The UK government has announced the creation of a new data infrastructure programme, the National Information Infrastructure (NII) will allow users to access real-time public data as part of a move to increase transparency and government accountability.

The development of the NII is in response to an independent review into new ways to use information held by the public sector.

Peter Lawrence, deputy director of transparency and open data at the Cabinet Office, said: “We’ve developed a process to identify those datasets that are most useful to either business, or civil society, or government, to improve growth, public services and citizens’ lives”.

The announcement of the NII came as the Prime Minister urged UK businesses to follow an open data and transparent model.

David Cameron urges businesses to publish open data