Why are we struggling to deliver real transparency?

Concerns have been voiced over the ability of public sector IT to support more transparency, following a Cabinet Office-led consultation process.

 

Last year the Office asked for feedback on issues including how best to gather and make use of data held by the public sector, how to encourage the private sector to make use of it and how to bolster individuals' rights to access their own data held by public sector, a process known as an 'enhanced right to data'.

 

The Open Data consultation, which closed in October, drew more than 400 responses from industry, government and other interested parties and the government is due to set out its open data strategy in 2012, according to the Cabinet Office. But while those who responded to the consultation showing "widespread support" for the open data and transparency, “uncertainty was expressed as to whether public bodies possess the requisite skills to effectively deliver an enhanced right to data," the Cabinet Office's analysis of all this input says.

 

Many respondents questioned the capability of some public bodies, particularly smaller organisations, to deliver an enhanced right to data when resources are already stretched, whilst some felt the costs associated with developing systems capable of maintaining large datasets might prove prohibitive, the Cabinet Office's report on the responses said.

 

Any enhanced right to data would also need "change in IT delivery at the strategic level" according to respondents, while both the tender process and the way in which IT contracts are set up would also need to be re-examined.

 

"Respondents broadly agreed it will be necessary to incorporate open data standards into future contracts in order to effectively implement an enhanced right to data and that government should publish clear guidelines setting out future expectations. A number of respondents were clear that they thought the progression of the agenda should not be contingent on the incorporation of open data principles into existing contracts," the report worries.

 

Nonetheless - Open Data seems to be the way the government says we still have to go. For example, in a speech to the World Bank on Monday, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said the last 20 years has seen huge global demand for data: “The World has opened up. Today citizens across the globe are demanding their data. And they are getting it... On one side of the transparency coin there is holding government to account; exposing waste, rooting out corruption and driving efficiency. On the other side there is putting out raw data in the public domain for entrepreneurs and businesses to work with. Creating an information marketplace - and this is where I believe the UK is leading the way today,” Maude said.

 

He added that transparency and open government was a defining passion for the UK government. “We believe that opening up will expose what is inadequate and drive improvement. We believe opening up will give people choices over public services that they’ve never had before. And we believe opening up will drive economic and social growth by putting vast tracts of valuable raw data in the public domain.”

 

The Cabinet Office estimates that the current total direct and indirect economic value of public sector information is €140bn per year for the EU27 - suggesting that similar information in the UK is already worth in the region of £16bn a year.

 

The question is surely obvious: how can we deliver the latter - and deal with all the problems this consultation has outlined?