Policy paper

Open Government Partnership National: Action Plan 2013-15: End-of-term self-assessment report

Published 14 October 2016

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

1. Open Government in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom’s second Open Government National Action Plan 2013-15 (NAP) was launched by the former Prime Minister David Cameron alongside the Open Government Partnership Summit in London on 31 October 2013.

A collaborative plan created in partnership with the Open Government Network (OGN), a coalition of active citizens and civil society organisations, the NAP set out the UK’s vision for a more open government where the public:

• understand the workings of their government (‘transparency’);
• can hold the government to account for its policy and service delivery (‘accountability’);
• influence their government by engaging with policy processes and service delivery programmes (‘participation’).

It included ambitious commitments like the creation of a publicly accessible register of UK company beneficial ownership and enhancing the scope, breadth and usability of published contractual data. A summary of the completion status of each commitment is in Annex A.

To help inform this self-assessment we have consulted commitment leads inside government who are responsible for implementing the commitment. We have also sought views from wider government and civil society organisations via an online survey. The results of this survey are in Annex B.

Annex C shows how each commitment links to the Open Government Partnership grand challenges and values.

2. Implementation of the second National Action Plan commitments

The UK’s progress in implementing the commitments in our second Open Government National Action Plan is set out below. An indication of progress against milestones for each commitment is available here.

2.1 Commitment 1: National Information Infrastructure

The UK government will continue to develop and list an inventory of all the datasets it owns, whether published or unpublished, in order to identify the National Information Infrastructure (NII) – the datasets which are likely to have the broadest and most significant economic and social impact if made available. The identification of the NII will facilitate discussions to prioritise the release of these datasets.

Main objective: Through being transparent about what we own, and identifying the datasets which have the potential to have the broadest impact, the UK government will enable innovation to flourish and help drive growth.

End date: July 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: The Open Data User Group was consulted in 2014 to provide an external steer to government on the content and methodology of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). This piece of work resulted in a set of recommendations to government about the content of subsequent iterations of the NII including a series of NII user personas (open data users, large and small businesses, etc), thematic breakdowns (data about physical spaces such as roads/bridges, data about services such as broadband coverage, etc), and a list of sought-after datasets that weren’t available at the time, but should be included (flood risk data, Postcode Address File etc). Cabinet Office worked with three exemplar departments, Department of Health including Health & Social Care Information Centre (now NHS Digital), the Department for Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to understand the challenges and issues to bring the management of our most important data assets into a co-ordinated framework.

The ability for departments to list unpublished datasets, with description of their contents and potential release dates if applicable is up and running on data.gov.uk, as well as identifying datasets of national importance in the inventory. This will help identify priority datasets to publish in the future.

Next steps: This is a continuous improvement project. While the service to list and view unpublished datasets is live, improvements will be made as we go along. The UK government is regularly recognised for being a global leader in making public data openly available. We are determined to make sure that we keep producing high quality data and that we make it as accessible as possible. Data has become a part of our core national infrastructure, and a huge driver of innovation.

A key project going forward is the creation of registers. Registers provide a standardised way of storing and accessing data, independently of the technology platforms and digital services that use them. Our expectation is that over time they will form the basis of the government’s data infrastructure, helping people put government data to work.

Our first register, the country register, is already being used by services, e.g. the e-petition service. The alpha version of the register of local authorities in England is now available.

The NII project is just one aspect of the larger UK government approach to data prioritisation, and informs data inventories across departments to improve future publications as open data. It will also form part of the larger digital strategy for the UK government. Our data commitments in our new action plan reflect our approach to taking this work forward.

New commitment in the third National Action Plan
* Commitment 9: Identifying and publishing core data assets
* we will create a high quality national information infrastructure, making government data more secure and easier to find, store and access

2.2 Commitment 2: Health information standards

NHS England will work with governments and civil society organisations internationally to create an online space to share experiences of embedding high quality standards into information, with a view to building an accreditation scheme to enable citizens and organisations to assess their progress.

Main objective: To help NHS England and others to build, through this international engagement, an accreditation scheme that enables citizens and organisations to assess progress in ensuring high quality information standards.

End date: January 2015

Completion status: Withdrawn. There have been changes in the arrangements for information standards that mean that this work needs to be taken forward in a different way and with longer timescales than originally envisaged.

Work on information standards will be driven by the National Information Board (NIB), which has a dedicated workstream for ensuring the health and care sector has standards in place for all care settings. A framework was published in November 2014 setting out the future of this work, and a more detailed roadmap was published in November 2015. Work to develop the timeline to introduce new standards to complement those that already exist has started. More information about the NIB can be found here.

2.3 Commitment 3: Local Authority Transparency Code

The UK government will issue a revised Local Authorities Data Transparency Code requiring local authorities to publish key information and data. This will place more power into citizens’ hands and make it easier for local people to contribute to the local decision making process and help shape public services.

Main objective: To increase democratic accountability and make it easier for local people to contribute to the local decision making process and help shape public services.

End date: September 2014

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: In 2011 the government issued the Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency. It places more power in citizens’ hands, increases democratic accountability and makes it easier for local people to contribute to local decision making.

The scope and content of the 2011 Code was reviewed in 2012, and there was consultation on a proposed update. As a result of the consultation, the Government published a revised Local Government Transparency Code in October 2014, and further updated it in February 2015. Since October 2014, compliance with Part 2 of the Code has been mandatory.

To engage stakeholders in seeking to implement the commitment in the NAP the Local Government Association (LGA) developed and produced a set of revised practical guidance documents to support local authorities in understanding and implementing the Transparency Code 2015 and to help them publish the data in a helpful and consistent way.

With input from data users, the LGA, local authorities and others developed templates and voluntary schemas for most of the datasets. This enabled data published by different local authorities to be easily accessed, reused and compared.

Following implementation of the new Code, taxpayers now have ready access to information about the income and expenditure of their local authority, enabling them to challenge their local authority about, for example, how car parking revenue is spent. Data made available under the new Code will also make it easier for citizens to check whether councils are acting fairly in how they award grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.

The Transparency Code should be seen as one of a number of tools available to the public such as the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Audit Commission Act 1998 and the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 to access local authority data. As one correspondent put it “parliament has given electors tools that many people around the world in many countries do not have available to them and as such it is a privilege that should be utilised”.

Next steps: The commitment is complete, but we are doing more. Local data is valuable and it must be used to best effect. This means ensuring it is not only used by local people but that it is published to a quality that allows national analysis too. To achieve this the next update of the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 will have an increased focus on the quality of published data, enabling better scrutiny and analysis of the data available. A consultation on changes to the Local Authority Transparency code was published on 12 May. The consultation closed on 8 July 2016.

2.4 Commitment 4: Social investment

By 2015, the UK aims to be the most transparent social investment market in the Open Government Partnership and G20, in line with the Open Data Charter principles.

Main objective:

Internationally: * greater visibility on the size of the global social investment market to attract greater amounts of capital into the market; * greater consistency around the measurement and reporting of social impact to support increased sharing of know-how and cross-border social investment activity.

Domestically:
* more open data on the cost and availability of social investment – to help social ventures better identify appropriate sources of financial support; * greater transparency on public service contracts, including the underlying unit price and cost of service interventions – to help social ventures and investors find opportunities to deliver public services that are more effective than the current provision.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results:

Internationally: * in December 2013 we launched the Global Learning Exchange, a platform for sharing lessons, data and experience in the social investment market. The Global Learning Exchange has had over 700 registrants on its webinars, representing 64 companies; * in 2014 we supported the development of the Inspiring Impact Digital Platform, an online marketplace of impact tools and resources to help social ventures determine the areas they need to strengthen.

