UK government 'most transparent' in the world

[Sons of Liberty]

The UK government is the most open and transparent in the world, according to global rankings looking at public access to official data. But web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, whose organisation compiled the table, says the country has "a long way to go" before it has a fully open government. Eighty-six countries were assessed for how easy their governments make it for state information to be analysed.The US and Sweden come second and third in the rankings.

The World Wide Web Foundation, founded by Sir Tim in 2009, accuses many governments of failing to honour their promises to ensure official data is available. It says that in more than 90% of countries surveyed, data that could help beat corruption and improve government services remained locked away from public view. "There are a lot of countries that have promised to put this basic data out there, really valuable information to cement trust between the government and citizens, but a lot of them haven't followed up," says Sir Tim.

Kenya has fallen 27 places in the overall rankings, from 22nd to 49th position. The foundation says many had hoped the high-profile launch of an open data portal in 2011 would be followed by continuing commitment and a policy framework for open data. "No such framework has come into force," it says.

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BBC News - UK government 'most transparent' in the world

 

[darkbeaver]

Black Leaf usually supplies our UK propaganda.

 

[Sons of Liberty]

Black Leaf usually supplies our UK propaganda.

I figured I would give him a hand with this one

 

[darkbeaver]

I figured I would give him a hand with this one

I can't imagine him missing an opportunity to post an outrageous inflationary piece like this one. A hope he hasn't come down with elbola.

 

[MHz]

Considering he ends up making them look bad getting help just means they will look 2x as bad in 1/2 the time. I have no issues so far, . . .

Mr Bean is their Jed Clampet, the sane one in the bunch.

"Kenya has fallen 27 places in the overall rankings, from 22nd to 49th position"

Company profits are the only reason they even have any stats to show they should stay, for the sake of the children.

I would check out the ones just below them to see if they suffer any inhumane events just before the scores were tallied up.

 

[taxslave]

Transparent as in we can see right through them?

 

[Blackleaf]

We've got the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies to all "public authorities" within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Government departments, the Houses of Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Welsh Assembly, the armed forces, local government bodies, National Health Service bodies, schools, colleges and universities, police authorities and Chief Officers of Police are included within this list, which ranges from the Farm Animal Welfare Council to the Youth Council for Northern Ireland.

Around 120,000 requests are made each year. Private citizens made 60% of them, with businesses and journalists accounting for 20% and 10% respectively. Journalists' requests took up more of officials' time than businesses' and individuals' requests

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 13) is an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in 2002 (the Scots like to be a bit different from everyone else in Britain). It covers public bodies over which the devolved Scottish Parliament has jurisdiction, fulfilling a similar purpose to the UK-level Freedom of Information Act 2000. It, too, came into force at the beginning of 2005.

Not all public bodies situated in Scotland fall under this remit - Scottish-based departments of the Ministry Of Defence, for example, are not subject to the Scottish Parliament, and thus would be covered by the 2000 Act not the 2002 Act. Similarly the Scottish parts of UK-wide bodies such as the Forestry Commission (which is headquartered in Scotland) are subject to the 2000 Act rather than the 2002 Act, even though they fall within the remit of the Scottish Parliament. The Act also created a Scottish Information Commissioner, whose duties were similar to those of the Information Commissioner, but limited to the bodies covered by the 2002 Act.


Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia