Transparency in Public Finance – the role of good data

Stephen Richard — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 10:41:28 +0000

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Thu, 09/02/2021 - 11:41

Date Published

Sat, 10/28/2017 - 12:00

Category

Scottish government

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

― There are two primary issues with data for the public and for transparency – trust and usability. The former of these is crucial.

― Making numbers have meaning for people should be the primary public-facing aim of public data. But this should also carry an additional element – regular work should be done to systematically identify what information the public wants from public data.

― As a substantial user of public data, Common Weal regularly comes across the issue of comprehensiveness and consistency. Put very simply, often Scotland lacks crucial data because it is collected from across government rather than being coordinated by a central body.

― There should be a single portal for Scottish public sector data. This would clearly be aided by a single statistics agency. However, there is very widely varying practice out there on the presentation of data to the public – and clearly for openness the better and easier the presentation the more likely people are to feel data is useable.

― Almost everyone involved with public data will have had some experience of ‘obstructionism’ in gaining access to public data. Whether it is failure to publish, denial of Freedom of Information requests, use of ‘commercial confidentiality’ clauses, refusal to disaggregate date or provide methodologies or claims that ‘personal data’ can be inferred from larger data sources, there has simply been far too much ‘that’s for us to know and you to not know’ practice.

More details

Who benefits? One of the biggest issues of trust and data relates to 'who benefits?'. There is an enormous amount of public expenditure but it is not always easy to identify (a) who's pockets it ends up in and (b) whose interests the expenditure serves. This should be addressed by attaching to every piece of legislation or spending decision (over a certain threshold) a statement of who benefits (directly and indirectly) and by how much. Which private companies receive direct payment for delivery? This can then be checked against the lobbying register to identify whether they've sought to influence the decision that led to them receiving the money. Which interest groups benefit and by how much? Every sectoral lobby seeks to persuade us that what is good for them is good for everyone – so this should be publicly counted, How good is it for you in hard money terms? How good is it for everyone else in hard money terms? If government is making public-good decisions in an open and honest way, it should not only have no objection to this information but should positively welcome it.

Keywords

Government transparency

Government data

Public data

Public sector data

Language English