Domestically: * data was published on data.gov.uk on investment readiness from two Cabinet Office programmes; * the Unit Cost Database was published in 2013, and this resource was further developed in 2014 to help commissioners design new, preventative public service interventions; * a website was created to help policymakers understand and use social investment.

Full details of these and related initiatives are available in the 2014 Social Investment Strategy Update (pdf, 902 KB).

At the end of 2015, social investment in the UK was worth more than £1.5 billion and is being used to improve society by over 3,000 charities and social enterprises according to Big Society Capital (BSC). Cabinet Office research shows that clear, trusted data about social investment is extremely important to organisations considering and taking on this form of finance.

Real examples of the areas where social investment is making a difference include: * installing solar panels on roofs to reduce heating costs and generate income; * buying and refurbishing properties and then renting them to vulnerable people on lower incomes who would otherwise struggle to find a home; * supporting homeless young people into sustainable accommodation, employment or training; * helping organisations to support families and avoid young people going into care, deliver effective childcare and reduce isolation.

Next steps: Openness and transparency remain important principles for work in this area. In the 2016 Social Investment Strategy Update (pdf, 819 KB), Cabinet Office committed to continuing to work openly and deploy user centred design to shape policy interventions around the needs of stakeholders, and to share information. For example: * user-centred design has been used to create policy initiatives around the needs of frontline social sector organisations. In April 2014 Cabinet Office and the Design Council published a joint report on social ventures accessing finance. A new education resource for social sector organisations is planned; * with UK Trade & Investment Cabinet Office published a new website and map to introduce international businesses to the concept of social investment; * in 2016 Cabinet Office launched a new collaboration with Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford to create the Government Outcomes Lab. The Lab will build evidence and data on Social Impact Bonds; * Cabinet Office is building on the Buy Social Directory - a database of 8,000 social enterprise suppliers for private and public sector organisations - by launching a new campaign to encourage large corporates to take part. The membership body Social Enterprise UK leads on the development and delivery of both initiatives.

Wider sector initiatives included the initiation in 2015 by Big Society Capital (BSC), the world’s first social investment wholesale institution, of a Transparency Conversation to share information on social investment deals and the organisation’s processes and non-investment activities. This is a step change in data sharing in the UK social investment sector. Cabinet Office has a highly collaborative working relationship with BSC.

2.5 Commitment 5: Digital records

Deliver an archives system that provides an efficient, scalable and sustainable process for the transfer of digital records to the digital records infrastructure supported by publicly available guidance on its website and training for transferring departments. Finally the commitment also focused on ensuring that departments were able to meet the requirements for transfer of those selected for permanent preservation to a place of deposit by the time they are 30 years old (reducing to 20 years over the next decade).

Main objective: Citizen access to the records of UK government in ways that make them accessible and usable, to enable both research and ensure accountability and transparency of decisions of the government.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Substantial

Description of results: Engagement took place with the International Records Management Trust, a London based NGO, that specialises in record-keeping for accountability and transparency in the developing world. The commitment was developed and agreed with them. There has been regular engagement with them throughout the period around completion.

During the course of the NAP period and the completion of the digital transfer project - which tested the efficiency, scalability and sustainability of The National Archives capacity and infrastructure - there were many challenges that could only have been identified by testing and piloting. Resolving some of these challenges exceeded the NAP reporting period; however The National Archives continues to address them to ensure the accessibility of the digital record to citizens, enabling transparency and accountability of government. The digital transfer process has been successfully tested with four government departments, whose records are now, or will soon be, accessible on our online portal. Currently up to 15 government departments are transferring data digitally to The National Archives.

The ‘Digital Landscape 2014-2015’, a synthesis of the state of digital records management and preservation in the top 21 transferring government departments, has been completed. This has helped us better strategically identify areas where The National Archives can support government to ensure the longevity and accessibility of records that originated in digital form (born-digital).

A training programme has been created based on the lessons learned while working on this commitment. We are also creating guidance to help government departments carry out digital appraisal and selection, sensitivity review and transfer.

Next steps: These include: * continuing to learn through new digital transfers to refine and improve government record-keeping and accessibility of digital records to researchers and citizens; * building on the ‘Technology Assisted Review’ Report by continuing to test eDiscovery and data analytics software and developing a methodology to help departments address large unstructured volumes of born-digital records and sensitivity review; * helping The National Archives and Cabinet Office understand the volumes of born-digital records in government departments and the amount of digital transfers to be expected at The National Archives over the next 5 to 7 years; * prepare guidance and training for the management, care and transfer of born-digital records; * the majority of our online transfers are now displayed and accessible on our online portal, such as the UK Supreme Court video records.

2.6 Commitment 6: Anti-corruption plan

The UK government will, for the first time, bring together all of the UK’s anti-corruption efforts under one cross-government anti-corruption plan.

**Main objective: To have a robust, cross-government anti-corruption plan that will bring much more co-ordination and coherence to the work that is going on, from preventing corruption taking place in the first instance to taking effective enforcement action when it does.

End date: December 2014

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: The Bond Anti-Corruption Group, a coalition of ten British-based NGOs who work on corruption-related issues, was in contact with the Home Office and Cabinet Office from January to December 2014, submitting recommendations on policy and process via face-to-face meetings with government officials and through written submissions.

The UK Anti-Corruption Plan was published in December 2014. The Inter-Ministerial Group on Anti-Corruption has overseen delivery of the commitments in the Plan and good progress has been made on delivering the 66 actions.

In May 2016 there was a progress update on the UK Anti-Corruption Strategy (pdf, 227 KB) Specific outcomes include: introducing a new criminal offence of police corruption for those police officers who have acted corruptly; establishing a new International Corruption Unit in the National Crime Agency, to recover funds stolen from developing countries and prosecute those responsible; and abolishing bearer shares, to make it harder for criminals to launder the proceeds of corruption.

Next steps: To deliver all the actions in the UK Anti-Corruption Plan.

New commitment in the third National Action Plan
* Commitment 3: Anti-Corruption Strategy;
* to develop, in consultation with civil society, and publish a new Anti-Corruption Strategy, ensuring accountability to Parliament on progress of implementation.

2.7 Commitment 7: Beneficial ownership

The UK government will lead by example by creating a publicly accessible central register of company beneficial ownership information. The register will contain information about who ultimately owns and controls UK companies.

Main objective: To implement transparency of ownership and control to tackle the misuse of companies and other legal entities.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: Legislation is in place for a publicly accessible register of company beneficial ownership information. Since July 2016, UK companies, limited liability partnerships and Societates Europaeae are required to provide information for the Central Register of People with Significant Control (PSC register) at Companies House. Beneficial ownership information for trusts that generate tax consequences will be held in a central register beginning in the second quarter of 2017.

The initial view of some key stakeholders very shortly after the data started to emerge in July 2016 is that the data has considerable potential value for anti-corruption purposes and, as businesses need to report their parent companies, in understanding corporate structures. For example, the data brings visibility to some lengthy chains of control. Further indication of the value of the information is likely as the volume of available data increases.

When developing guidance on the PSC register, the PSC Guidance Working Group encouraged stakeholders to directly engage with the policy and shape the guidance. In implementing the commitment, consultation and engagement took place at a number of different levels. For example, within government, there were discussions between all the government departments and enforcement bodies with an interest, as well as the delivery body for the register (Companies House, an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills). Views from civil society were sought through roundtables, focus groups, and via a series of discussion papers and consultations. Civil society was represented in the Working Group, which met jointly with an Expert Panel. In the period before implementation of the register, a series of discussions and presentations were arranged so organisations could prepare for the changes. Discussion papers and consultations in July 2013, October 2014 and June 2015 received high numbers of responses. For example, over 300 responses were received for the July 2013 discussion paper and in the June 2015 consultation over 100 organisations contributed.

