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Government spend data published in drive to create most transparent and open government ever

CAB204 /10
18 November 2010

Minister for Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, will today release detailed Government spending data, allowing the public to see for the first time how Government spends its money and hold politicians to account.

Today, as part of our ongoing drive to make government more accountable, efficient and transparent than ever before, all departments will publish details of their spending over £25,000 for the last six months. On data.gov.uk we have also created a portal for transparency, giving the public and developers easy access to data from all levels of government.

Speaking ahead of the first ever international workshop on open data, the Open Government Data Camp, Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, said:

“It is our ambition to make the UK the most transparent and accountable government in the world.  I want the public hold us to account for what we do and, by publishing this data today, taxpayers will be able to see exactly how we spend their money. This will not always be easy but we expect the public to hold our feet to the fire and make sure that not a penny of their money is wasted.

“We’ve already released a revolutionary amount of data over the last six months, from the salaries of the highest earning civil servants to organisation structure charts which give people a real insight into the workings of government and is already being used in new and innovative ways.

“We recognise that this is a work in progress, and some of the data we have released so far is not as detailed or as comprehensive as we would like but we are committed to making information as readily available and easy to use as possible.”

Transparency Board Member and inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, said:

“The UK is at the forefront of the international drive for openness and transparency and it's great to see the commitment from the Coalition Government to drive this forward. Releasing data enables inventive people to build innovative new applications and websites which help people in their everyday lives.”

It was also announced today that this public expenditure data will be released on a monthly basis from now on.

Notes to Editors

1. All departmental spending transactions over £25,000 data can be found on an embargoed basis at https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ukhmgdata-cabinetoffice/Spend-data-2010-11-01/data.html. The data will be published at 00.01 on www.number10.gov.uk/ and www.data.gov.uk
2. Francis Maude was speaking ahead of the Open Government Data Camp, a conference run by the Open Knowledge Foundation.
3. Contact the relevant department’s press office for details about their data.
4. For more information on the developer’s applications contact visit
5. The Prime Minister announced the new Public Sector Transparency Board on 1 June. It is based at the Cabinet Office and is chaired by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude.
6. The other Board members are: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web; Professor Nigel Shadbolt of Southampton University, an expert on open data; Tom Steinberg, founder of mySociety; and Dr Rufus Pollock of Cambridge University. For further details on the Board, see www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
7. The remit of Transparency Board is to support and challenge public sector bodies to deliver and implement the Government’s transparency and open data agenda; set open data standards across the public sector; further develop the Right to Data and advise on its implementation in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice; and drive through the publication of further datasets on the basis of public demand ensuring that any data published is made available in an open format so that it can be re-used by third parties.

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