UK Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2016-18: Commitments from the Northern Ireland Executive
Published 7 December 2016
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1. UK Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2016-18: Commitments from the Northern Ireland Executive
- Commitment 1: Develop & trial effective open policy-making and public engagement methods
- Commitment 2: Promote greater levels of public sector innovation
- Commitment 3: To investigate implementation of the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) in Central Procurement operations
- Commitment 4: open-up government for greater accountability, improve public services and building a more prosperous and equal society
2. Commitment 1: Develop & trial effective open policy-making and public engagement methods
2.1 To explore, develop and trial creative and effective open policy-making and public engagement methods and share the learning across government.
Objective
To embed a culture of proactive and meaningful engagement with the public across government departments to ensure that the public’s’ input contributes in a meaningful way to policy formulation.
Status quo
The Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) faces a challenging agenda over the next few years. The delivery of priorities more than ever depends on the development and implementation of sound, effective and innovative policies. Key to our future in the public service is improving how we engage with the public. Despite the growing awareness of the benefits of effective engagement, there appears to be room for improvement, particularly in engaging stakeholders more openly in the very early scoping and initiation stages of policy development. Consequently, it is important for government to continue to explore and develop innovative approaches for engaging the public in formulation of policies that affect their lives
Ambition
To make public participation in government policy making more effective and meaningful.
Lead implementing organisation
Department of Finance
Timeline
December 2016 - May 2018
OGP value
Civic participation
New or ongoing commitment
New and ongoing
Other actors involved - government
Other Executive departments
Other actors involved - CSOs, private sector, working groups, multilaterals
Policy Champions Network, Open Government Network, Cabinet Office
| Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfill the commitment | New or ongoing commitment | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government and civil society to co-design a pilot project to test open policy making methodology locally, ensuring that the lessons learned from the pilot are documented and shared across government. | New | December 2016 | May 2018 |
| Support research and experimentation to create new tools or utilise existing tools and platforms that empower users to be fully active in the government policy making process. | Ongoing | December 2016 | May 2018 |
| Complete the on boarding process to encourage greater levels of uptake from all Executive departments and NDPBs to the NI Direct consultation portal. | Ongoing | Ongoing | May 2018 |
| Showcase best practice and innovative examples of public engagement in policy development across Executive departments. | Ongoing | December 2016 | May 2018 |
3. Commitment 2: Promote greater levels of public sector innovation
3.1 Develop a more innovative and entrepreneurial culture in the local public sector to address major societal and environmental challenges
Objective
Developing a more innovative public sector
Status quo
The local public sector faces significant challenges, which will require much greater degrees of innovation than it has traditionally deployed.
Ambition
Increasing the culture of innovation in the public sector will mean it will be more open, more agile and see a much greater degree of public participation
Lead implementing organisation
Department of Finance
Timeline
1 April 2016 - 31 March 2018
OGP values
Access to information; Civic participation; Public accountability
New or ongoing commitment
New and ongoing
Other actors involved - government
Department for the Economy, in partnership with other Executive Departments and the wider public sector.
Other actors involved - CSOs, private sector, working groups, multilaterals
Civic society, businesses, voluntary and community sector
| Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfill the commitment | New or ongoing commitment | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| In line with the Executive’s Innovation Strategy introduce a SBRI Challenge Fund to support public sector innovations | Ongoing | April 2016 | March 2017 |
| Seek to establish a New Executive Innovation Fund to support public sector innovation including SBRI and Challenge Prizes | New | October 2016 | March 2017 |
| Explore funding opportunities for Public sector innovation beyond the region | Ongoing | Ongoing | Ongoing |
| Explore opportunities for exemplar projects using data analytics to address voluntary, community, social enterprise, public and private sector needs | Ongoing | Ongoing | March 2018 |
| Explore opportunities for the Executive for projects under the Space for Smarter Government Programme | New | April 2016 | March 2018 |
| Develop a proposal for data analytics and research exploitation centre | New | April 2016 | June 2017 |
| Explore opportunities, such as Govcamp, for promoting cross border knowledge sharing and collaboration on digital government ideas and issues. | New | December 2016 | May 2018 |
4. Commitment 3: To investigate implementation of the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) in Central Procurement operations
4.1 To investigate implementation of the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) in Central Procurement operations.
Objective
To ensure data available on contracts awarded is available for use by stakeholders.
Status quo
An international standard - Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) has been introduced around contract data and this has not been implemented locally.
Ambition
The ambition is to establish whether it is practical for DoF Central Procurement Directorate (CPD) to implement the Open Contracting Data Standard moving forward.
Lead implementing organisation
Department of Finance
Timeline
January 2017 – December 2017
OGP values
Access to information; Open data; Public accountability
New or ongoing commitment
New
Other actors involved - government
Other Northern Ireland Civil Service departments
Other actors involved - CSOs, private sector, working groups, multilaterals
None
| Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfill the commitment | New or ongoing commitment | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoF CPD to explore a pilot project implementing the Open Contracting Data Standard | New | January 2017 | December 2017 |
| Develop visualisation tool with contracts data from CPD as part of the Open Data Strategy | New | January 2017 | December 2017 |
5. Commitment 4: open-up government for greater accountability, improve public services and building a more prosperous and equal society
5.1 To establish that all public sector data is Open by default (excepting personal, IPR, commercially or environmentally sensitive data).
Objective
To ensure that the Executive’s Open Data Strategy is embraced and adopted by all public sector organisations.
Status quo
To embed a culture of open by default and increase awareness and demand for open data.
Ambition
To increase the number of public sector organisations aware of open data and to encourage publishing of their data on OpenDataNI. Also to encourage the use of open data as a driver to economic growth, innovation and research, and increased Public Sector efficiency.
Lead implementing organisation
Department of Finance
OGP values
Access to information / Civic participation / Public accountability
Timeline
December 2016 – May 2018
New or ongoing commitment
On-going
Other actors involved - government
Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
Other actors involved - CSOs, private sector, working groups, multilaterals
ODI Belfast, NI Digital Catapult, Future Cities
| Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfill the commitment | New or ongoing commitment | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Increase the number of Showcases on OpenDataNI | Ongoing | November 2015 | May 2018 |
| Support an annual competition to derive and promote innovative services and products | Ongoing | June 2016 | May 2018 |
| Support and host engagement events between the public sector and the developer community to focus on issues and problems locally and use technology, innovation and open data to find solutions | Ongoing | June 2016 | May 2018 |
| Increase engagement with a number of partners such as ODI Belfast, NI Digital Catapult, universities, business and developer groups | Ongoing | June 2016 | May 2018 |
| Increase proportion of public sector agencies to have published open data | Ongoing | June 2016 | May 2018 |
| Increase the number of public sector staff trained in producing and publishing open data | Ongoing | June 2016 | May 2018 |
| Increase proactive publication of data from government departments | Ongoing | November 2015 | May 2018 |
| Publish 2 datasets as 4-star or 5 star linked Open Data as defined by W3C | Ongoing | June 2016 | May 2018 |
| Work with ODI Belfast and partners to encourage innovative uses of open data for new products and services | Ongoing | November 2015 | May 2018 |