Submission to the Department for Communities and Local Government consultation Code of recommended practice for local authorities on data transparency 18th March 2011 Dear Sir/Madam, Please find below a submission from the TaxPayers’ Alliance to the Department for Communities and Local Government consultation Code of recommended practice for local authorities on data transparency . If you have any questions about our submission, please feel free to get in touch with me using the details below.
Yours faithfully, John O’Connell Research Director, TaxPayers’ Alliance john.oconnell@taxpayersalliance.com 0845 330 9554
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TaxPayers’ Alliance key recommendation – HR transparency
All bodies listed under the Code’s scope – and those the TPA recommends the scope should extend to – should publish a full list of job titles and job descriptions. No salary information or names need to be published alongside this for junior staff; a simple list of jobs and job descriptions is all that is necessary. It is crucial that public bodies let taxpayers know exactly what work they are doing as staff time is often a more significant commitment than payments to suppliers. Job descriptions would allow for a more informed debate over the council’s priorities and the requirement to publish would encourage more care in recruitment and staff allocation. HR transparency is crucial. This recommendation is not included in the Code, but the TPA strongly suggests it is added as a priority.
Summary of other points
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) supports the proposed code in principle but we believe it contains loopholes which must be closed for it to be more effective.
The TPA strongly opposes removing any of the listed bodies. Instead, we recommend that all local organisations whose funds are derived from local government precepts (such as commons conservators) should be subject to the code, as well as others.
Supporting commercial reuse of published data is vital. Third parties must be free to support accountability by repackaging data in a more useful format.
The TPA believes all expenditure, not just that on items over £500, should be published online, and for items over £500 a brief description of purpose should be attached.
The remuneration details of staff on £58,200 – or the minimum rate of a senior civil servant – and they should be published with immediate effect.
Agency and contract workers should be included as though they were direct employees of an authority.
The TPA believes employees’ right to refuse disclosure of their name should only apply in the first year. In subsequent years, names should only be withheld in exceptional circumstances.
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Responses to key questions
1. Does the proposed Code and the principles contained within it help to create the conditions whereby local people will be able to hold local authorities to account? Yes, but not as much as it might. We do not believe anything in the proposed Code represents a step back for creating the conditions for accountability in local government, but it does contain a number of loopholes that are likely to allow local authorities the option to resist transparency and accountability thereby restricting the potential benefits which the Department could unleash through a revised, tighter code. We have addressed these concerns in more detail in our response to the Code’s principles below. 2. The Government believes it is essential local people know how much funding is directed towards the voluntary and community groups and wants to increase local accountability on such spending decisions and the transfer of services to this sector. Are there additional, existing data sets that should be specified to increase transparency in this area? No. There are no such datasets the TPA is aware of. 3. Does the proposed Code sufficiently support the publication and reuse of public data? No. We have listed concerns in the table below relating to individual items in the code where we believe there to be weaknesses which do not support publication. However, we are satisfied with the code as it relates to the reuse of the data that will be published under it. 4. Do you believe all the bodies covered in paragraph 3 of the proposed Code should be included? Yes. We would strongly oppose the exemption of any of the listed bodies. However, other bodies whose funding comes from Council Tax precepts should be added. 5. Would a ‘function test’ such as that used in Audit and Account Regulations in 2009 be better e.g. “a person who has responsibility for the management of the relevant body to the extent that the person has power to direct or control the major activities of the body (in particular activities involving the expenditure of money), whether solely or collectively with other persons”? Or a definition based on legal definitions e.g. the salaries of the head of paid staff, statutory chief officers, non-statutory chief officers and deputy chief officers, as defined in the Local Government and Housing Act 1989? The Department should go ahead with publishing remuneration details for those receiving £58,200 (minimum for a senior civil servant) as soon as possible. This was proposed by David Cameron before the election and should be followed through. If the Department
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wanted to go further, a ‘triple lock’ test could be mandated where remuneration details would be published for all staff who qualified under any one of the three tests mentioned above. Taxpayers are entitled to know how much staff who exercise significant authority, are in statutory roles or are highly paid receive each year, irrespective of how many of these criteria their employment meets. This principle is being applied in central government, as can be seen with the publication of pay for Special Advisers. The TPA believes the single most useful criteria of those three is a threshold based on total remuneration rather than any component of it (such as salary).
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Proposed code of practice with detailed TPA comments & questions No.
DCLG Draft practice
code
of
recommended TPA comments & questions
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This Code is issued by the Secretary of The TPA welcomes the proposed Code in State for the Department of Communities principle. and Local Government in exercise of his powers under section 2 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 to issue a Code of Recommended Practice (The Code) as to the publication of information by local authorities about the discharge of their functions and other matters which he considers to be related.
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The Code applies in England only.