Next steps:

New commitment in the third National Action Plan
* Commitment 1: Beneficial ownership;
* we will establish a public register of company beneficial ownership information for foreign companies who already own or buy property in the UK, or who bid on UK central government contracts.

2.8 Commitment 8: Police records

The UK government will establish by 1 January 2014 a high level working group to ensure greater transparency and accessibility of police records in England and Wales. The group will explore the range of options for achieving this, including bringing police force records under legislative control, by adding police forces to the Public Records Act 1958, alongside other options that may not require legislation. The working group will report with a clear proposal and action plan by 30 June 2014.

Main objective: To bring police records into the public records system, so police bodies would be required to review their records and transfer those selected for permanent preservation to a place of deposit by the time that they are 30 years old (reducing to 20 years over the next decade), to ensure their long-term preservation and public accessibility.

End date: Subject to policy decisions

Completion status: Limited. The high level working group reported that as work progressed it had become clear that the proposal had significant administrative implications for police forces and for others such as The National Archives. These implications are under consideration.

Description of results: The working group with representatives from a range of stakeholders has held meetings to discuss approaches and to explore responsibilities.

Meetings have been held with organisations carrying out similar activities to benefit from their experience. This included Police Scotland, as well as county archivists, The National Archives and Museums Archives and Libraries Wales (CyMAL) and records managers of local police forces

Next steps: Currently the resource implications of bringing police records into the public records system are being assessed.

2.9 Commitment 9: Construction sector transparency

The UK government will promote the principles of transparency and accountability in all government-funded construction projects in the domestic and international arenas, including, in the period up until 2015: * working with others in government and civil society to identify suitable projects for the application of the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) in the UK; * using its bilateral and multilateral relationships to encourage the establishment of at least four new national CoST programmes in countries where DFID is working.

Main objective: By promoting transparency and accountability in infrastructure to:
* reduce corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency; * create a business environment in which contracts are awarded solely on the basis of price and quality; * secure better value for money invested in infrastructure; * promote better quality infrastructure and services.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Limited. The completion status falls short of the new national CoST programmes envisaged.

Domestically, HM Treasury continued to be supportive of the CoST initiative through Infrastructure and Projects Authority’s work. However, having encouraged and supported a number of initial pilots in 2012/13 the general response from infrastructure clients was that transparency is already achieved through their existing systems and reporting, and they felt no need to adopt the CoST reporting templates.

Internationally, completion was limited because of a shift in the Department for International Development’s (DFID) priorities in relation to the CoST programme. DFID negotiated a strategic relationship with CoST including financial support over five years. Although the impact of this support falls outside the NAP2 reporting period, the long-term impact is expected to far exceed the original commitments in NAP2.

Description of results: DFID helped to establish, for example, the new CoST Ukraine programme by providing financial support through the World Bank Ukraine office. This has helped to bring the government, industry and civil society together into a Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG). It also supported the development of disclosure and assurance manuals. DFID’s role was to support and encourage the CoST International Secretariat and stakeholders in Ukraine, rather than to try and lead itself. This meant that the arrangements put in place reflected the priorities of those involved in the MSG and that subsequent activities would be seen as being locally owned and led. As Ukraine was experiencing significant social and political upheaval, it was also necessary to be realistic about the rate of progress. The MSG has now taken leadership of the programme and with support from the CoST International Secretariat and the World Bank, CoST disclosure requirements are being introduced into projects financed by international institutions and others funded by the Government itself.

In addition, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has also provided financial support for a CoST outreach event in Peru. The event included participants from six Latin American countries (Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama) and has led to Costa Rica and Panama preparing applications to join CoST.

Next steps:

New commitment in the third National Action Plan
* Commitment 5: Open contracting;
* to implement the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) in the Crown Commercial Service’s operations by October 2016; we will also begin applying this approach to major infrastructure projects, starting with High Speed Two, and rolling out OCDS across government thereafter.

2.10 Commitment 10: Legislation

The UK government will: * promptly publish all new primary and secondary legislation on legislation.gov.uk legislation.gov.uk; * bring the revised versions of primary legislation on legislation.gov.uk up to date by the end of 2015 and keep them up to date subsequently; * make legislative data available in an open and accessible format to allow people to reuse content under terms of the UK’s Open Government Licence.

Main objective: To make the entire collection of UK legislation available free of charge on a user friendly platform such as legislation.gov.uk to enable lawyers and ordinary citizens alike to identify and scrutinise the laws on which their legal rights and responsibilities are based.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Substantial

Description of results: All new legislation is published on legislation.gov.uk. The publishing service has been extended to include Orders in Council, Welsh Statutory Instruments and Northern Ireland Statutory Rules.

We have engaged Democratic Society with our work and they are enthusiastic about the new ways of working with legislation data that we have developed.

The revised legislation on legislation.gov.uk has been brought substantially up to date and a new service standard has been introduced. The most visited Acts have been prioritised and are up to date. Legislation.gov.uk is used by around two million visitors per month. With most of the revised legislation up to date, user satisfaction levels with the service have improved. We have changed the way we present the status of legislation online to make it clearer to users.

All legislation on legislation.gov.uk is published as open data under the terms of the Open Government Licence. The data is available in a variety of open standard based formats, including HTML5 and the Legal Document Markup Language/Akoma Ntsoso.

Next steps: * legislation changes all the time so The National Archives has introduced a sustainable way of keeping the revised legislation on legislation.gov.uk up to date. On an ongoing basis, all up-to-date Acts that are amended during a quarter will be updated by the end of the next quarter and made available through legislation.gov.uk; * in addition to keeping the revised legislation updated, the remaining 20% of Acts that are not yet up-to-date will be updated and then maintained according to the new service standard.

2.11 Commitment 11: Whistleblowing

The UK government is committed to ensuring a strong legislative framework to encourage workers to speak up about wrongdoing, risk or malpractice without fear of reprisal.

Main objective: To ensure that workers who whistleblow are protected from suffering detriment in the workplace.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Substantial

Description of results: The previous coalition government response to the Call for Evidence was published in June 2014. It set out a number of measures to strengthen the whistleblowing framework. Progress on each is set out below: * improved guidance for whistleblowers was published on 2 July 2015; * further guidance for employers and prescribed persons in handling disclosures was published on 20 March 2015; * ET1 forms were reviewed and HM Tribunal and Court Service consequently amended their guidance, website, and the letter they issue to claimants when it is unclear which regulator their claim should be referred to; * a power to enable the Secretary of State to make regulations to require certain prescribed persons to report annually on whistleblowing disclosures was introduced in the Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) have consulted on draft regulations (pdf, 216 KB) and are developing them in light of the comments received; * the prescribed persons list was updated and the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2015 came into force in February 2016; * The Employment Rights Act 1996 was amended to bring student nurses and student midwives into scope of the framework. This protection came into force on 6 April 2015.

On 11 February 2015, Sir Robert Francis published his findings on a full NHS whistleblowing review in the Freedom to Speak Up report. Recommendations included adding certain bodies for health and social care to the list of prescribed persons (completed - see bullet 5 above).

The Small Business Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 made provision for whistleblowing protection to be available for job applicants in the NHS. Regulations are expected to be in place in 2016.

Next steps: * further consultation and communication with prescribed persons on the draft regulations for the new duty to report on disclosures received; * duty to report regulations to be laid and to come into force by April 2017; * guidance to be updated to include the new duty; * Department of Health to bring in regulations to provide whistleblowing protections to job applicants in the NHS.

2.12 Commitment 12: Open contracting

The UK government endorses the principles of open contracting. We will build on the existing foundation of transparency in procurement and contracting and, in consultation with civil society organisations and other stakeholders, we will look at ways to enhance the scope, breadth and usability of published contractual data.

