1) The UK is seen as a leader in open government, being the first country to create an open data portal and passing laws mandating the release of government data. 2) Openness and transparency have a long history in the UK dating back to documents like the Magna Carta and Bill of Rights which established principles of citizens' rights and oversight of government. 3) In recent decades, demands for more openness have increased due to factors like rising citizen desires for information, new technologies, and a push for government accountability.

1. Openness as a Value
Eleanor Stewart
Head of Transparency
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
@digenghmg
Personal Democracy Forum, Kiev
22 June 2016

2. Today the UK is seen as an exemplar
for open government
• Ranked no 1 in world
• First to have an open data portal : Data.gov.uk
– Used data to drive efficiencies in public services
– Used data to improve accountability
• Legislated on release of data in addition to the Freedom of
Information laws
• Mandated Digital by default & open document formats
• Core member of the OGP and working with partners in 28
countries
• Created the ODI to build and support start-ups/data users.
• Developed positive working relations with Civil Society
• Citizens use open data daily without releasing it

3. Magna Carta 1215
• Citizens not Subjects
• Everyone subject to
the law including the
King
• Right to a fair trial
• Check on the crowns
ability to levy taxes
• 25 Barons elected

4. Bill of Rights 1689
• laws should not be dispensed with or suspended
without the consent of Parliament;
• no taxes should be levied without the authority of
Parliament;
• the right to petition the monarch should be without
fear of retribution;
• no standing army may be maintained during
peacetime without the consent of Parliament;
• Protestant subjects may have arms for their defence
as suitable to their class and as allowed by law;
• the election of members of Parliament should be free;
• the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in
Parliament should not to be impeached or questioned
in any court or place out of Parliament;
• excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment
inflicted;
• jurors should be duly impannelled and returned and
jurors in high treason trials should be freeholders;
• promises of fines or forfeitures before conviction are
void;
• Parliaments should be held frequently.

5. Hansard 1812
The edited records of all parliamentary
debates, votes, written ministerial
statements and answers from the Houses
of Commons and Lords since 1812.

6. But more recently…
• 1994 code of practice on access to
government information
• 1997 white paper “Your Right to Know”
• 2000 Freedom of Information Act

7. But…

9. Missing Records :

10. Wasting Public Money:

11. Power of Information Taskforce 2008-09

12. The 4 “Opens”
Open information. To have an effective voice, people need to
be able to understand what is going on in their public
services. Government will publish information about public
services in ways that are easy to find, easy to use, and easy
to re-use, and will unlock data, where appropriate
Open innovation. We will promote innovation in online
public services to respond to changing expectations.
Open discussion. We will promote greater engagement with
the public through more interactive online consultation and
collaboration. We will also empower professionals to be
active on online peer-support networks in their area of work.
Open feedback. Most importantly, the public should be able
to have a fair say about their services.

13. Information Thirst
• Growth in desire
for information
• Rise of data
journalism
• Demand for
accountability

14. New Technology

15. The start of work on data.gov.uk
Objectives
• increase transparency
• improve public services
• release new economic and
social value and growth
• make UK a global hub of skills
in the future of the Web
“So that Government information is accessible and useful for
the widest possible group of people, I have asked Sir Tim
Berners-Lee who led the creation of the World Wide Web, to
help us drive the opening up of access to Government data in
the web over the coming months".
Gordon Brown, 10 June 2009

16. Show Us A Better Way

17. 1st Government Hack Day

18. Revised Licensing

21. By May 2010
• Austerity predominant political theme
• Politicians keen to force greater accountability
on public sector (culturally and financially)
• Social media/new technology becoming
mainstream (including for government)
• Smartphone revolution underway
• Had a data portal and had released c100
datasets; some csv’s some pdf’s
• Data hadn’t been checked for
quality/consistency