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In this Code:
We would encourage adoption by the administrations in Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland.
We do not believe any bodies should be removed. However, the list should be “the Act” means the Local Government, extended to cover any body funded by a precept on council tax, e.g. the Wimbledon Planning and Land Act 1980; “local authority’ means: & Putney Commons Conservators. The 1 a county council; Department should also include any publically funded body set up as a 2 a district council; commercial enterprise by councils and/or 3 a parish council; Regional Development Agencies. A 4 a parish meeting of a parish which comprehensive list of such bodies is does not have a separate parish council; available through the TPA’s research paper RDA Grants.1 5 a London borough council; 6
the Common Council of the City of
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London;
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the Council of the Isles of Scilly;
9 a National Park authority for a National Park in England; 10
the Broads Authority;
11 the Greater London Authority so far as it exercises its functions through the Mayor; 1
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/rdagrants.pdf
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12 the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority; 13
Transport for London;
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the London Development Agency;
a fire and rescue authority (constituted by a scheme under section 2 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 or a scheme to which section 4 of that Act applies, and a metropolitan county fire and rescue authority); • a police authority, meaning: 0 (a) a police authority established under section 3 of the Police Act 1996; 1 (b) the Metropolitan Police Authority; 2 • a joint authority established by Part IV of the Local Government Act 1985 (fire and rescue services and transport); 3 • joint waste authorities, i.e. an authority established for an area in England by an order under section 207 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007; 4 • an economic prosperity board established under section 88 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009; 5 • a combined authority established under section 103 of that Act; 6 • waste disposal authorities, i.e. an authority established under section 10 of the Local Government Act 1985; 7 • an Integrated Transport Authority for an integrated transport area in England. 4
Greater transparency of public bodies is at the heart of enabling the public to hold politicians and public bodies to account. Where public money is involved there is a fundamental public interest in being able to see how it is being spent. Public data should also be used to highlight inefficiency and open new markets for local business, the voluntary and community sectors and
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The TPA support the use of public data to highlight new commercial opportunities for the private and voluntary sectors alike, and to make it easier for people to discover waste and for inefficiency to be uncovered.
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social enterprises to manage public assets.
run
services
or
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“Public data” therefore means the objective, factual, non-personal data on which policy decisions are based and on which public services are assessed, or which is collected or generated in the course of public service delivery. This should be the basis for publication of information on the discharge of local authority functions.
Why does subjective or non-factual data not count as ‘public data’? We recommend removing these adjectives to avoid the possibility of data being withheld from disclosure on the grounds that it is considered to be ‘non-factual’ or ‘subjective’.
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The Freedom of Information Act 2000 No comment. requires local authorities to have a publication scheme approved by the Information Commissioner’s Office that sets out information that must be routinely published. Local authorities must comply with these requirements.
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The following principles should underpin We support the principles of the Code. decisions about publication and local authorities should respond to best practice as it develops. This requires a proactive approach to review and pursue higher standards. DEMAND LED
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There are growing expectations that new We support the demand-led approach. technologies and data should support transparency and accountability. Local authorities should not seek to predetermine the value of their data and the level of public demand; rather they should understand what data they hold, what their communities want and then release it in a way that allows the public, developers or the media to present it in new ways that makes its meaning more apparent. It is this process that will create demand for data.
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As a minimum, the datasets that should be The TPA supports the publication of expenditure details over £500. It is a huge released are:
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.1 Expenditure over £500, (including costs, supplier and transaction information). Any sole trader or body acting in a business capacity in receipt of payments of at least £500 of public money should expect such payments to be transparent. .2 Grants and payments under contract to the voluntary community and social enterprise sector should be clearly itemised and listed.
step forward for transparency and it is good that the Department itself has set this example for others to follow. But we see no reason why spending items under £500 should be exempt. This exemption could provide an incentive for orders to be split into smaller items and there is plenty of scope for wasteful or inappropriate spending on items of less than £500. The public expect transparency here, too. In addition, for items over £100 in value, a brief description of what the expenditure relates to and the purpose for which it was intended should be recorded and published. This would also drastically reduce the number of FOIs local authorities would receive regarding one budget line on a data release.
