OGN Letter: Letter to Margot James MP about ongoing delay to finalising the UK Open Government Action Plan
C/O Andreas Pavlou
UK Open Government Network
Involve
18 Victoria Park Square
London E2 9PF
Margot James MP
Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries
100 Parliament Street
London
SW1A 2BQ
1 May 2019
Dear Margot James MP
Ongoing delay to finalising the UK Open Government Action Plan
We write to you on behalf of the UK Open Government Civil Society Network to ask that you take action to unblock the ongoing delay to publishing the UK Open Government National Action Plan (NAP).
We remain concerned about the ongoing delay to the publication of the NAP, and consequently about the commitment of the UK Government to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) process.
Committing to and implementing open government reforms through the OGP process relies on active and meaningful collaboration between government and civil society, to develop and implement action plans in two-year cycles.
Your response on 11 March 2019 to our letter signalled publication of the UK NAP “at the earliest opportunity.” Since then however, there has been no indication from the UK Government that progress has been made on publishing the plan, despite saying government and civil society “have already begun working together to deliver objectives.”
The UK Government was unable to present the NAP at the previous OGP Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia, and there is a risk that the current impasse within government will mean that the NAP will not be published before the upcoming Global Summit in Ottawa, Canada on 29-31 May 2019. This could seriously damage the UK’s position as a global leader, as well as doing a disservice to domestic implementation of open government reform.
We ask that you take action immediately to unblock the impasse within government that is causing the ongoing delay, to enable the UK NAP to be published before the OGP Global Summit in Ottawa, Canada.
Yours sincerely,
The Steering Committee of the UK Open Government Civil Society Network