22. Open Data = Transparency

23. Major Priority for Government
“Greater transparency
across Government is at the
heart of our shared
commitment to enable the
public to hold politicians and
public bodies to account; to
reduce the deficit and deliver
better value for money in
public spending; and to
realise significant economic
benefits by enabling
businesses and non-profit
organisations to build
innovative applications and
websites using public data.”
David Cameron
May 2010

24. Citizen Consumers
“Transparency Temple”
UNCLASSIFIED
IncreasedAccountability
ImprovedPublicServices
NewEconomic&SocialValue
Open Government
Data Users
Government releasing Open Data

25. Mandated PM Commitments
• Names, grades, job titles and annual pay rates for most Senior Civil Servants with salaries above
£150,000 to be published
• Names, grades, job titles and annual pay rates for most Senior Civil Servants and NDPB officials with
salaries higher than the lowest permissible in Pay Band 1 of the Senior Civil Service pay scale
• Organograms for central government departments and agencies that include all staff positions to be
published in a common format
• Names/titles of all Special Advisers, salaries where over Pay Band 1
• NDPB officials earning over £150,000
• Local government officials earning over £150,000
• Central government workforce including temps, consultants, etc.
• Historic COINS spending data to be published online
• New items of central government spending over £25,000 to be published online
• All new central government contracts to be published in full
• All new central government tender documents for contracts over £10,000 to be published on a
single website from September 2010, with this information to be made available to the public free
• New items of local government spending over £500 to be published on a council-by-council basis
• Full information on all DFID international development projects over £500 to be published online
from January 2011, including financial information and project documentation.
• Government departments and agencies should ensure that any information published includes the
underlying data in an open standardised format.
• Publish the energy use of government headquarters in real-time
• New local government contracts and tender documents for expenditure over £500 to be published
in full
• Crime data to be published at a level that allows the public to see what is happening on their
streets
• Value for money calculations of all government websites
• Complete list of all Local Authorities and their contact details.

26. Also
• Every department and Public body must have
an Open Data Strategy
• All departments have had to identify what data
they hold
• Prioritized data that was already in the public
domain in some form
• Have had to redesigning charging models to
make data open
• Built a data request mechanism
• Began to look at a reform of the FOI laws to
focus on openness not exemptions

27. Protection of Freedoms Act 2012
(Pt6)
• Information must
released in a
reusable way
• Broadens definition
of “dataset”
• Consolidates
copyright and reuse
guidance
• Defines criteria for
charging for data

28. League Tables of departments
reported to Parliament

29. 29
Looked for data that matters to citizens:

30. This is not easy for government:

31. What does this all mean?

32. Who is “government”

33. Where do my taxes go?

34. What do I get for it?
Links to the
documents

36. Performance of healthcare providers

37. Reduced Mortality for Heart
Surgery

38. Performance of law enforcement

39. Performance of individual schools

40. Transport
As a transport project
alone, evaluated by
usual economic criteria:
ROI = 58:1

41. Administrative Integrity

42. Release of Company Data

43. Aid Transparency

44. In country impact:

45. Property Ownership

46. Geographical Data

47. Crisis Management

48. App Development

49. Travel industry

50. Start ups
Pesky People – 999 App for the profoundly deaf

51. Citizen Participation

52. Formal Participation

53. Where next?

54. Stimulate demand for data from business,
citizens and public servants

55. Making sure data is truly re-usable and useful

56. Working to ensure Privacy of Personal Data

57. Promoting the use of Data

58. Informing and promoting dialogue
and debate

59. Ongoing Challenges
• Quality & Usability of the information/
data we’re releasing (and technology we’re
using)
• Overcoming fear of releasing information
or engaging (political & official)
• Educating officials ; cultural change
• Creating informed citizens and active
users/marketplaces
• Changing landscape & technology

60. The challenge of open government:
“Government ought to be all outside and
no inside…Everybody knows that
corruption thrives in secret places, avoids
public places and we believe it a fair
presumption that secrecy means
impropriety”
― Woodrow Wilson 1912; The New
Freedom