.3 Senior salaries, names (with the option for individuals to refuse to consent for their name to be published) job descriptions, responsibilities, budgets and numbers of staff. “Senior salaries” is defined as being all salaries which are above £58,200 (irrespective of post), which The TPA believes expenditure data and is the Senior Civil Service minimum pay salary data should both be published in CSV band. files according to national standard .4 An organisational chart of the staff definitions to assist easy agglomeration and structure of the local authority. comparison between authorities. For .5 Councillor allowances and expenses. example, the Code should specify values 1 Copies of contracts and tenders to like an employee’s name, job title, salary, businesses and to the voluntary community etc. Authorities whose data does not fit the standards should insert custom ‘columns’ and social enterprise sector. after the national standard ones. 2 Policies, performance, audits and key indicators on the authorities’ fiscal and The TPA believes a copy of every original financial position invoice and receipt should be published 3 Data of democratic running of the online, in an electronic format where the local authority including the constitution, document was received electronically or a election results, committee minutes, scanned pdf where a paper copy was decision - making processes and records of received. decisions. The TPA believes the option for staff to refuse to have their names published should only apply in the first year to allow those senior staff who do not wish for their salary to be a matter of public scrutiny the time to seek alternative employment. Salaries should include all remuneration received as per the categories in the Audit and Account Regulations 2009. In addition, start dates and leaving dates should be included for staff where applicable. The code should also mandate authorities to
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disclose the number of hours an employee is contracted to work and the number of days holiday (and any other special leave, with the exception of leave for bereavement or sickness) the employee took during the year. The TPA strongly recommends that all remuneration packages over £58,200 should be published, as proposed before the election. Further, all three tests could apply when determining which employees’ remuneration details ought to be published. That is, remuneration details for statutory officers and those who qualify in the Regulations but whose remuneration falls below the threshold should also be published. The TPA also believes agency and contract staff details should be included in the remuneration disclosure. Finally, authorities should publish remuneration details of employees who are contracted to work for less than 35 hours per week or do not work for a full year due to either starting or ending employment during the year or because the contracted holiday entitlement exceeds 35 days (excluding public holidays) when the full time equivalent or whole year equivalent remuneration (or both where both apply) exceeds the threshold.
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Local authorities should develop an We support this clause. inventory of the data that they hold and ensure it is published. As data is highlighted to the widest possible audience public demand should grow and local authorities should expect to publish more information.
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These inventories should be registered on We support this clause. data.gov.uk to support a single point of access for all public data from national and local government.
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OPEN The TPA believes the exemption to online publishing should exist only for authorities with an annual budget of less than £500,000.
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Information should be made easily accessible to the public for use and re-use. For most local authorities it will mean publishing data online and where possible there should be a single access page for data being published.
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Information must be published in a format We support this clause. and under a licence that allows open reuse, including commercial and research activities, in order to maximise value to the public. The Open Government Licence published by the National Archive is the recommended standard. Where any copyright concerns exist with information, these should be made clear.
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Local authority information should be, We support this clause. where possible, published in open and machine-readable formats. The recommended five-step journey to a fully open format is: * Publish the available data on the web in whatever format; ** Make it available as structured data, for example in a spreadsheet rather than a .pdf document; *** Publish it in non-proprietary format such as comma separated values (CSV); **** User Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to define and describe your data, thereby helping users discover and explore it, and understand its meaning and context, and; ***** Using URIs, incorporate links in your data to related external sources.
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Publication in both .pdf and .csv formats We support this clause. should be the minimum requirement.
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Local authorities should have controls in We support this clause. place to reduce the risk of any payment
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fraud as a result of publishing data. A risk management approach should be used to support these open standards. Potential measures to support this are suggested at Annex A of the Code.
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Data will often be of most use in its raw We support this clause. format. It should therefore be published as quickly as possible after it is produced. For example, expenditure should be published on a monthly or quarterly basis depending on functionality of in-house systems; organisational information should be published in line with central Government.
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Data should be as accurate as possible at We support this clause. first publication. While errors may occur the publication of information should not be unduly delayed to rectify mistakes. Instead, publication and use of the data should be used to help address any imperfections and deficiencies. This concerns errors in data accuracy not errors in redacting personal data, which is covered below.
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Where errors in data are discovered, or We support this clause. files are changed for other reasons (such as omissions), local authorities should publish revised information making it clear where and how there has been an amendment.
Annex A: Anti-fraud measures Local authorities should have controls in We support the annex. place to reduce the risk of payment fraud occurring. Typically, controls might include: .1 Only accepting requests for changes to supplier standing data in writing. .2 Seeking confirmation from the supplier that the requested changes are genuine, using contact details held on the vendor data file or from previous and
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legitimate correspondence; and not contacting the supplier via contact details provided on the letter requesting the changes. .3 Ensuring that there is segregation of duties between those who authorise changes and those who make them. .4 Only authorising changes when all appropriate checks have been carried out with legitimate suppliers and only making the changes when the proper authorisations to do so have been given. .5 Maintaining a suitable audit trail to ensure that a history of all transactions and changes is kept. .6 Producing reports of all changes made to supplier standing data and checking that the changes were valid and properly authorised before any payments are made. .7 Carrying out standard checks on invoices before making any payments. .8 Regularly verifying the correctness of standing data with suppliers.
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