Main objective: To provide accountability to the taxpayer for how government funds are spent, to drive better value for money and increased competition, and to improve the quality of the services and products government buys.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Substantial

Description of results:

Transparency Principles On 24 March 2015, the Government published a set of general transparency principles that require public procurers proactively to disclose contract and related information that may previously have been withheld on grounds of commercial confidentiality. This new presumption in favour of disclosure of information requires procurers to set out, in advance of a contract award, the types of information to be disclosed to the public, and then to publish that information in an accessible format on gov.uk.

New Legislation We introduced legislation that requires most contracting authorities in the UK to publish contract opportunity advertisements and contract award information on the new Contracts Finder portal (regulations 106 and 110, Public Contracts Regulations 2015).

This website must be used in addition to, or instead of, any local or regional portals currently being used. Authorities must subsequently ensure that contract award information is placed on Contracts Finder once the contract is awarded. The thresholds are as follows:

Central Contracting Authorities: £10,000 Sub Central Contracting Authorities and NHS Trusts: £25,000

Contracts Finder Contracts Finder was originally launched in February 2011 as a one-stop shop for free access to contract opportunities in central government in response to requests from small businesses to make government business more accessible. Contracts Finder can be used to: * search for contract opportunities in different sectors; * find out what’s coming up in the future; * look up details of previous tenders and contracts.

We engaged a range of stakeholders in developing a refreshed version of the site. This was launched for public user (beta) testing in February 2015. Further developments continue to increase the scope, breadth and usability of the data are being planned. In the interim, we have been checking that public sector bodies are signed up to it and are using it. This includes: * all central government departments; * 95% of police authorities; * 86% of principal councils (district and above), which increased to 95% following our intervention; * 75% of all NHS bodies.

These figures continue to increase, for example we conducted sampling of 395 opportunities published by nearly 200 councils on their own portals. We initially found 64% had been published on Contract Finder. By working with councils the proportion of these eligible opportunities appearing on Contracts Finder increased to 86%.

Transparency clause We introduced template transparency clauses for inclusion in all new government contracts in 2011. We have been working with the Institute for Government to strengthen the clause that has been incorporated into the Government’s new Model Services Contract (MSC) published on 26 May 2016. The MSC forms a set of model terms and conditions for major services contracts that are published for use by government departments and many other public sector organisations. The Crown Commercial Service are also adopting the new transparency clause in their model contracts for common goods and services.

Open Book Contracting In May 2016 we introduced a proportionate and consistent Open Book approach to be applied to a broad range of different contracts in central government. Open Book Contract Management is the scrutiny of a supplier’s costs and margins through the reporting of, or accessing, accounting data. Its use is often associated with managing and controlling delivery of large, high value, high risk and complex contracts.

This transparency allows both parties to be clear on the supplier’s charges, costs, and planned return. It also provides a basis to be able to review performance, agree the impact of change and to bring forward ideas for efficiency improvements. If implemented well, this technique should help to improve value for money outcomes and to build mutual understanding and trust between government and its suppliers.

Next steps: We await the completion of the finalised version of Contracts Finder which will introduce a link between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) procurement portal and Contracts Finder resulting in the automatic publication of FCO contracts.

New commitment in the third National Action Plan
* Commitment 5. Open contracting;
* to implement the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) in the Crown Commercial Service’s operations by October 2016; we will also begin applying this approach to major infrastructure projects, starting with High Speed Two, and rolling out OCDS across government thereafter.

2.13 Commitment 13: Open contracting Scotland

The Scottish government broadly endorses the principles of ‘open contracting’ and commits to work with civil society and wider stakeholder groups to improve transparency in its procurement practices as part of our continuing programme of procurement reform.

Main objective: To promote transparency, accountability and the efficient use of public resources and to ensuring value for money. ‘Open contracting’ relates to ensuring transparency and accountability in procurement practices and procedures, which in turn will promote fair competition and greater access by all sectors to public sector contracts.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: To meet the main objective of ensuring transparency and accountability in procurement practices and procedures, which in turn will promote fair competition and greater access by all sectors to public sector contracts, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires public bodies to publish: * contract opportunity notices for all goods and services over £50,000 and works over £2 million (on the [PublicContractsScotland]http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/) website); * contract award notices (on the PublicContractsScotland website); * a Procurement Strategy - if the body spends more than £5 million per annum through procurement, the Strategy will, amongst other things, set out how the body intends to conduct its procurement activities in an open and transparent manner, treating potential bidders equally and without discrimination; * an annual report at the end of the financial year, detailing how well it complied with its Strategy and where it did not, setting out the steps the body will take to ensure future compliance.

The Act also requires public bodies to be open with unsuccessful bidders about the reasons why their bids were not successful.

The Reform Act came into force on 18 April 2016, although there is no obligation to publish a Procurement Strategy before 31 December 2016.

Next steps:

Scottish Government will set out new commitments in both the UK Open Government National Action Plan 2016 to 2018 and in a separate Scottish National Action Plan that will be published at the end of 2016.

2.14 Commitment 14: Aid transparency

The UK government will show leadership in transforming the transparency of global development assistance by publishing information on official development assistance (ODA) in line with the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Standard, so that UK assistance can be tracked through the delivery chain.

Main objective: To make more UK data on development assistance available in a common format to an internationally recognised standard. Also to encourage other providers of development assistance to make their information available in this common format, helping to create a richer global dataset of more open, timely, comprehensive, comparable and reusable information.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: Independent analysis consistently confirms that the Department for International Development (DFID) remains a leading agency on aid transparency. In the recently published Aid Transparency Index from Publish What You Fund, DFID has been ranked the second highest bilateral aid donor, the best publisher of activity-level financial information and joint top publisher of organisational planning information.

DFID continues to publish comprehensive and timely data to the IATI standard and ranks among the top agencies in implementing the Busan common standard. Further progress has been made, publishing most IATI fields as laid out in the implementation plan.

The Development Tracker, launched in 2013, has been a significant success. This online tool allows users to find detailed information about DFID projects all over the world, and follow money through the delivery chain from source to outcome. Users can search information under a variety of headings. 214 countries have used the tool; the top 3 users are UK, USA and India. The most popular page is all countries aid by location. There are around 15,000 visits/month, around 10% growth on previous years. In the last year there have been 185,000 visits (85% non DFID users), 1.15 million page views, and 108,000 unique visitors.

In line with the UK Aid Transparency Challenge, all organisations receiving and managing DFID funds are required to release open data on how the money is spent using the IATI format; a clause is included in all centrally let contracts.

DFID is responsive to the need for continual improvement in the quality of data published and new tools have been developed to support the quality assurance process and the scope of data published to IATI has expanded. Feedback mechanisms have been built into the Development Tracker and are generating regular feedback on data quality.

DFID’s civil society partners in the UK have risen to the challenge and are leading the way on aid transparency. More than 300 of the 480 organisations on the IATI registry are UK civil society organisations.

Next steps: DFID has met the commitments within the OGP National Action Plan.

2.15 Commitment 15: Better information about health and care

NHS England will be improving the quality and breadth of information available to citizens to support them to participate more fully in both their own health care and in the quality and design of health services which will result in greater accountability of NHS England.

Main objective: To contribute to NHS England’s strategy of delivering high quality care for all by improving the quality, efficiency and equity of health services. Greater transparency will empower patients and citizens to hold the health service to account and at the same time support life sciences research so that more life saving treatments can be found.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Substantial

Description of results: In December 2013 never before released data was published on the NHS Choices website about GP practices, including information about prescribing.

By December 2014 clinician-level information about 12 clinical areas was published on NHS Choices and MyNHS. In addition, data was published on the websites of individual clinical audits.

In March 2015 targets were met for patients to order repeat prescriptions and book appointments online, view their own GP record, including test results, online and have secure electronic communication with their practice in 95% of GP practices. To meet this challenging target there was extensive work, across the country, directly with clinicians and patients.

The Friends and Family Test collected over 8.4 million pieces of feedback from patients by March 2015 and is available in all settings of care; to date over 19 million pieces of feedback have been received.

A Stakeholder Forum was established at the start with wide representation, including patient and professional health sector associations, and representatives of suppliers. The Forum is independently chaired. Within the Forum a patient group and access needs group were embedded, reporting to the Forum. This engagement: * ensured a role in the governance of the programme; * provided advice and feedback; * helped to promote the programme.

At the centre of programme governance was a Programme Board. Meetings of the Board were attended by the Chair of the Stakeholder Forum and a patient representative. The input from voluntary sector organisations and patients was particularly effective in demonstrating the benefits gained from using online services, including access to their own health records (see NHS Choices for patients videos).

The Clinical Services Quality Measures (CSQMs) are intended to provide patients and the NHS with an at-a-glance indication of how well clinical services are performing. In developing CSQMs the contribution of patients was very important. Useful insights were gathered by using patients’ forums specific to disease areas. They:
* ensured that patients’ priorities as well as those of clinicians are reflected in the measures that are developed; * explored patients’ opinions about the measures under development; * helped patients to understand more about the choices they can make and how CSQMs will support them; * validated quantitative results with qualitative information known to patients; * tested visualisation methods that can be used to present CSQMs.

Next steps: The programme to develop overarching measures continues and publication of a number of measures over the summer and autumn of 2016 is anticipated. The delay was to accommodate further iterations as a result of clinician and patient engagement and additional assurance processes.

The care.data programme has undertaken a significant amount of work and was operationally ready to test communications with 120 pathfinder GP practices when the Secretary of State announced the review of consent and security by the National Data Guardian for Health and Care, Dame Fiona Caldicott. Her review, published on 6 July 2016, into existing levels of data security across the NHS recommended new data security standards for health and social care and the development of a new consent/opt-out data sharing model. The Department of Health then launched a public consultation on the consent opt-out and security standards which closed in September 2016. Government and the health and care system remain absolutely committed to realising the benefits of sharing information, as an essential part of improving outcomes for patients and any work in this area will now be taken forward by the National Information Board working closely with those in primary care, to retain public confidence and drive better care for patients. The work developed by the care.data programe will information the National Information Board as it moves forwardswith this work.

2.16 Commitment 16: Open policy making

The UK government will demonstrate the potential of open policy making by running at least five ‘test and demonstrate projects’ across different policy areas. These will inform how open policy making can be deployed across the civil service.

Main objective: To improve the quality of policy making by adopting new tools and techniques in the context of open policy making. This includes changes to the way and the pace at which policy advice is prepared, recognising that there is no one ‘model’ or ‘one size fits all’ approach.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: The Northern Futures project was the last of the four demonstration projects, bringing 200 people together across 8 locations on one day to collaborate and generate ideas about the future of the north of England. Participants were invited from across the private, public and voluntary sectors, and there was a strong focus on engaging those who would not normally talk to government. The Policy Lab, which led the project, has continued to develop the ‘open ideas day’ model. It was used in the UK Trade and Investment Export Jam in July 2015, and the Deregulation Business Jams in November 2015, and several other similar events are planned.

The objective of improving the quality of policy making has been furthered by the relaunch of the Open Policy Making toolkit in February 2016, following testing with a range of open policy stakeholders; visits increased from 1.5 per day to 63.5 per day, demonstrating the increased interest from government policy makers in using open policy tools and techniques. Similarly, the Open Policy blog, now managed by the Policy Lab, had 19,000 users in 2015/16, 50% of which were first time users.

The Policy Lab, which runs a range of projects demonstrating open policy making in action, has reached over 3,500 civil servants through its projects, workshops and training sessions that put people at the heart of policy making. The Lab has over 5,500 Twitter followers from within and outside government.

Next steps: The Policy Lab will continue to take responsibility for changing policy practice, including introducing civil servants to new tools and techniques that put the citizen at the centre of policy-making.

2.17 Commitment 17: Sciencewise

The UK government will identify innovative and effective ways to engage the public in policy involving complex scientific and technological innovation through the Sciencewise Programme.

Main objective: To explore ways of opening up public dialogue to wider voices and sharing the learning.

End date: March 2016

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: Sciencewise has continued to support engagement with the public on the development of policy involving science and technology through a combination of measures. In particular: * During 2015/16 Sciencewise supported 13 dialogues and other forms of public engagement covering a wide range of departments and issues to inform policy development in science and technology. Issues included drones; food security and data science ethics; * During 2015 Sciencewise developed a sounding board model as a form of deliberative engagement with public participants in response to requests from policy makers across Government for processes that are quicker and cheaper than most previous public dialogue projects; evidence of their impacts and effects can be found here; * Sciencewise evaluated all its activities to identify impacts, share good practice and demonstrate the value of public dialogue. The evaluation reports of individual public dialogue projects are all published, and there have been regular evaluations of the Sciencewise programme overall; * The Sciencewise Quality Framework (published March 2016) provides guidance on assessing the quality of public dialogue. It is designed to sit alongside and supplement the Sciencewise Guiding Principles (pdf, 134 KB). Users are expected to include those designing, delivering and evaluating public dialogue, and public bodies commissioning dialogue; * Sciencewise has continued to engage and support stakeholders in their development of policy involving science and technology by offering a comprehensive training programme, and through the use of online and social media channels.

Next steps: The current contract for management of the Sciencewise programme ended on 31 March 2016. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is in the process of considering what the next phase of the programme should look like. As of June 2016 the Department is in the process of finalising an invitation to tender document which will be issued in due course to prospective bidders.

2.18 Commitment 18: Draft legislation

The UK government will publish legislation in a draft format on gov.uk whenever appropriate, in order to enable and promote public involvement and engagement in proposed changes to the law.

Main objective: To help further the transparency of law and the policy development process, and improve understanding and engagement with legislation.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: The following primary legislation has been published in draft: * draft Investigatory Powers Bill; * draft Wales Bill; * various draft energy sector legislation; * draft legislation on data sharing; * draft finance legislation from the autumn statement.

Next steps: Further draft legislation will be published in the parliamentary session 2016-2017.

2.19 Commitment 19: OpenDataCommunities

The UK government will ensure the OpenDataCommunities programme continues to free up Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) evidence-base from literally thousands of disconnected spreadsheets, so that it can be quickly and easily discovered, combined and re-used over the web alongside related third party sources.

Main objective: That by 2015, OpenDataCommunities will be the DCLG’s single platform for: routinely releasing all departmental data sources in a fully open, accessible and re-usable forms, whilst preserving data quality and integrity stimulating third parties to use departmental data alongside related external sources to deliver innovative new tools and insights supporting the department to use its own and related third party sources in a more efficient, cost-effective manner, when designing and implementing policies and programmes building and spreading best practice for sharing and re-using data based on common standards, with a particular focus on partnerships with local authorities and other local public sector agents to unlock and publish their local sources in a consistent, comparable form.

End date: March 2016

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: OpenDataCommunities is now established as the Department’s default channel for providing fully open, accessible and re-usable data. As at March 2016, the service comprises over 200 DCLG datasets from across the Department’s Housing, Planning and Local Government Finance policy portfolios.

DCLG has focussed on ensuring that data is released in response to user demand. For example, the Department collaborated with users in the Local Government and Voluntary/Charity sectors to deliver new and improved statistical data on Statutory Homelessness and measures of deprivation in local areas.

OpenDataCommunities has seen a steady increase in usage throughout the NAP reporting period. For example, in the 12 months ending 30 June 2015 it received almost 78,000 visitors; in the 12 months ending 31 March 2016, the total number of visitors grew to just under 89,000, a 14% increase.

2.20 Commitment 20: Public Sector Information Directive

The UK government will transpose into UK law and implement European legislation on the re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI) early, delivering the obligation on public sector bodies to make their information available for re-use.

Main objective: Make more public sector information available for re-use both for commercial and non-commercial purposes, in machine-readable formats and under the Open Government Licence. This will deliver economic benefits for the UK and contribute to the UK government’s commitment to transparency and openness through a more open flow of data and information available for business and the public to scrutinise/analyse and re-use in products and services.

End date: July 2015

Completion status: Completed

Description of results: Transposition was led by a cross-Departmental steering Board. A wider working group comprising 76 organisations helped review the suite of published guidance, ensuring it includes relevant content tailored for public sector bodies, re-users and cultural sector bodies subject to the PSI Regulations for the first time. We ran over 50 workshops across the UK to prepare public sector bodies for the new obligations to permit re-use. Several events were run in partnership with the open data programmes of the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive.

Full legal transposition of the PSI Directive into UK law was achieved on 18 July 2015 with the coming into force of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations, Statutory Instrument 2015 No. 1415 (pdf, 102 KB). The UK was one of the first 3 EU Member States to complete transposition.

A full suite of guidance was published in advance of transposition, with separate guidance for public sector bodies, cultural bodies and re-users. The Information Commissioner has also published high-level guidance.

Next steps: Liaison is ongoing with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as the new public sector information (PSI) regulator. Formal handovers and briefing have taken place between The National Archives, the ICO and the Scottish Information Commissioner. Monitoring how the new Regulations work for re-users and public sector bodies and their alignment with wider UK government data and digital policy will be ongoing. Monitoring will involve regular contact with the ICO on any emerging themes in complaints; responding to further requests for advice on policy and transposition; assisting public sector bodies with their public task statements; and explaining the use of the Open Government Licence.

2.21 Commitment 21: Extractives

The UK government will implement and internationally champion a global standard of financial transparency and accountability in the extractive industries (oil, gas and mining) on the part of governments and companies, in line with the principles in the G8 Open Data Charter.

Main objective: By 2020 at the latest all the world’s extractive companies will be required by home country regulations and stock market listing rules, and by host country membership of the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), to report their payments to governments by country and by project for every country where they do business and, where applicable, to hold information on their beneficial ownership and consider making it publicly available. The UK aims to ensure that extractives companies’ transparency reports are openly available and accessible, and will explore the most suitable formats and mechanisms for this, including consideration of standard reporting templates.

End date: December 2015

Completion status: Substantial

Description of results: All EITI-implementing countries must establish a Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG), consisting of membership from Government, industry and civil society. This Group has oversight of implementation and are responsible for creating and delivering a communications strategy to raise awareness of EITI domestically. The UK MSG has met regularly since October 2013 and has equal membership from the three constituencies.

The MSG published the first UK EITI Report in April. It includes details of payments to government by extractive companies which have been fully reconciled to receipts received by the UK government. The MSG is now looking for feedback on the report to ensure it is useful. Recently academics in Durham University were asked for feedback as this data will be published every year and academics may find this information useful.

HM Treasury implemented the relevant EU Directive requiring country-by-country reporting of payments to governments by UK-listed extractives and logging firms a year early, in 2015. The first reports are expected to be published in the six months following the end of the 2015/16 financial year.

BIS implemented Chapter 10 of the Accounting Directive in December 2014 in The Reports on Payments to Governments Regulations. These regulations were amended in December 2015 to close a legal loophole. The first reports will be published at Companies House in a machine readable form in 2016. Publication dates will differ for companies depending on the end of their financial years.

The MSG has made rapid progress on EITI implementation during the October 2013 to December 2015 reporting period. Some highlights include: * UK MSG formed in October 2013 and held its first Board meeting; * UK MSG submits candidacy application to International EITI Board in July 2014; * UK admitted as an EITI candidate country in October 2014; * Stakeholder event held in November 2014 with over 75 attendees; * BIS procures Moore Stephens as the independent administrator for EITI in May 2015; * Moore Stephens issued the reporting package to oil, gas, mining and quarrying companies in June 2015; * Moore Stephens held workshops and webinars with companies in July 2015; * Work started in December 2015 on the first EITI report including the contextual information and reconciliation.

Next steps: The first UK EITI report (pdf, 1,284 KB) was published on 15 April 2016. The UK MSG is now completing a lessons learned exercise ahead of issuing reporting templates for year two. The second EITI report is scheduled to be published by 14 April 2017.

New commitment in the third National Action Plan
* Commitment 2: Natural resource transparency;
* we will work with others to enhance company disclosure regarding payments to government for the sale of oil, gas and minerals, complementing our commitment to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and implementation of EU Directives, and explore the scope for a common global reporting standard.

On 23 June, the EU referendum took place and the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Until exit negotiations are concluded, the UK remains a full member of the European Union and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force. During this period the Government will continue to negotiate, implement and apply EU legislation. The outcome of these negotiations will determine what arrangements apply in relation to EU legislation in future once the UK has left the EU.

3. Sharing, learning and conclusions

The OGP’s Internal Reporting Mechanism noted that the UK’s second NAP included four starred commitments under its new scheme introduced in early 2015 (commitments 6 anti-corruption plan,, 7 beneficial ownership, 14 aid transparency, and 21 extractives). Starred commitments have transformative potential impact and are measurable, clearly relevant to OGP values, and are substantially or completely implemented. See here for more information.

18 of the 20 remaining commitments in the UK’s second NAP have been completed or substantially completed. This work has not only resulted in sustainable improvement at national level it has also led to valuable sharing and learning with other governments.

The UK’s third NAP was published on 12 May 2016 as a rolling programme, initially with 13 commitments. Moving away from a fixed two year programme will help us to introduce new OGP commitments in line with national and international policy and political developments.

3.1 Peer exchange

The UK was the lead co-chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) from September 2012 until November 2013. In this role, the UK focused on incentivising change and encouraging more radical action amongst OGP members. We supervised publication of the first eight Independent Report Mechanism reports and secured 37 new ambitious commitments from member countries, making sure that governments continue to raise the bar for openness and transparency.

The UK hosted the OGP Annual Summit in London from 31 October to 1 November 2013 as co-chair of the OGP. The Summit brought together decision-makers, leaders and reformers from participating countries and beyond, attracting over 1,500 delegates from around the world. Important achievements included: * the announcement of partnerships with the Inter-American Development Bank, the OECD, the UN Development Programme and the World Bank to support OGP implementation at country level; * the launch of working groups on Open Data, Legislative Openness, Fiscal Openness, Access to Information and Openness in Extractives to help countries create and implement more ambitious action plans; * an agreement amongst delegates to work together on promoting the aims of open governance within the Post-2015 development agenda UN process; * publication of the OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism Progress Reports for the eight founding members.

The UK has also led an international agenda with transparency at its core, through the Prime Minister’s co-chairmanship of the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons. Transparency was one of our three priorities during the UK Presidency of the G8, and in June 2013 G8 governments agreed an Open Data Charter to encourage transparency, innovation and accountability.

The UK government’s work on anti-corruption led to sharing and learning with the Mexican government. This comprised various initiatives and exchanges including seminars with the Mexican agencies that will be part of a new national anti-corruption system, intensive trainings for 32 auditors on international best practices for the detection and investigation of fraud and corruption in the procurement of public works, and a discussion with Transparencia Mexicana involving public and private sectors, academia and civil society on the causes and effects of corruption on business in Mexico and on how this can be tackled. In October 2015 in the context of the Open Government Partnership Summit in Mexico, Sir Eric Pickles, the UK government’s anti-corruption champion, compared notes on anti-corruption with relevant figures in the Mexican public and private sectors.

