Billions of pounds
of public money will be subject to increased scrutiny by citizens
and councils, Communities Secretary John Denham announced today
Local Spending Reports provide information about how public money
is being spent in local areas including money going to police and
fire services, transport and health.
This is all crucial
information enabling people to see how their taxes are being put
to use. But at the moment if people want to see not only what is
being spent but what that money is delivering they would need to
trawl through an array of different data, reports and statistics.
John Denham is clear that improving the quantity and quality of
data in the public domain will not only increase transparency but
will also be key to improving efficiency and securing better value
for money.
Changes are therefore being proposed to improve the way that
local spending reports are produced and presented. At the moment
they exist as a series of excel spreadsheets. From next summer
they will be published online in a clear and user friendly format
that will enable the data to be easily interrogated.
In future the reports will include:
• more up to date information
• greater detail on spending
by quangos including Learning and Skills Councils, the Homes and
Communities Agency
• more comprehensive details of grant
payments from central to local government
• enhanced regional
data
• web links taking users direct to relevant sources of
additional information including the new Oneplace website which
features detail of all comprehensive area assessments.
Greater transparency will make it easier to look right across all
the local services in an area and spot evidence of duplication or
waste. It will help all local authorities to ‘health check’
whether public money going into the area is delivering value for
money and delivering the very best services. It could also drive
innovation and fresh thinking by providing entrepreneurs,
businesses, customers, professionals and suppliers with the data
they need to identify business opportunities or problems and come
up with solutions.
It will help more councils to follow the lead of the thirteen
local authorities currently involved in Total Place pilots. Total
Place has the potential to not only improve services but lead to
multi million pound savings The authorities involved are taking a
fundamental look at all the money going into the area, where it is
being spent, what it is delivering and how it could be spent
differently.
However, the authorities involved have fed back that the process
of collecting data on public spending has been time consuming and
expensive. This time and cost could be massively reduced if a
system was in place to make it easier for all areas of the country
to apply the same analysis to their own spend and delivery. As set
out in Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government, Government
is committed to providing a broad range of national and local
information to citizens in an accessible format. Local Spending
Reports will play a crucial role here as part of central
Government’s offer to the information set available on local
services and local places.
John Denham said:
“Providing expenditure alone risks knowing the cost of everything
and the value of nothing. Taxpayers have a right to know how their
hard earned money is being spent. But citizens and councils alike
should also be able to easily access the information they need to
scrutinise and challenge what that money is delivering.”
“The changes we are making will make doing that much easier and
is part of a wider transformation in the way that public services
are delivered - making them more people centred and shifting power
to the user.“
“Better, smarter data is crucial to driving down costs and
increasing innovation. It will open the door to enterprise and
innovation by encouraging individuals, business and third sector
to come up with new solutions to old problems.”
“Information really is power in this respect and local spending
reports are a key part of the Governments wider actions to
transform public services in line with people’s expectations.”
Because the data held by local authorities is every bit as
valuable as data held nationally the Communities Secretary has
asked Professor Shadbolt to head up a panel of experts to oversee
the release of local data. Over the coming weeks and months, the
panel will look at how council information ranging from recycling
data, street works, planning applications and parking fines can be
made available to residents. This, together with the changes being
made to Local Spending Reports will radically improve the quality
of information in the public domain.
Notes to Editors
1. We are committed to ensuring Local Spending Reports are
practical, useful and cost-effective.
2. The data from the
first Local Spending Report will be loaded into CLG’s award
winning Places Database in a clear and user friendly format.
Places database already holds data for over 600 indicators at a
number of spatial levels. By March 2010 an improved mapping
facility will allow users to look at spending in an area by
clicking on and scrolling over high quality maps. Some mock-up
screens of how this might be presented to citizens are available
at the link below: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1423272.pdf
3. Places Database can be found at: http://www.places.communities.gov.uk/
Future Local Spending Reports will be also be published in this
way as data becomes available and we will be looking to improve
the site from feedback received from the consultation exercise and
the release in March. We will also work closely with the Audit
Commission to ensure that Places Database and the oneplace site
are complementary in their offerings.
4. A new report details the changes we intend to make to local
spending reports and that can be viewed at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localpublicexpenditure
Contacts:
Communities and Local Government Press Office
Phone: 0303 44 41137
press.office@communities.gsi.gov.uk