Dear Network,
After today’s Steering group meeting, we sent a letter to DCMS about the ongoing delay to publishing the UK Open Government Action Plan. This was sent today.
The Steering Group called for the minister (Margot James MP) to take action to unblock the impasse internally in government that is stopping the plan from being published. We can all agree that it is unacceptable for the UK to go to a second Global Summit without an action plan published.
https://www.opengovernment.org.uk/resource/ogn-letter-to-margot-james-mp-about-ongoing-delay-to-finalising-the-uk-open-government-action-plan/
In preparation for the Global Summit in Ottawa
Furthermore, the Steering Group agreed that it would be good to plan a statement from UK civil society about the situation in the UK, to be published during the Ottawa Summit (on the assumption that we will still not have published the action plan). This will be a process that will be open to the whole network, and we will encourage as many organisations to sign onto this as possible. I will forward a link to the draft statement as soon as possible.
Other things like guidance on messaging around the Summit from civil society will also be shared, to aid your own comms if you are attending the summit.
Happy to answer questions or doubts related to the above.
Andreas
1 Like
Dear Andrea
I am planniing to assist some civil society organisations in Morocco to set up their own civil society ogp network, so I would be grateful if you can send me the charter of the CSO Network of the UK so just to get some inspirations
Yours sincerely
Said Essoulami
Said Essoulami
President
Centre for Media Freedom
1 Like
Is there any insight into what “late additional commitments” gov might still be considering?
While not opposed in principle (they shouldn’t do this, but since they’ve done it in every NAP…), there must be some scrutiny from civil society, which requires some information to be shared with the full group…
Best,
Sam
Hi Sam,
So, so far I am not aware of any late additional commitments. As far as I have been made aware, the Action Plan is largely the same as it was back during the consultation phase.
There were some thoughts earlier this year around adding in commitments related to gender/inclusion, to be announced as part of the OGP Global Summit in Ottawa, but since we dont have a plan published yet, I dont think this is going to happen.
There is time I think until the end of the summer to add commitments and I know that DCMS were keen to look into what might be possible, but to be honest I am really doubtful that this will happen because of the difficulty of getting this action plan even signed off.
If I hear or learn more then I will let the network know. I am sharing information with you all more or less as soon as I find stuff out myself, but appreciate people asking me questions in case there is stuff I have left out/forgotten/could enquire about.
Best
Andreas
Thanks for sharing this Andreas. Please could you also tweet a link to the letter so we can support via social media (assuming you’re happy for members to do that?).
I note that Cabinet Office has scored poorly on responding to FOI requests according to a recent FT article (see: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/05/01/britain-is-rejecting-an-ever-greater-share-of-freedom-of-information-requests). Perhaps we can also highlight this as I think this is part and parcel of the same issue - lack of political leadership around open government.
Rachel
1 Like
Thanks Rachel, I have tweeted this from the OGN twitter account.
In the next day or so I will be sharing some proposed top lines, along with a proposal for a network statement that I hope the network can agree upon before the Summit so that it can be published at the start of it (along with other suggested comms plans).
Best
Andreas
Hi all,
Here was the response to the letter we sent last month. It came through on Monday but was buried under my emails.
In any case, it does not really affect our statement that went out today.
eCase 05027 - Pavlou.pdf (191.2 KB)
Best
Andreas