Open Government at All Levels (UK0076)

Objective: To share learning across the UK in order to establish the effective
governance for Open Government commitments - through collaborative dialogue
between governments, civil society and experts.
Status quo: In reviewing the first five years of Open Government Partnership a
number of important themes emerged. Including the need to bring in new political
leadership and open government innovations from all levels of government; to
ensure that OGP commitments provide real improvement in people’s lives. They
also identified that only 2% of commitments worldwide are aimed at health or
education or climate change.
Scotland is one of 15 Pioneer governments at various levels worldwide who are
developing action plans and working with OGP to consider these questions.
Scotland will lead a collaborative discussion within the UK with governments, civil
society and experts to identify how best to support the spread of Open Government.
The changing nature of democracy and varying levels of devolution in United
Kingdom make it an ideal testing ground for beginning to develop a robust
framework which enables OGP action Plans to be developed at the level that is most
effective for the people they serve. So that they are able to tackle some of the most
significant societal issues in ways which will support the delivery of the sustainable
development goals by 2030.
Ambition: The result will be a draft framework to set out how OGP, governments
and civil society can ensure that commitments are ‘owned’ at the level of government
best able to deliver improvements while maintaining the core values and effective
partnership with civil society.

1. Effective Open Government for governments at all levels (Scotland)

Commitment Text:Developing Effective Open Government for governments at all levels, through the outputs from one or more summit discussions.

Main objective:To share learning across the UK in order to establish the effective governance for Open Government commitments – through collaborative dialogue between governments, civil society and experts.

Status quo:in reviewing the first five years of Open Government Partnership a number of important themes emerged. Including the need to bring in new political leadership and open government innovations from all levels of government; to ensure that OGP commitments provide real improvement in people's lives. They also identified that only 2% of commitments worldwide are aimed at health or education or climate change.

Scotland is one of 15 Pioneer governments at various levels worldwide who are developing action plans and working with OGP to consider these questions. Scotland will lead a collaborative discussion within the UK with governments, civil society and experts to identify how best to support the spread of Open Government.

The changing nature of democracy and varying levels of devolution in United Kingdom make it an

ideal testing ground for beginning to develop a robust framework, which enables OGP Action Plans to be developed at the level that is most effective for the people they serve. This will mean they are able to tackle some of the most significant societal issues in ways which will support the delivery of the sustainable development goals by 2030.

Ambition:The result will be a draft framework to set out how OGP, governments and civil society can ensure that commitments are ‘owned' at the level of government best able to deliver improvements while maintaining the core values and effective partnership with civil society.

Milestone:

1. One or more summit meetings between governments, civil society, OGP and experts to explore the issues collaboratively

Responsible institution: Scottish Government

Supporting institutions: Governments of Wales, Northern Ireland and Cabinet Office for UK and Open Government Partnership OGP Civil Society Networks from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and UK

Start date: Spring 2017

End date: December 2017

Commitment Aim:

The commitment aimed to develop co-operation and share learning on open government reforms across the UK. Specifically, the commitment uses the OGP framework to create ‘one or more summit meetings between governments, civil society, OGP and experts to explore the issues collaboratively' from across the four nations of the UK. Scotland has its own Freedom of Information (FOI) law that differs slightly from the UK-wide law.^{[Note 140: The University of Edinburgh, ‘Freedom of Information in Scotland and the rest of the UK', http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/Legislation.aspx. For more on Scotland's separate OGP commitments, Andy McDevitt (2017), Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM): Scotland Final Report 2017.]}

Overall, CSOs felt they were in a different place from a year previously when the pioneer status had been developed: for its promises of openness the Scottish government was ‘pursuing a very traditional approach to policy in tight circles' and neglecting possibilities around the link between public service reform and openness that they had previously championed.^{[Note 141: Interview with Ruchir Shah, SCVO, September 2017.]}

Scotland is one of 15 participants of OGP's Subnational Government Pilot Program, created to recognise that ‘open government innovations and reforms are happening at the local level where governments can engage more directly with citizens and many crucial public services are delivered with their own'.^{[Note 142: OGP, ‘Subnational Government Pilot Program', https://www.opengovpartnership.org/subnational-government-pilot-program ]} As a consequence, Scotland has a separate action plan running on a different timeframe (see the Scottish action plan for more details).^{[Note 143: Scotland's action plan, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/scotland-united-kingdom-action-plan]}

This commitment called for holding a summit (or summits) where equivalent Ministers from across UK governments (Britain, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - as well as local government and elected mayors) can meet and discuss open government reforms with civil society. Ideally, the summit would encourage collaboration and, more specifically, develop ideas for the next action plan and future commitments.^{[Note 144: Interview with Doreen Grove and Emma Harvey, Scottish Government, 24 August 2017.]} However, the methodology to be used to address relevant issues was not specified.

Status

Midterm: Limited

The commitment initially had a deadline of December 2017, but discussions took longer. As of November 2017, the Scottish Government reported that it had not proven possible to find a suitable date within the calendar year. As of early 2018, a date had been set for April 2018, outside of the time period for this report, but within the time period of the action plan.^{[Note 145: Scottish Government (2017), Scotland Narrative for inclusion in UK Open Government, National Action Plan Self-Assessment Report (update sent to author October 2017).]}

End of Term: Complete

The first UK-wide summit took place on 10 April 2018. It included 45 ‘representatives of the UK, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland administrations, alongside local and regional governments and civil society representatives'.^{[Note 146: Niamh Webster (2018), Open Government Partnership Scotland hosts the first UK Open Government summit, 22 August 2018, https://blogs.gov.scot/open-government-partnership/2018/08/22/scotland-hosts-the-first-uk-open-government-summit/]} There were speeches and presentations from village, city and national level government representatives, as well as OGP attendees.^{[Note 147: Interview with Doreen Grove and Emma Harvey, 22 May 2018.]} As the post-summit analysis put it, the summit was intended as a space to discuss ‘their ambitions and common challenges' from their different perspectives.^{[Note 148: Niamh Webster (2018), Open Government Partnership Scotland hosts the first UK Open Government summit, 22 August 2018, https://blogs.gov.scot/open-government-partnership/2018/08/22/scotland-hosts-the-first-uk-open-government-summit/]} The attendees looked into collective work and how to maintain momentum and ambition, as well as how change works. Topics in particular focused on cross level attempts around ‘openness, transparency and participation' and the need for ‘collective action' around how to ‘share learning and progress this agenda'. It was reported that there was an ‘appetite in the room to reconvene in a year's time to continue the discussion, or potentially other meet ups within the nations to prepare'.^{[Note 149: Ibid.]}

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

Civic participation: Marginal

The meeting in April 2018 increased awareness of access to information approaches and experiments across the UK and was also important as a forum to share lessons, experiences and ideas between activists and officials at different levels of government, from the lowest to highest level. It also increased civic participation by bringing together, for the first time, UK-based civil society groups and politicians in a single place. Though listed as ‘marginal', if repeated in the future such meetings could be more impactful.

Carried Forward?

The Scottish government was considering a follow-up commitment as part of the next action plan that would build on the meetings and networks made, based around ‘learning/collaboration', drawn up between the various UK administrations.

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