04 June 2010
The most detailed public spending figures ever to be published by the government are available online from today, in an attempt to increase transparency of how taxpayer money is used.
The Combined Online Information System, which contains millions of rows of data on spending from the 2008/09 and 2009/10 financial years, can be viewed at data.gov.uk (http://data.gov.uk/dataset/coins) as of this morning.
The information is complex and is currently being published only in its raw form, meaning that it will require technical expertise to understand. However, the Treasury has also pledged to present the information in a more accessible way in future.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: ‘We will not stop here – we plan to release more data in the coming months that will be easier for the general public to understand.
‘For too long the previous government acted as if the public had no right to know where their hard-earned taxes were spent.
‘Today, we have lifted that veil of secrecy… this is a major step forward and shows we are delivering on our promise to make this government more open and transparent while ensuring we deliver value for money.’
The Treasury describes the Coins database as a ‘consolidation system’ rather than a set of accounts, and so it does not hold details of individual financial transactions by government bodies.
The system is used to collect financial information from across the public sector to generate statistics on public expenditure, and produce the Whole of Government Accounts.
It contains information on the current financial year, the five years before it, and up to three ‘plan’ years covered by the current Spending Review.
