NAP5 16th June 2021

NAP 5 – Open Contracting – Wk 3 – Read out

by Guest

As part of the co-creation process of the UK’s fifth National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP5), thematic areas agreed to during the Multistakeholder Forum in March 2021 have been turned into biweekly Working Groups. These Working Groups bring together government policy leads and civil society, and are charged with developing commitments for inclusion in NAP5.

The third NAP5 Open Contracting Working Group was held on June 32nd, 2021 at 14:00 BST. The meeting was co-chaired by civil society and government.

The group was invited to a Mural board to prioritise the suggestions that arose out of the first two sessions. Suggestions that placed highly in both feasibility and impact included:

  • FOI extended to contractors
  • Clear, written guidance on redactions
  • Transparency in Commodities Trading
  • Data from CF and FTS should be published in OCDS compliant BI dashboards
  • Upskilling frontline local procurement teams
  • One procurement data standard for government

The group was then invited to edit and make suggestions on a draft commitment, focusing on describing how the potential commitment would solve a public problem, and outlining which departments and civil society groups would be responsible for delivery. Time scales for delivery of the commitment over the two year period covered by NAP5 will be established at a later date.

There was consensus to broadly group an eventual commitment around the following areas:

  1. Public Procurement Green Paper
  2. Quality structured open data (OCDS, debarment, identifiers, thresholds)
  3. FOI and simple contract language
  4. Infrastructure projects
  5. Natural resource transparency
  6. NHS/DHSC

The group had a collaborative discussion around data standards and possible opportunities to focus a commitment in that space. Due to time constraints, participants were directed to the OGN’s Open Contracting Forum to continue the discussion ahead of the fourth meeting. The draft commitment google document and Mural board have also stayed open for additional information and discussion.

For additional details or to get involved, please contact: