Published 30 March 2010
Communities Secretary John Denham today opened the door to a new era in transparency and innovation by making it easier for taxpayers to scrutinise how billions of pounds of their money has been spent.
From today everyone can go to a brand new website (external link) and look at spending in any area of England simply by clicking on and scrolling over maps. At the touch of a button it will be clear to see how taxpayers money was spent locally and by which public bodies.
The new digital presentation of the Local Spending Report transfers reams and reams of inaccessible data previously locked in spreadsheets into web based formats that local people can readily interrogate and scrutinise. This includes information on funding for police, fire, health and local authorities.
Greater transparency will make it easier to look right across all the local services in an area and spot evidence of duplication or waste. It will help all local authorities to 'health check' whether public money going into the area is delivering value for money and delivering the very best services.
Alongside the new website, proposals for substantially increasing and updating the amount of information available in the next Local Spending Report are outlined in a new consultation paper released today. The consultation also seeks views on the new presentation and future direction for these Reports.
The changes will help ensure local authorities are well placed to develop a Total Place approach to services by taking a fundamental look at all the money going into the area and make the most of new freedoms and flexibilities the Government is delivering to improve services whilst generating savings.
Ministers hope that freeing up this data will drive innovation and fresh thinking by providing entrepreneurs, businesses, customers, professionals and suppliers with the data they need to identify business opportunities or problems and come up with new solutions.
Communities Secretary John Denham said:
"Taxpayers have a right to know how their hard earned money is being spent and better, smarter data is crucial to driving down costs and increasing innovation.
"The changes today are about making it easier for citizens and councils alike to access at the touch of a button the information they need to scrutinise and challenge how money is being spent."
The changes to the way Local Spend Reports are presented are part and parcel of wider changes being spearheaded by government to make public data public.
An independent Local Public Data Panel, led by Professor Nigel Shadbolt, has been set up by John Denham to champion the public data agenda at the local level. It will promote the release of local public data and information sharing, accelerate progress in agreeing common standards for data released into the public sphere, and make local public services better understood and more accessible.
Notes to editors
1. The Government wants to ensure that Local Spending Reports are easy and practical to use with more information about central spending in each area and easier access to more local information about the bodies and places in question. Future Reports should empower the citizen or local partners by giving them quick and easy access to the relevant website of public sector organisations for further information and contacts.
2. As a first step in that process, the data from the first Local Spending Report (published in April 2009 with data from 2006/07) has been loaded into CLG's award winning Places Database in a clear and user friendly format at:
www.localspending.communities.gov.uk/ (external link).3. Future Local Spending Reports will be published in this new way as data becomes available, and a consultation paper published today (
www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/lsrproposalssecondreportcon) seeks views on this presentation and how it might be improved further in the future.
4. Section 6(10) of the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 ('the Act') placed a requirement on the Secretary of State to make arrangements for the production of Local Spending Reports (LSRs). The Act also required the Secretary of State to consult persons likely to be affected by the proposed arrangements for LSRs.
5. The Local Public Data Panel chaired by Professor Nigel Shadbolt has met twice. Updates on progress are provided via a Panel page on data.gov.uk. This includes a blog, agendas, papers and minutes.
The panel has:
identified numerous data streams local authorities provide to central government as areas to focus on for further data release.
commissioned work by CLG and the Local e-Government Standards Board to develop a set of standards that local authorities could use to release data in open, re-usable formats.
started work with leading local authorities (Local Data Exemplars) to make their data available via data.gov.uk. Through their example, the Panel will work to spread best practice and provide the rationale and support throughout the sector to see more local data come online.
The Panel is also supporting a project working with local government to see local election results from May made available in open and re-usable formats.
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