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The next step in open policy making is greater public input

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xt step in open policy making is greater public input | Public Leaders Network | Guardian Professi… 8/20/12

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The next step in open policy making is greater public input
Both central and local government are giving citizens the chance to do more than comment on proposed legislation online

The Manchester Ev ening News works with DataGM to take m ap data for polling stations in Trafford. Photograph: Don Mcphee/guardian.co.uk

We are getting more used to the idea of government consulting the public on the formulation of policy on specific issues, using new technologies and techniques such as crowdsourcing to gather views and suggestions from a wider cross-section of society. The recently published civil service reform plan devotes a whole section to the development of open policy making. The next step in openness and engagement with citizens is giving them the chance to help frame the very laws by which we all live. To open up the legislative process, the government is introducing a 'public reading stage' for bills, to give the public an opportunity to comment on proposed legislation online and have their comments debated at committee stage. The first pilot of this new consultative concept was putting the Protection of Freedoms Bill online for comment, clause by clause, last year. This July, the Government Digital Service (GDS) launched the second iteration of the public reading stage tool, developed with Helpful Technology, to allow comments on bills passing through the House of Commons. Welcoming this upgrade, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said: "This is just the sort of innovative, citizen-focused technology that GDS was set up for – helping to open a door into the business of government.
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xt step in open policy making is greater public input | Public Leaders Network | Guardian Professi… 8/20/12

"Traditional consultations on legislation have tended to be narrow and exclusive. This online channel makes it easier for ordinary people to scrutinise government plans and put their own ideas, thoughts and concerns into the legislative process and influence parliamentary debate." The latest bill to be opened up in this way, providing another opportunity to test the concept and the technology, is the Department of Health's draft care and support bill in "commentable" form. As DoH head of digital Stephen Hale explained in his official blog, because it comes with "a public commitment to feed the comments that we receive directly into the process of parliamentary scrutiny via the team working on the bill, we're effectively enabling people to publicly contribute to the drafting of law". This is certainly a step forward from simply inviting comments – as is the case with most draft bills, which are published in PDF, with an email address for feedback. While this is going on, there is growing activity at local government level in the use of open data to inform policy development – and the key aspect, as for central government, is increasing engagement with the public, to get their views and present information in ways that are meaningful and useful to them. Lambeth council, which launched its open data principles earlier this summer, is engaging in online debate with users, and is crowdsourcing its food strategy. Council leader Steve Reed wants to release more and more information, to "create a closer relationship between users and providers of services". Because the council holds so much data, it is asking its residents what information they want and in what form. In the north-west of England, the Manchester Evening News (MEN) is working with Manchester council to push data and information out to a much wider audience through the online version of the newspaper. The paper wants to put information to work in ways that have direct relevance to local issues. Allowing electors, for example, to compare candidates at council election time, possibly with simple infographics on who they are, where they live respective to the wards they are standing in, and so on. The paper ran a large data project after the 2011 summer riots to provide answers to questions from the community about the reasons behind the disturbances, who was involved and how were they punished. It compiled a database of court cases in the months after the riots and used this information for a front page report. It also used the data to profile the looters and plotted their home addresses against indices of deprivation to demonstrate a correlation between the rioters and high levels of poverty. The MEN has worked closely with DataGM, a partnership of public sector bodies in Greater Manchester, to find ways of using the data they hold and publish. One example was taking map data for polling stations in the borough of Trafford to encourage readers to vote in the May local elections. The paper has also produced a series of articles based on statistics on the government's crime mapping site Police.uk to highlight variations in crime levels across its circulation area. Illustrating that open data knows no geographical boundaries, the MEN reported how a young developer in Germany had produced an interactive guide for commuter travel in Manchester, using data released by the city's transport authorities. He makes the point that while Manchester may not be the first city to publish this information, by making it available under an open licence through DataGM, it was "really easy for developers to use".
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xt step in open policy making is greater public input | Public Leaders Network | Guardian Professi… 8/20/12

If you want to find out how your local authority is performing on making their data open, and to see what is available, you can check at OpenlyLocal. Cabinet Office open data team This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Guardian Public Leaders Network free to receive regular emails on the issues at the top of the professional agenda. Previous Blog home

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www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/blog/2012/aug/20/open-policy-making-public-control/print

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Summary They are getting more used to the idea of government consulting the public on the formulation of policy on specific issues, using new technologies and techniques such as crowdsourcing to gather views and suggestions from a wider cross-section of society. The recently published civil service reform plan devotes a whole section to the development of open policy making.

Description Welcoming this upgrade, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said: "This is just the sort of innovative, citizen-focused technology that GDS was set up for – helping to open a door into the business of government.

"Traditional consultations on legislation have tended to be narrow and exclusive. This online channel makes it easier for ordinary people to scrutinise government plans and put their own ideas, thoughts and concerns into the legislative process and influence parliamentary debate."

Tags: Civil Service Reform Plan, Crowdsourcing, Freedom bills, GDS, Government Digital Service, open data, Open policy

Posted by Samuel Bennett

Aug 20, 2012 08:18 am GMT Viewed 578 times

Author: Cabinet Office open data team Source

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