1.2 The Government has made three major policy announcements on transparency. The Prime Minister wrote two open letters to government departments in May 2010 and Secretaries of State in July 2011. Figure 1 sets out key releases that all central government departments have been asked to provide in these letters. Twenty-three of twenty-five commitments for central government, due by December 2011, had been met by that month. The Chancellor's Autumn Statement 2011,2 in November 2011, announced additional commitments, specifically supporting economic growth (see Part Four).
1.3 Alongside the standard requirements, the Government has also made a series of commitments about service-specific data releases in areas including crime and justice, international development, health, education and transport.3 Examples of recently published data include sentencing data by court, and GP prescribing data by practice.
Figure 1 | |
Commitments in Prime Minister's letter to government departments (May 2010) New items of central government spending over £25,000 published monthly All new central government contracts and tender documents for contracts over £10,000 Names, grades, job titles and pay rates for senior civil servants and non-departmental public body officials with salaries higher than £58,200 Organograms for government departments and agencies including all staff positions in a common format | Additional commitments in Prime Minister's letter to Secretaries of State (July 2011) All items of spending to include plain English descriptions of their scope and purpose Spending on government procurement cards for transactions of more than £500 All departments to work with Cabinet Office to produce an action plan for improving data quality and comparability |
Source: Prime Minister's letters to government departments (May 2010) and Secretaries of State (July 2011) | |