The government’s work on beneficial ownership involved discussions with British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to share draft legislation and to consider operational aspects of the register of People with Significant Control. The government also conducted research on comparable company registration systems in other countries such as New Zealand, British Virgin Islands, Germany, Denmark, and Jersey, and shared our knowledge and experience in the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative at an international conference in April 2015.

In addition the UK government continues to promote and share the principles of transparency and accountability in international construction projects with which it is involved. For example, we have encouraged take-up of the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) initiative in Ukraine through a World Bank administered Trust Fund which is providing technical assistance and capacity building support for the CoST Ukraine Multi-stakeholder Group (MSG). Discussions have been held with the CoST Tanzania MSG about the potential incorporation of CoST disclosure requirements into a rural access and transport programme, and we have had discussions with the CoST International Secretariat to support CoST Ethiopia on information disclosure and assurance. We are also supporting the CoST Thailand MSG with technical assistance and capacity building support.

During 2015 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office worked in a variety of ways to encourage and support the values of Transparency and the OGP. Much of this work reflects the fact that the UK is truly world leading in this area having been instrumental in the establishment of the OGP, set up the D5 nations and is internationally recognised as the leading practitioner on open government issues and an expert in electronic government.

We have established a peer to peer network across the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Department regions to exchange ideas, experiences and contacts, which has enabled us to mirror some of the civil society networks in the region. Specific projects have been undertaken in:

Mexico	Philippines	France
Moldova	Brazil	Burma
Costa Rica	Columbia	Montenegro
Ecuador	Romania	Czech Republic
New Zealand	Croatia	Romania
Israel	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Canada
South Africa	Macedonia	Guatemala
Ukraine	Albania	Honduras
Lebanon	Hungary	Paraguay
Peru	Dominican Republic

The work can be split into 4 categories:

1. OGP Awareness Raising: Where OGP and open government-type work is relatively new, the most important aspect is demonstrating the value of OGP and making political leaders aware of OGP and its benefits. This can include: * supporting OGP membership bids; * pushing for new or updated OGP plans from member countries and checking countries are sticking to their commitments; * lobbying decision makers on making actual reform, adopting OGP changes and integrating OGP values into government.

2. Events: Training sessions, seminars and public events offer the opportunity for discussion between members of civil society, business associations and government officials, especially for countries where OGP is gaining traction. Successful events have included: * training seminars: for example, British Consulate Sao Paulo (Brazil) sponsored a project working with nic.br (national technology federation) in which a range of specialists and civil society experts produced guidance on the technical requirements for linked and open data. This was launched as part of a training workshop for state level officials with national coverage; * seminars: working closely with the UK Embassy in Dominican Republic, providing a seminar on open government and transparency to over 300 public administration staff; * public events: for example, a policy and seminar was held in Costa Rica on citizenship participation. The Vice Minister of Political Affairs, various strands of government and civil society attended and participated in the discussion. The UK also shared lessons learnt from our first OGP action plan. This supported Costa Rica in its successful bid to co-chair the OECD Open Government Network for Latin America alongside Mexico; * knowledge exchange visits to ten countries and cities, offering help, inspiration and experience on developing open data portals and publication processes, the countries included were: Tenerife (Spain); Bulgaria; Mexico; Croatia; Japan; Zaragoza (Spain); Sao Paulo (Brasil); Brasilia (Brazil); Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Canada; * hackathons: for example a hackathon following a successful conference debating open data for Romania led to 17 projects for re-using data being put forward by civil society activists, of which the top three apps would be made available to the public.

3. Exchange visits: This covers both visits to the UK to speak to UK experts, and visits by UK experts overseas. A number of countries have sent senior officials to London, or to OGP conferences and OGP training. Paraguay has received experts on thematic issues.

4. Resource Sharing: * the UK created a technical resource library and code base along with documentary materials to support open government which we have made available to other countries for free for their adaptation and use; * the Government Digital Service and Liam Maxwell, now National Technology Adviser, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, worked closely with the Australian Ministry of Communications over the establishment of the Digital Transformation Office, modelled on our Government Digital Service.

4. Annex A: Summary of commitment completion status

Commitment	Completion status
1. National Information Infrastructure	Completed
2. Health information standards	Withdrawn
3. Local authority transparency code	Completed
4. Social investment	Completed
5. Digital records	Substantial
6. Anti-corruption	Completed
7. Beneficial ownership	Completed
8. Police records	Limited
9. Construction sector transparency	Limited
10. Legislation	Substantial
11. Whistleblowing	Substantial
12. Open contracting	Substantial
13. Open contracting Scotland	Completed
14. Aid transparency	Completed
15. Better information about health and care	Substantial
16. Open policy making	Completed
17. Sciencewise	Completed
18. Draft legislation	Completed
19. OpenDataCommunities	Completed
20. PSI Directive	Completed
21. Extractives	Substantial

5. Annex B: Self-Assessment online survey – summary of results

Note: 18 respondents completed the questionnaire, and in doing so they sometimes chose to answer only some of the questions. Therefore the number of responses per question is variable. Where the number of responses is low percentage figures should be interpreted with care.

Are you responding as a representative of government or civil society?

Representative of:	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
Government	50%	9
Civil society	50%	9

How well do you think the UK has done to date overall in implementing the NAP?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
Excellently	7.7%	1
Very well	7.7%	1
Well	31%	4
Fairly well	46%	6
Poorly	7.7%	1

To what extent is there an ongoing joint process in place to monitor the progress of the implementation of the NAP?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
To a large extent (eg meetings are held at least every 3 months with a senior official or minister to review overall progress on implementation)	23%	3
To a moderate extent (eg meetings are held - or other methods of engagement are instigated - between relevant government officials and relevant civil society organisations at least once every 6 months)	15%	2
To some extent (eg meetings are held - or other methods of engagement are instigated - between relevant government officials and relevant civil society organisations less than once every 6 months)	62%	8
Not at all (eg no meetings are held-or other methods of engagement are instigated - with government officials to review progress)	0%	0

Which NAP commitment(s) are you involved in or have a particular interest in?

Commitment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
1. National Information Infrastructure	23%	3
2. Health information standards	23%	3
3. Local Authority Transparency Code	7.7%	1
4. Social investment	15%	2
5. Digital records	15%	2
6. Anti-corruption	15%	2
7. Beneficial ownership	7.7%	1
8. Police records	0%	0
9. Construction transparency	7.7%	1
10. Legislation	7.7%	1
11. Whistleblowing	15%	2
12. Open contracting	31%	4
13. Open contracting Scotland	15%	2
14. Aid transparency	7.7%	1
15. Better information about health and care	15%	2
16. Open Policy Making	38%	5
17. Sciencewise	7.7%	1
18. Draft legislation	7.7%	1
19. OpenDataCommunities	23%	3
20. Public Sector Information directive	7.7%	1
21. Extractives	15%	2

To what extent is there ongoing collaboration between government officials and civil society on the implementation of individual commitments?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
To a large extent (meetings are held - or other methods of engagement are instigated - between relevant government officials and relevant civil society organisations at least once every 4 months)	31%	4
To a moderate extent (meetings are held - or other methods of engagement are instigated - between relevant government officials and relevant civil society organisations at least once every 6 months)	23%	3
To some extent (meetings are held - or other methods of engagement are instigated - between relevant government officials and relevant civil society organisations less than once every 6 months)	38%	5
Not at all (no meetings are held - or other methods of engagement are instigated - with government officials to review progress)	7.7%	1

