30 September 2010
The Department for Communities and Local Government today publisheddetails of all its spending over £500 this financial year.
This is the first report since Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles pledged last month that the department and all councils would be required to detail any spending over £500. This figure is compared with a central government target of all data over £25,000 to be published by November.
Pickles said: ‘This new transparent era means a new way of thinking for councils but I'm showing them it's possible by publishing more of my department's spending online.’
The department also detailed a range of cost-saving measures it has taken. These include: turning down heating; ending refreshments at staff meetings; reducing work Blackberries and mobile phones; turning off lifts during quiet periods; and closing the DCLG headquarters overnight and at weekends.
Luke Spikes, chief executive of the Spotlight on Spend group – which works with public bodies on open data – welcomed the DCLG’s move towards greater openness. However, he warned that public bodies have a long way to go before achieving transparency for little cost.
‘The jury is out on how much it will cost public bodies themselves,’ he told Public Finance. ‘The guidelines produced for local government by the DCLG increased the complexity of the transparency.
‘I believe that policy makers thought that it was relatively straightforward for public bodies to comply but that is not transpiring to be the case. It is quite complex.’
He added that the details must be produced in an easy-to-comprehend format, something that public bodies have been unable to do as yet, including the DCLG.
A DCLG spokesman said that there had been virtually no extra cost in producing these figures.
