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Transparency Message from the Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude

As part of our coalition programme we promised a radical shake-up of what transparency means in government.  Only by really opening up what happens in the corridors of power and unlocking for everyone previously unavailable data can people get the information they need to hold politicians and public bodies to account.

Yesterday the Prime Minister wrote to all his cabinet ministers asking us to set new standards for transparency and to act rapidly to ensure our departments can meet the new timetable for data release.

He also announced that the Cabinet Office will have a key role in driving forward this transparency agenda and ensuring our commitments are implemented across government.  The new Public Sector Transparency Board, which I will chair, will be responsible for setting open data standards across the public sector, listening to what the public wants and then driving through the opening up of the most wanted data sets.  Other board members will include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, from the University of Southampton, and Tom Steinberg, founder of mysociety – some of the country’s leading experts and advocates on transparency and open data.

In addition, here in the Cabinet Office we have published information that has never been in the public domain before, including a complete list of the names, salaries and job titles for everyone in the Senior Civil Service who earns more than £150,000.

• List of high earners in the Civil Service [CSV 19KB].

More information about the Cabinet Office is available below.

• SCS Pay Scale Ranges.
• Business expenses of senior Cabinet Office officials.

Notes regarding the High Earners list:

• High Earner details are published for 171 people.  Details have been withheld in respect of 3 people and 11 people have not agreed to disclosure.
• The information is not held centrally and has been supplied by individual departments and agencies.
• Nil returns were supplied by some organisations. Organisations providing a nil return to the request to supply details of people paid at a full-time rate (including any taxable benefits and allowances) of £150,000 or more at 31 March 2010 include:
  
  Accountant in Bankruptcy
  Attorney General’s Office
  Charity Commission
  Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority
  Estyn
  FCO Services
  Forestry Commission
  Historic Scotland
  HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate
  Intellectual Property Office
  National Measurement Office
  National School for Government
  Office of the Advocate General
  ONS
  Planning Inspectorate
  Registrars of Scotland
  Royal Parks
  Scotland Office
  Scottish Court Service