Open Policy Making (UK0057)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: United Kingdom – Second National Action Plan 2013-2015
Action Plan Cycle: 2013
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: Cabinet Office
Support Institution(s): CSOs: Compact Voice, Involve, The Democratic Society
Policy Areas
Public ParticipationIRM Review
IRM Report: United Kingdom End-of-Term Report 2013-2015, United Kingdom Progress Report 2013-2015
Early Results: Did Not Change
Design i
Verifiable: Yes
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): High
Implementation i
Description
The UK government’s commitment to open policy making was set out in the Civil Service Reform Plan. However, open policy making cannot be introduced by management order – it is an attitude more than a set of processes. To convince officials that open policy making is worthwhile, and to convince the public and others that the government is willing to follow through on its commitment, there is a need to demonstrate how open policy making can really work.
These demonstrators need to make clear that open policy making is not dependent on deep technical knowledge, and is not futuristic – the key message should be “people like you are doing open policy making right now”. A range of different projects – expressly set up as experiments – will show officials at national and local level how open policy making can be integrated into the everyday business of government.
The projects will cut across different policy areas and demonstrate how different open approaches can be used to improve policy. These approaches will include:
-sharing the context and evidence on which policy development is being based, both at the start and throughout the policy process
-engaging a broad range of experts – both from a professional and an experiential point of view – in the development of policy and ensuring their views are effectively gathered and demonstrably part of the result
-using new platforms to break open traditional consultation approaches to enable citizens to comment and track how policy is developing
Timescales: A meeting during the Autumn will identify candidate projects, with each requiring approval from their department and ministerial structures before they can formally be included. A final list will be agreed by January 2014. The development and learning from the projects will be shared via existing open policy making networks throughout the process. Those outside of government will be actively encouraged to comment on, and contribute to, progress. In early 2015, after the completion of the projects, the government will set out how it will embed the learning and successful approaches uncovered across the civil service policy profession.
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