Openness as a Value

Eleanor StewartHead of TransparencyForeign & Commonwealth Office@digenghmgPersonal Democracy Forum, Kiev 22 June 2016

Today the UK is seen as an exemplar for open government

• Ranked no 1 in world • First to have an open data portal : Data.gov.uk

– Used data to drive efficiencies in public services – Used data to improve accountability

• Legislated on release of data in addition to the Freedom of Information laws

• Mandated Digital by default & open document formats• Core member of the OGP and working with partners in 28

countries • Created the ODI to build and support start-ups/data users. • Developed positive working relations with Civil Society • Citizens use open data daily without releasing it

Magna Carta 1215• Citizens not Subjects • Everyone subject to

the law including the King

• Right to a fair trial • Check on the crowns

ability to levy taxes• 25 Barons elected

Bill of Rights 1689• laws should not be dispensed with or suspended

without the consent of Parliament; • no taxes should be levied without the authority of

Parliament; • the right to petition the monarch should be without

fear of retribution; • no standing army may be maintained during

peacetime without the consent of Parliament;• Protestant subjects may have arms for their defence

as suitable to their class and as allowed by law; • the election of members of Parliament should be free; • the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in

Parliament should not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament;

• excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted;

• jurors should be duly impannelled and returned and jurors in high treason trials should be freeholders;

• promises of fines or forfeitures before conviction are void;

• Parliaments should be held frequently.

Hansard 1812

The edited records of all parliamentary debates, votes, written ministerial statements and answers from the Houses of Commons and Lords since 1812.

But more recently…

• 1994 code of practice on access to government information

• 1997 white paper “Your Right to Know”• 2000 Freedom of Information Act

But…

Missing Records :

Wasting Public Money:

Power of Information Taskforce 2008-09

The 4 “Opens”

Open information. To have an effective voice, people need to be able to understand what is going on in their public services. Government will publish information about public services in ways that are easy to find, easy to use, and easy to re-use, and will unlock data, where appropriate

Open innovation. We will promote innovation in online public services to respond to changing expectations.

Open discussion. We will promote greater engagement with the public through more interactive online consultation and collaboration. We will also empower professionals to be active on online peer-support networks in their area of work.

Open feedback. Most importantly, the public should be able to have a fair say about their services.

Information Thirst

• Growth in desire for information

• Rise of data journalism

• Demand for accountability

New Technology

The start of work on data.gov.uk

Objectives• increase transparency• improve public services• release new economic and

social value and growth• make UK a global hub of skills

in the future of the Web

“So that Government information is accessible and useful for the widest possible group of people, I have asked Sir Tim Berners-Lee who led the creation of the World Wide Web, to help us drive the opening up of access to Government data in the web over the coming months".

Gordon Brown, 10 June 2009

Show Us A Better Way

1st Government Hack Day

Revised Licensing

By May 2010

• Austerity predominant political theme• Politicians keen to force greater accountability

on public sector (culturally and financially) • Social media/new technology becoming

mainstream (including for government) • Smartphone revolution underway• Had a data portal and had released c100

datasets; some csv’s some pdf’s• Data hadn’t been checked for

quality/consistency

Open Data = Transparency

Major Priority for Government “Greater transparency across Government is at the heart of our shared commitment to enable the public to hold politicians and public bodies to account; to reduce the deficit and deliver better value for money in public spending; and to realise significant economic benefits by enabling businesses and non-profit organisations to build innovative applications and websites using public data.”

David CameronMay 2010

Citizen Consumers

“Transparency Temple”

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Open Government

Data Users

Government releasing Open Data

Mandated PM Commitments• Names, grades, job titles and annual pay rates for most Senior Civil Servants with salaries above

£150,000 to be published • Names, grades, job titles and annual pay rates for most Senior Civil Servants and NDPB officials with

salaries higher than the lowest permissible in Pay Band 1 of the Senior Civil Service pay scale• Organograms for central government departments and agencies that include all staff positions to be

published in a common format• Names/titles of all Special Advisers, salaries where over Pay Band 1 • NDPB officials earning over £150,000• Local government officials earning over £150,000• Central government workforce including temps, consultants, etc. • Historic COINS spending data to be published online• New items of central government spending over £25,000 to be published online • All new central government contracts to be published in full • All new central government tender documents for contracts over £10,000 to be published on a

single website from September 2010, with this information to be made available to the public free• New items of local government spending over £500 to be published on a council-by-council basis • Full information on all DFID international development projects over £500 to be published online

from January 2011, including financial information and project documentation.• Government departments and agencies should ensure that any information published includes the

underlying data in an open standardised format. • Publish the energy use of government headquarters in real-time • New local government contracts and tender documents for expenditure over £500 to be published

in full • Crime data to be published at a level that allows the public to see what is happening on their streets • Value for money calculations of all government websites • Complete list of all Local Authorities and their contact details.

Also • Every department and Public body must have an

Open Data Strategy • All departments have had to identify what data they

hold• Prioritized data that was already in the public domain

in some form • Have had to redesigning charging models to make

data open • Built a data request mechanism• Began to look at a reform of the FOI laws to focus on

openness not exemptions

Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Pt6)

• Information must released in a reusable way

• Broadens definition of “dataset”

• Consolidates copyright and reuse guidance

• Defines criteria for charging for data

League Tables of departments reported to Parliament

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Looked for data that matters to citizens:

This is not easy for government:

What does this all mean?

Who is “government”

Where do my taxes go?

What do I get for it?

Links to thedocuments

Performance of healthcare providers

Reduced Mortality for Heart Surgery

Performance of law enforcement

Performance of individual schools

Transport

As a transport project alone, evaluated by usual economic criteria:ROI = 58:1

Administrative Integrity

Release of Company Data

Aid Transparency

In country impact:

Property Ownership

Geographical Data

Crisis Management

App Development

Travel industry

Start ups

Pesky People – 999 App for the profoundly deaf

Citizen Participation

Formal Participation

Where next?

Stimulate demand for data from business, citizens and public servants

Making sure data is truly re-usable and useful

Working to ensure Privacy of Personal Data

Promoting the use of Data

Informing and promoting dialogue and debate

Ongoing Challenges • Quality & Usability of the information/ data

we’re releasing (and technology we’re using)

• Overcoming fear of releasing information or engaging (political & official)

• Educating officials ; cultural change• Creating informed citizens and active

users/marketplaces• Changing landscape & technology

The challenge of open government:

“Government ought to be all outside and no inside…Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, avoids public places and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety” ― Woodrow Wilson 1912; The New Freedom