UK Open Gov
The UK Open Government Network (OGN) is a coalition of active citizens and civil society organisations committed to making government work better for people through increased transparency, participation and accountability. The OGN mobilises and coordinates civil society to effectively advocate for open government reforms, and works with government to identify, develop and implements the UK’s commitments under the global Open Government Partnership.
BLOG | How do we Solve a Problem like Lobbying? | Dr Ben Worthy & Dr Michele Crepaz
Lobbying is a vital part of democracy but the perceived connection between money and politics has damaged UK politics since the 1990s. Over the last few years, there have been a slew of damaging high-profile lobbying stories, including the then Prime Minister not properly declaring interests, and one MP claiming to manipulate the rules to keep hospitality secret.…
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Joint Letter to the UK Prime Minister
The Rt Hon. Keir Starmer MP Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party Sent by email 9th July 2024 Dear Prime Minister Re: Open government can rebuild trust, support reforms, and drive efficiency. Our heartfelt congratulations on your appointment as Prime Minister. Your leadership comes at a pivotal time. We, as civil society…
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Joint Letter to the UK Prime Minister
The Rt Hon. Keir Starmer MP Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party Sent by email 9th July 2024 Dear Prime Minister Re: Open government can rebuild trust, support reforms, and drive efficiency. Our heartfelt congratulations on your appointment as Prime Minister. Your leadership comes at a pivotal time. We, as civil…
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BLOG | Dear next government, there is one way to rebuild trust… and it already exists | Kevin Keith
But the real question may be whether politicians trust us. In the first episode of Yes Minister in 1980, newly appointed Minister Jim Hacker sought to introduce a policy of Open Government to ‘take the nation into our confidence.’ He failed, of course, with his artful Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey musing that citizens have a…
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UK GENERAL ELECTION & OPEN GOVERNMENT
A public meeting for representatives of civil society organisations to discuss the recently called UK General Election, civil society manifestos, and the possibility of prioritising ‘asks’ and covering wider thematic areas, in addition to Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales, in a combined document. If you would like to attend email [email protected]
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Tim Davies | Exploring future UK open government actions on digital governance (Nairobi workshop)
I recently attended a workshop on governing new and emerging digital technologies, organised by the Open Government Partnership, in Nairobi, Kenya. Over the first 1.5 days we had the great privilege to hear from civil society and government presenters from across 11 countries about current digital governance actions, agendas and challenges.Then our focus turned to…
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Dr Ben Worthy | Is the UK More open?
From one point of view, the UK has been through an openness revolution. We take all this data for granted in 2024 but it’s important to remember what a difference it makes. If you wanted to find out, it was quite difficult. To take a very basic measure of democracy, if you wanted to find…
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Anti-corruption, aid transparency, and public procurement headline UK’s 6th open government plan.
Civil society leaders have today [18/12/23] welcomed the publication of the UK’s 6th National Action Plan (NAP) for Open Government, but stressed ‘more must be done.’ The biennial plan seeks to make the government more ‘open’ by increasing transparency, accountability and public participation in policy-making. It was created jointly by the government and civil society…
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UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum Read-out – 18th October 2023
The Multi-Stakeholder Forum is a regular meeting which takes place between between government and civil society. It leads the open government process within a country. The read out (produced by government) is below and the accompanying slide deck can be downloaded here. Aim of the meeting The aim of this Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF) was to…
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Key Takeaways from the Open Government Partnership’s 2023 Global Summit in Tallin, Estonia
I‘ve been providing support to the UK Open Government Network for almost half a year now. And yet, such is the breadth of open government, that I still feel like a relative newcomer. Attending the Open Government Partnership (OGP)’s 2023 Global Summit changed this, so I’m keen to share what I discovered. The summit…
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