In your opinion, how would you judge the strength of the partnership between key government officials and engaged civil society organisations in the implementation of individual commitments?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
Very strong (government and civil society have productive and strong working relationships with at least a high level of trust and disagreements are negotiated with mutually agreeable solutions found in all cases)	23%	3
Strong (government and civil society have fairly productive and strong working relationships with at least a moderate level of trust and disagreements are negotiated with mutually agreeable solutions found in most cases)	38%	5
Moderately strong (government and civil society have a basic working relationship with at least a low level of trust and attempts have been made to negotiate disagreements with mutually agreeable solutions found in some cases)	31%	4
Weak (government and civil society have not been able to establish a working relationship and/or no attempts have been made to negotiate disagreements)	7.7%	1

To what extent have the NAP commitments had a positive impact on transparency and openness in the UK?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
To a large extent	15%	2
To a moderate extent	23%	3
To some extent	38%	5
Not at all	0%	0
Unable to say	23%	3

To what extent have the NAP commitments impacted on promoting better understanding in the UK of the issues surrounding open government?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
To a large extent	7.7%	1
To a moderate extent	31%	4
To some extent	31%	4
Not at all	15%	2
Unable to say	15%	2

To what extent have the NAP commitments impacted on promoting better understanding in the UK of the issues surrounding open government?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
To a large extent	7.69%	1
To a moderate extent	38.46%	5
To some extent	30.77%	4
Not at all	7.69%	1
Unable to say	15.38%	2

To what extent has the UK’s approach to openness and transparency between 2013 and 2015 had a positive impact on the global open government movement? | Assessment | Percentage of responses | Number of responses | | ————————————- | | To a large extent | 23% | 3 | | To a moderate extent | 31% | 4 | | To some extent | 15% | 2 | | Not at all | 7.7% | 1 | | Unable to say | 23% | 3 |

Has the work undertaken in the NAP supported the direction of travel on the issues in which you have been involved?

Assessment	Percentage of responses	Number of responses
Yes	69%	9
No	31%	4

6. Annex C

6.1 Part 1: How commitments links to the Open Government Partnership grand challenges

Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitments have to relate to a set of five ‘grand challenges’ as listed below. In year one of membership of the OGP, a country has to develop concrete commitments around at least one of these grand challenges.

OGP Grand Challenges ⋅⋅1. improving public services – measures that address the full spectrum of citizen services including health, education, criminal justice, water, electricity, telecommunications and any other relevant service areas, by fostering public service improvement or private sector innovation ⋅⋅2. increasing public integrity – measures that address corruption and public ethics, access to information, campaign finance reform, and media and civil society freedom ⋅⋅3. more effectively managing public resources – measures that address budgets, procurement, natural resources and foreign assistance ⋅⋅4. creating safer communities – measures that address public safety, the security sector, disaster and crisis response, and environmental threats ⋅⋅5. increasing corporate accountability – measures that address corporate responsibility on issues such as the environment, anti-corruption, consumer protection and community engagement

The table below sets out the how each of the commitments in the UK government’s second National Action Plan links with the OGP grand challenges.

Open data: radically opening up government data for greater accountability, public service improvement and economic growth

No	Commitment	1. Improving public services	2. Increasing public integrity	3. More effectively managing public resources	4. Creating safer communities	5. Increasing corporate accountability
1.	National Information Infrastructure	X	X	X	X	X
2.	Health information standards	X	X	X
3.	Local Authority Data Transparency Code		X	X
4.	Social investment	X		X	X	X
5.	Digital records		X	X		X

Government integrity: fighting corruption and strengthening democracy through transparent government

No	Commitment	1. Improving public services	2. Increasing public integrity	3. More effectively managing public resources	4. Creating safer communities	5. Increasing corporate accountability
6.	Anti-corruption	X	X		X	X
7.	Beneficial ownership		X			X
8.	Police records	X	X	X		X
9.	Construction transparency	X	X	X	X
10.	Legislation	X	X			X
11.	Whistleblowing	X	X	X	X	X

Fiscal transparency: helping citizens to follow the money

No	Commitment	1. Improving public services	2. Increasing public integrity	3. More effectively managing public resources	4. Creating safer communities	5. Increasing corporate accountability
12.	Open contracting		X	X		X
13.	Open contracting Scotland	X	X	X		X
14.	Aid transparency	X	X	X		X

Empowering citizens: transforming the relationship between citizens and governments

No	Commitment	1. Improving public services	2. Increasing public integrity	3. More effectively managing public resources	4. Creating safer communities	5. Increasing corporate accountability
15.	Better information about health and care	X	X	X
16.	Open Policy Making	X				X
17.	Sciencewise	X			X	X
18.	Draft legislation		X			X
19.	OpenDataCommunities	X	X	X	X	X
20.	Public Sector Information Directive	X	X

Natural resources transparency: ensuring natural resources and extractive revenues are used for public benefit

No	Commitment	1. Improving public services	2. Increasing public integrity	3. More effectively managing public resources	4. Creating safer communities	5. Increasing corporate accountability
21.	Extractives		X	X		X

6.2 Part 2: How commitments links to the Open Government Partnership values

As well as identifying five ‘Grand Challenges’ the Open Government Partnership has set out four values (pdf, 190 KB) to help assess the relevance of the commitments in national Action Plans. The values are: * transparency: This includes publication of all government-held information (as opposed to only information on government activities); proactive or reactive releases of information; mechanisms to strengthen the right to information; and open access to government information; * accountability: There are rules, regulations and mechanisms in place that call upon government actors to justify their actions, act upon criticisms or requirements made of them, and accept responsibility for failure to perform with respect to laws or commitments. Commitments on accountability should typically include an answerability element, i.e. that they are not purely internal systems of accountability but involve the public; * participation: Governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in a dialogue on government policies or programmes, provide input or feedback, and make contributions that lead to more responsive, innovative and effective Governance; * technology and innovation: Governments embrace the importance of providing citizens with open access to technology, the role of new technologies in driving innovation, and the importance of increasing the capacity of citizens to use technology. Electronic government initiatives are welcome, but to be relevant to OGP, action plans should explain how these initiatives advance government transparency, accountability and/or public participation.

The table below sets out the how each of the commitments in the UK government’s second National Action Plan links with the OGP’s values.

Open data: radically opening up government data for greater accountability, public service improvement and economic growth

No	Commitment	1. Access to information	2. Civic participation	3. Public Accountability	4. Technology and innovation for openness and accountability
1.	National Information Infrastructure	X			X
2.	Health information standards		X	X	X
3.	Local Authority Data Transparency Code		X	X	X
4.	Social investment	X			X
5.	Digital records	X		X	X

Government integrity: fighting corruption and strengthening democracy through transparent government

No	Commitment	1. Access to information	2. Civic participation	3. Public Accountability	4. Technology and innovation for openness and accountability
6.	Anti-corruption			X
7.	Beneficial ownership	X
8.	Police records	X		X
9.	Construction transparency	X
10.	Legislation	X			X
11.	Whistleblowing			X	X

Fiscal transparency: helping citizens to follow the money

No	Commitment	1. Access to information	2. Civic participation	3. Public Accountability	4. Technology and innovation for openness and accountability
12.	Open contracting	X		X	X
13.	Open contracting Scotland	X		X	X
14.	Aid transparency	X		X	X

Empowering citizens: transforming the relationship between citizens and governments

No	Commitment	1. Access to information	2. Civic participation	3. Public Accountability	4. Technology and innovation for openness and accountability
15.	Better information about health and care	X	X	X	X
16.	Open Policy Making		X	X
17.	Sciencewise		X	X	X
18.	Draft legislation	X	X	X
19.	OpenDataCommunities	X		X	X
20.	Public Sector Information Directive	X		X

Natural resources transparency: ensuring natural resources and extractive revenues are used for public benefit

No	Commitment	1. Access to information	2. Civic participation	3. Public Accountability	4. Technology and innovation for openness and accountability
21.	Extractives	X