the Single Market	European Commission	Digital Rights Management, Anti-Piracy, Copyright licensing	2008	Submitted
Copyright in the Knowledge Economy		Copyright		Submitted
Data Protection Act Consultation	Department for Constitutional Affairs	Data Protection Act	2006
Data Protection Strategy	Information Commissioner's Office	Data Protection Act	2007	Submitted
Data Retention legislation	Home Office	Privacy, Data Retention, Data Protection	2007	Not submitted
Data Sharing Review Consultation	Independent Data Sharing Review	Privacy, Data Protection Act	2008	Submitted
Developing a copyright agenda for the 21st century		Copyright	2009	Submitted
Effective Consultation	Cabinet Office	Consultations	2007	Submitted
Framework Code of Practise for Sharing Personal Information	Information Commissioner's Office	Data Protection, Privacy	2007	Not submitted
Freedom of Information Consultation	Ministry of Justice	Freedom of Information	2007	Submitted
Freedom of Information Supplementary Consultation	Ministry of Justice	Freedom of Information	2007
Forensic Use of Bioinformation: Ethical Issues	Nuffield Council on Bioethics	DNA database	2007	Submitted
Gowers Review Consultation	Intellectual Property Office	Copyright	2006	Submitted
Impact of Surveillance and Data Collection upon the Privacy of Citizens and their Relationship with the State	Parliamentary Constitution Committee	Privacy, Data Retention, Data Protection	2007	Submitted
Legislative Options to Address Illicit Peer-to-Peer (p2p) File-sharing	Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform	Anti-Piracy	2008	Submitted
Personal Internet Security Consultation	Select Committee on Science and Technology	Internet Security	2006
Police and Criminal Evidence Act Review	Home Office	Biometrics, Privacy	2007	Not Submitted
Proposed Changes to Copyright Exceptions	Intellectual Property Office	Copyright	2008	Submitted
Public Service Broadcaster Consultation	Ofcom	Open Knowledge, Copyright, Digital Rights Management	2008	Not Submitted
Public Service Provider Consultation	Ofcom	Open Knowledge	2007	Submitted
RIPA Consultation	Home Office	Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act	2006	Submitted
RFID Consultation	European Commission	RFID	2006
Staying Safe	Department for Children, Schools and Families	Cyber-Bullying, online safety	2007
Towards a European Infrastructure for e-Science Digital Repositories	European Commission	Open Data, Copyright	2007
Transposition of Directive 2006/24/EC	Home Office	Data Retention, Privacy	2008	submitted