Developing the 6th National Action Plan for Open Government (2024 – 2025)

As a national member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the UK is required to publish a National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP) regularly.

The process of developing the NAP was coordinated by the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), part of the Cabinet Office. It was co-created by government and civil society, the latter coordinated by the UK Open Government Civil Society Network (UK OGN).

Below is further details about the process of developing the sixth NAP, which was published on Monday 18th December 2023 on GOV.UK here.

Governance

The UK Multi-stakeholder Forum (MSF)

The UK MSF oversees co-creation and implementation of the UK’s NAP.

It met quarterly to oversee the development of the 6th NAP.

Attendees included civil servants from multiple government departments, members of the steering committee of the UK Open Government Network, and any subject matter specialists or network leaders of relevance to the development of the plan.

MSFs were co-chaired by the relevant government minister or senior civil servant, and the chair of the UK Open Government Network. From the government, Alex Burghart MP co-chaired one meeting with Sue Bateman, Chief Data Officer at the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) in the Cabinet Office co-chairing the rest. Kevin Keith, Chair of the UK Open Government Network, co-chaired on behalf of civil society.

Meetings are under Chatham House Rule. The Central Digital and Data Office in the Cabinet Office (as with the previous National Action Plan) were the secretariat.

Co-creation: The National Action Plan process

The process of civil society-government co-creation occurs over the following stages:

STAGE ONE: Planning for the process

Early planning is designed to ensure objectives are clear, stakeholders and their roles are defined, available resources are identified, and the timeline to completion is accurate. Research shows that a strong and inclusive co-creation process leads to well-designed and more ambitious commitments, but this requires sufficient resources.

What happened:

18/01/2023: Planning for the 6th NAP was discussed and co-creation was also highlighted as a resource-intensive exercise for civil society at the January MSF.
21/02/2023: The Open Government Partnership publish the UK Co-Creation Brief. This serves to support the co-creation process and design of the UK’s 6th NAP. It made the following recommendations:

Design a co-creation process that enables meaningful dialogue, while also being realistic and accounting for resource constraints; Develop a mechanism to gather input from a range of stakeholders, such as an open call for proposals from the public; Ensure that stakeholders have a clear understanding of the aims of each step of the co-creation process; Engage ministers throughout the co-creation process and ensure ministerial awareness of commitment proposals prior to the approval of the final action plan; Prior to adopting the final action plan, report back to stakeholders on how their contributions from the co-creation process were considered.

27/04/2023: The 2023-2024 co-creation timetable was discussed and the issue of resources was again highlighted at the April MSF

STAGE TWO: Outreach

Meaningful civil society-government participation relies on awareness of open government, the co-creation process and how to get involved. It is particularly important to consider the barriers to the inclusion of marginalised and habitually excluded groups when conducting outreach activities to ensure as diverse a set of stakeholders as possible.

What happened:

28/04/23: Publication of the timeline for the UK’s 6th NAP for Open Government.
12/05/23: Call for ‘bold’ ideas for NAP6 made. This was shared widely across national media, with coverage achieved in Politico, Hold The Front Page, UK Democracy Bulletin and on social media. It was also shared widely with civil society organisations. In parallel, CDDO solicited interest from government.
12/06/2023: 90+ ideas were received from civil society for NAP6. These are viewable as either a Google doc or Google Sheet (excluding those who did not want their idea published).

STAGE THREE: Action plan development – Analysing Inputs

Action plan development focuses on identifying commitments that will be included in the action plan, from analysing inputs, defining the problem, and identifying solutions, to reasoned response and finalisation.

16/06/23: Initial analysis from the CDDO of submitted ideas was produced to support discussion at the June MSF. It recommended: Open Contracting (Anti-corruption and integrity) and Budget Transparency focused on Aid Transparency be taken forward; ‘General’ anti-corruption and integrity, Beneficial Ownership (Anti-corruption and integrity), Digital Governance, Inclusion, Justice, and Right to Information to be discussed further; Political Integrity (Anti-corruption and integrity), Civic Space, Natural Resources, Open Parliament, and Public Service Delivery (including health) not to be taken forward.
22/06/23: A robust discussion of initial ideas collected during NAP6 outreach took place between government and civil society representatives at the June MSF. Alex Burghart MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office co-chaired part of this meeting.
20/07/23: All respondents to the Call for Ideas were written to by the Chair of the UK Open Government Network informing them of the outcome of the June MSF and which ideas would be progressed and notified of an Open Gov Meetup event to hear from the government.
03/08/23: Open Gov Meetup Almost 50 representatives from civil society were in attendance to better understand which commitments were progressing and why.
11/10/23: Draft NAP6 commitments circulated with MSF attendees ahead of October MSF.
18/10/23: Readout from the October MSF. A robust discussion took place in this meeting with regards to the publication date of the 6th NAP. It was resolved that it would be published in December 2023 in accordance with the OGP process.

STAGE FOUR: FEEDBACK AND REASONED RESPONSE

A reasoned response is the government’s (or MSF’s) reply to stakeholders who contributed to the action plan and to the public in general, which contains the reasoning behind decisions made on their contributions.

Once the plan is finalised, it will be published and submitted to OGP.

What happened:

14/12/2023: Updates on NAP6 and MSF Terms of Reference provided at UK OGN Steering Committee meeting
18/12/23: Publication of UK National Action Plan for Open Government 2024-2025.
18/12/23: Civil society leaders welcomed the publication of NAP6 in a joint news release.
04/01/24: Encourage feedback and reflection on the effectiveness of the co-creation process and lessons learnt: https://discuss.opengovernment.org.uk

CURRENT STATUS: Reasoned response and finalisation

Following the publication of the UK NAP6, the next MSF will take place on Wednesday 24th January.

The meeting will cover the final oversight of the delivery of the fifth National Action Plan (NAP5) and review NAP6 co-creation process.