Government publishes draft code on data transparency requirements for Local Authorities

In June last year, the Government wrote to all Local Authorities (LA’s) to advise that the Government would expect LA’s to start publishing details of all expenditure, contracts, tenders and items of spend over £500 with effect from January this year. LA's were also invited to go further than the Government’s initial request and include wider information for publication such as councillor expenses, performance data, licensing applications and transport information. 

The coalition local transparency agenda continues to develop with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) publishing a 'Code of recommended practice for local authorities on data transparency' for consultation which will apply in England only.

What does this mean?
It is important that LA’s begin to consider the draft Code and consider the potential impact of implementing the requirements if introduced.

Part of the draft Code requires LA's to have controls in place to reduce the risk of any payment fraud as a result of publishing data information. Annex A of the Code gives further guidance as to potential measures LA's can refer to.  The Government states that ‘a risk management approach should be used to support these open standards'.

The proposals require data to be published in a specific format for it to be accessed by the public. In the draft Code, LA's will be required to develop an inventory of the data that they hold and ensure that it is published to a specific standard in open and machine-readable formats. This will required to be registered and published on data.gov.uk to enable a single point of access for all public data from national and local government.

The Government reaffirms its belief that it is important local tax payers can access this information readily in order to see how LA’s are using public money. It also states greater transparency will bring greater accountability by highlighting areas of inefficiency and waste.

The consultation gives LA’s the opportunity to respond to the draft code proposals  including if all the bodies covered in paragraph 3 of the proposed Code should be included and if the Code would help local people to hold LA’s to account.

Next Stages and links to further information
The consultation / draft code can be read in full at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1829193.pdf

The closing date to submit views on the Government proposals is the 14th March 2011  The Government will then review feedback and publish a summary of responses at the same time as the Final Code of Practice (date to be confirmed).


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