2016-18 Open Government Action Plan implementation meeting | 30 November 2017 | Meeting note
On 30 November 2017, members of the OGN’s steering committee and government commitment leads met to review the implementation of the 2016-18 Open Government Action Plan and the UK OGP process. This note of the meeting was produced by the Cabinet Office. You can read the commitment updates here: https://www.opengovernment.org.uk/resource/og-nap-2016-18-november-2017-commitment-progress-updates/
Attendees
| William Gerry, Government Digital Service (GDS) Thom Townsend, GDS Wasim Akhtar, Cabinet Office Alice Moore, GDS Joanna Dale, Crown Commercial Service (CCS) |
Tim Hughes, Involve Andreas Pavlou, Involve Gavin Freeguard, Institute for Government (IfG) Rachel Davies Teka, Transparency International UK |
Update since last meeting
Will outlined some of the key events since the last meeting in July:
● Publication of over £100bn of government grants data in October
● Publication of the Freedom Of Information (FOI) Code of Practice consultation in November
● UK represented at OGP Steering Committee events alongside the UN General Assembly in New York in week of 18 September
● Members of the Open Government Network Steering Group met with the Minister for Government Resilience and Efficiency, Caroline Nokes on 2 November.
Tim raised that it was now likely that the next OGP Global Summit will be held in early June 2018 in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Discussion of the latest updates from the current National Action Plan
Commitment 1: Beneficial ownership
Rachel asked whether there was any further information about when the response to the consultation would be published.
Commitment 2: Natural resource transparency
Will highlighted that civil society had raised a couple of points to clarify the latest update. These will be incorporated into the final updates.
Commitment 3: Anti-Corruption Strategy
Rachel raised that she and representatives of the BOND group had met with the Joint Anti- Corruption Unit (JACU) to discuss the latest on this.
Commitment 4: Anti-Corruption Innovation Hub
Rachel asked whether there was more details on the timelines around this commitment. Will said that the team are advising ministers and working with JACU.
Commitment 5: Open Contracting
Jo provided a verbal update alongside the written update, particularly highlighting the progress made around publishing identifiers in the open data releases.
Commitment 6: Grants data
Wasim highlighted the progress in publishing the grants data in October. Civil society had asked for more information around the award data being released on data.gov.uk as not being compliant with the 360Giving Standard. Wasim has raised it again with data.gov.uk, the data will be updated shortly. There was a further question about the data for FY17/18 being published in line with the 360Giving Standard. Wasim confirmed that it would be. He was unable to confirm how many departments this would cover.
Commitment 7: Election data
Will highlighted that the election results data standard has now been approved by the Government’s Standards Hub. Tim raised that the sticking point – ensuring the Election Management System suppliers integrate the now-developed data standard into their system – has remained the same since earlier this year. Will raised that the LGA and Cabinet Office would be working together in the first half of next year to try to be ready for the May 2018 local elections.
Commitment 8: Freedom of information code of practice
Will highlighted that the Code of Practice is now out for consultation. The Cabinet Office FOI team will be contacting OGN members to invite them to respond to the consultation. Tim raised that there was a missed opportunity for the FOI team to work with engaged civil society organisations when drafting the code of practice.
Commitment 9: Identifying and publishing core data assets
No verbal update on this.
Commitment 10: Involving data users in shaping the future of open data
Civil society asked whether lead OGN organisations would be involved in the drafting of the engagement plan for open data. Will said that he would be working with key organisations, such as the ODI, mySociety and the IfG in early 2018, and would welcome others participation.
Commitment 11: Better use of data assets
No verbal update on this.
Commitment 12: GOV.UK
Alice recapped the written update, and provided greater detail around the work around the GOV.UK taxonomy. Tim asked about the discovery into the needs of those who scrutinise government – “scrutineers”. Alice relayed an update, including the key finding that scrutineers struggled to follow the policy development journey.
Commitment 13: Ongoing collaborative approach to open government reform
GDS and the OGN have been working together to begin planning the development of the next NAP – more detail is below.
Update on the plans for developing the next National Action Plan
● The OGN and GDS are working together to launch a NAP at the OGP Global Summit in early June 2018.
● The OGN will soon be launching an online platform to gather proposals for commitments for the next NAP. This will be complemented by a series of workshops around the UK in January and February 2018.
● GDS and OGN will be formally launching the process of co-creating the NAP in early 2018.
● The OGN will also be running an event in Belfast in March 2018 looking at key thematic areas, and how open government can help achieve progress.
● GDS are advising the Minister on the process of co-creating the plan, and how she can be involved at key points.
● OGN and GDS will be having regular coordination meetings to maintain momentum during the planning process. When the OGN have identified its key priorities for the NAP, we will work together to enable relevant officials to work with civil society experts to develop commitments and specific milestones.
AOB
Will highlighted that the final deadline for comments on the draft mid-term self assessment report was 5pm on Friday 1 December. The final report will be published on GOV.UK before the end of the year.