Official OGP Documents 24th September 2015

IRM: United Kingdom Progress Report 2013-15

The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) produces biannual independent progress reports for each country participating in OGP.  The progress reports assess governments on the development and implementation of OGP action plans, progress in fulfilling open government principles, and make technical recommendations for improvements. These reports are intended to stimulate dialogue and promote accountability between member governments and citizens.

The UK’s 2013-15 IRM Progress Report covers the formation and first year of implementation of the second UK National Action Plan.

Ben Worthy, an academic based at Birkbeck College, University of London carried out the research. His findings are summarised below:

“The UK government wrote an ambitious action plan that involved civil society organisations closely in the process. The action plan contains a number of potentially transformative commitments, including a series of high profile international commitments on beneficial ownership, extractives, and international aid. Across the three OGP values, the UK action plan heavily emphasized access to information; the future action plan would benefit from focusing on vital issues such as surveillance and lobbying.”​