News 5th September 2018

Public consultation on draft UK Open Government Action Plan 2018-20 launched!

by Andreas Pavlou

Launched today, the draft UK National Action Plan for Open Government 2018-2020 is now open for public consultation. The draft text is open to comment by citizens and civil society until 3 October 2018.

This is part of the commitment from the UK, as a founding member of the Open Government Partnership, to create a National Action Plan setting out specific reforms to enhance transparency, civic participation and public accountability every two years.

The eight draft commitments on open government come after discussions between Government officials and open government civil society groups, aiming to develop and refine ideas that came out of a crowdsourcing phase. The UK Open Government Network (OGN) is preparing its response to the consultation.

In implementing previous plans, the UK became the first G7 country to commit to the Open Contracting Data Standard for contracts administered by a central purchasing authority, making public the entire process of awarding public sector contracts – from bidding right through to building. And the UK led the world in creating an open register of beneficial ownership in its previous plan, ensuring citizens can see who owns what in Britain.

The launch was preceeded by a productive meeting between UK OGN Steering Committee members and Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, Margot James, earlier in the day where open government and the action plan were discussed.

Following the launch of the consultation, Minister for Digital Margot James said:

“The UK’s National Action Plans for Open Government have delivered bold, innovative commitments which have helped make us even more transparent and inspired other governments around the world.

I want us to maintain that spirit of leadership, and urge members of the Open Government Network, civil society and the public to share their feedback as we develop our fourth plan.”

More information available on the UK Open Government Network website.