1.4 The Cabinet Office is the lead policy department, with the following main roles:
• Overall coordination and monitoring. This includes defining the scope of the agenda and formulating next steps. The Cabinet Office has completed a consultation on open data and is preparing a White Paper for spring 2012. It monitors departmental compliance with transparency commitments and reports progress to the Public Sector Transparency Board.
• Secretariat to the Public Sector Transparency Board. The board advises, supports and challenges public bodies in implementing transparency. It is designed to ensure that users and experts have a voice in how transparency initiatives are implemented.
• Bringing together Whitehall officials to embed transparency across government. The Cabinet Office arranges a practitioners group and a senior officials group.
• Shared responsibility with HM Treasury for policy and guidance to departments on the standard transparency releases. HM Treasury leads on policy for spending-related releases, while the Cabinet Office leads on the other standard releases outlined in the Prime Minister's letters on transparency.
1.5 Although the Cabinet Office undertakes a lead role, other organisations have responsibilities that contribute to the agenda's success, including other departments who are responsible for their own data releases (Figure 2). Responsibilities for some important elements of programme management are not clear. The Cabinet Office did not prepare an overall policy impact assessment at the outset, and there has been no systematic effort to assess the costs of implementing transparency initiatives or the benefits that result.
Figure 2 | |||
Public body | Key responsibilities | ||
HM Treasury | Leads on policy and issues guidance for standard spending-related transparency commitments. | ||
Department for Communities and Local Government | Published The Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency,1 outlining its expectations of what local authorities should publish. | ||
Selected departments | Work with the Cabinet Office to agree scope of commitments in Prime Minister's letters on transparency. Responsible for releasing agreed data. Operate sector-specific transparency boards, which advise departments on implementation. | ||
The National Archives | Has central policy responsibility for the re-use of public sector information. Regulates and sets standards on the use and re-use of public sector information and information management. Promotes the re-use of public sector information through the UK Government Licensing Framework and the Open Government Licence. | ||
Information Commissioner's Office | Regulates information rights legislation, including the Freedom of Information Act. In the light of the transparency agenda, the Act is being amended as part of the post-legislative review process to create a new public 'right to data'. | ||
NOTE 1 Department for Communities and Local Government, The Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency, September 2011, available at www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1997468.pdf | |||
Source: National Audit Office |
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