Policy paper

UK Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2016-18: Commitments from the Northern Ireland Executive

Published 7 December 2016

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

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