3 The Cabinet Office plays the lead role in promoting transparency across government. It is responsible for coordinating and monitoring implementation, secretariat support to a Public Sector Transparency Board, bringing together officials to embed transparency across government, and providing guidance on some of the releases required of all government departments. Many other bodies also play significant roles in implementing transparency, including other departments who are responsible for their own data releases, The National Archives, the Information Commissioner's Office and bodies in the wider public sector.
4 Governance arrangements have secured coordinated action, but have not yet focused on achieving value for money. The transparency agenda under this Government began as a coalition pledge with associated actions required of all departments to implement the policy: the Cabinet Office did not prepare an overall policy impact assessment at the outset. As the scope of the transparency agenda has developed, the Cabinet Office has published examples of the benefits of public data initiatives to support the strategic case for transparency, for example on its Open for Business website, but has not yet systematically assessed the costs and benefits of the Government's specific transparency initiatives. The Government announced in the Autumn Statement 2011 the creation of an Open Data Institute. Early plans for the Institute include a role to develop a fuller evidence base on the economic and public service benefits of open data.