I cannot speak to what other governments that do not have crown copyright do in that instance. I think they absolutely have no protection whatsoever. The information can be used by any requester as the person sees fit. Part of our role--this is the policy--has been the administrative processes we undertake with departments for some validation of why the information is being requested. Is the information going to be used in an abusive way? Is the information misleading? How is the information going to be promoted or adapted?
Only 5% of the requests for crown copyright are denied, so 95% are freely granted. There's also what we call “fair dealing”. Any citizen, any person, can take information from a government publication and use it in a citation, provided the person indicates the source. There is no requirement for anyone to request copyright to use that information.