Letter from Margot James MP at DCMS

UK Open Government Network
1

Dear Network!

You may remember that last month (Feb 2019)
we sent a letter to Margot James about the ongoing delay to the publication of the UK Open Gov Action Plan.

Please find attached the response.

Best

Andreas

eCase 02339 - Pavlou.pdf (190 KB)

2

Hi Andreas.
Well done re: the letter and subsequent response! Great to have that line of communication open.
I may be mistaken, but is there an expectation that the UK Open Government Action Plan would be published this (Open Gov) week? Is that still the case?
Best,
Kevin

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Thanks, Andreas.

Rachel Davies Teka

Head of Advocacy

Transparency International UK

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Hi Keith,

Thanks for the positive response! Luckily we have a good connection to government (though that doesnt seem to translate into government action).

As far as I am aware we should expect the plan to be published, but I have written to DCMS for confirmation as I think that is seriously doubtful now. They have been very quiet since I last spoke with them and this letter does not necessarily inspire that they are planning on publishing soon.

Best

Andreas

1 Like
5

Thanks for sharing this Andreas.

Regarding the reference in the letter to more grants data being shared, while this is factually correct - more data has been shared for FY 17/18; its not valid to the 360Giving Standard as there is some data missing for some depts. The commitment in the 3rd NAP was that data would be published in the 360Giving Standard. We’re working with Cabinet Office on this and I’m hopeful they will correct it in the coming months, but I don’t want the network to be misled by this statement. This target is off track and its already 4 months since the data was first released and no corrections have been made yet.

Just giving the context for this in the run up to the 4th NAP and what we want real and tangible progress to look like.

Thanks for continuing to push on this on behalf of the network.