Policy paper

UK National Action Plan for Open Government 2024-2025

Published 18 December 2023

Ministerial foreword 

Open government in the digital age is of vital importance to drive transparency, enhance accountability and enable informed decision making for the benefit of society. As the digital landscape continuously evolves, it is essential that we build a future where data increasingly empowers citizens, promotes inclusion, and enables participatory, accountable, and ethical governance. This is a bedrock of protecting our democracy and should remain a priority for all democratic governments.

The Sixth National Action Plan for Open Government includes some of our priorities for improving the openness of government in the UK, developed by representatives of civil society and government on agreed thematic areas through a co-creation process. Government also works on improving openness as a matter of routine outside the window of opportunity for developing a National Action Plan, and so this plan represents a focused and important step towards mainstreaming open government in the UK.  

The efforts of citizens who are committed to ambitious open government reform across the UK has been instrumental to this process. Preserving and nurturing the dynamic between citizens and the state is vital. It profoundly impacts the way government functions and raises awareness of open policy-making approaches that demand responsive governance.

The commitments of the Sixth National Action Plan for Open Government build on past investment in digital and data as a key enabler of open government. Our commitments to promote open government are underpinned by data standards and digital infrastructure to facilitate transparency and enable accountability at national and international levels.

As we strive to meet and exceed our digital and data ambitions, we must be mindful of the risks they pose and the opportunities they present. Open government is a powerful way to help manage those risks and exploit those opportunities: by being transparent, accountable and fair we can improve services and drive efficiency.

Alex Burghart MP, Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office

Civil Society foreword

Open government is a simple idea that governments work better for people when they are transparent, accountable, and engaging. It is the basis of a more democratic, equal, and just society.

It can help those combating corruption drive legislative change, those awarding government contracts to innovate and achieve best value, those tackling laundered money to shine a light into the sometimes dark corners of property and company ownership. It can support those seeking to address inequality, improving the impact of foreign aid through greater transparency, or positively influence those upholding the fundamentals of our justice system. Moreover, it can support freedom of the press and access to information, help restore political integrity and those seeking to address the twin challenges of our time: climate and technological change.

Above all, it can support the development of trust between government, institutions, and civil society.

The Sixth National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP6) provides a window into what open government can do. Reformers from government and civil society have worked together to create solid commitments relating to open contracting, aid transparency, civil society engagement on anti-corruption and the country review mechanism for the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).

Whilst welcome, these commitments also demonstrate how much more could be done. For example, there are currently no commitments on climate change or digital governance, and we look forward to pursuing these in the next plan. This is in part because of the time and resource constraints that have limited both civil society and government in the development of this plan, and because open government activity also takes place outside of the plan. 

It is important to acknowledge the collaborative approach taken by the UK government to develop this plan. Civil servants in the Cabinet Office have made themselves available and have added structure to the process via regular high-level Multi-Stakeholder Forums, which govern the National Action Plan process.

As a founding member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) over a decade ago and current member of the OGP Steering Committee, the UK government must lead by example both at home and overseas. In parallel, the UK OGN will continue work to improve the representation of civil society across all nations and regions of the UK. We will continue to collaborate with, and hold to account, the government to ensure progress.

UK Open Government Civil Society Network (UK OGN)

Introduction

Open government is the simple idea that government and institutions work better for citizens when they are transparent, engaging and accountable. As a founding and current member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the UK is committed to the principles of open government and providing global leadership in promoting this agenda. 

Open government is essential for strengthening democracy and the delivery of better outcomes for all. The 1993 Open Government White Paper launched the UK on its journey as open government champions. After thirty years we can reflect on the considerable progress made: from the creation of freedom of information laws, environmental information regulations, and the Open Government License; to delivering greater transparency through regularly publishing vast amounts of public sector spending data, doubling down on efforts to tackle global economic crime, and leveraging data to spur the digital economy.

Government has listened to feedback about the process of developing previous National Action Plans for Open Government, and in agreement with civil society has introduced an improved structure to the process. Initial focus was on reinvigorating the UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Open Government (MSF) through introducing a 12-month horizon of meetings and clear forward plan for overseeing the development and implementation of NAPs. This allowed a clear timetable to be agreed for progress reporting on the Fifth National Action Plan for Open Government and for the co-creation of the Sixth National Action Plan for Open Government. It has furthermore provided an effective forum to exchange perceptions on progress and is now the key gateway event. This refinement in approach has been of benefit to civil society and government participants alike.

The Sixth National Action Plan for Open Government builds on previous plans published since 2011. It has been co-developed through dialogue between the government and the UK Open Government Civil Society Network (UK OGN). The UK OGN is a coalition of civil society organisations and individual active citizens. The plan includes commitments to act by both government and civil society across four key thematic areas, against a much wider background of engagement and reform in the public sector.  

In parallel to the commitments in this plan, work is ongoing to build capability amongst government and civil society on the topics of digital governance, freedom of information, beneficial ownership, open justice, government transparency returns, and further collaboration on open government both domestically and internationally.  In the meantime, FCDO is investing in promoting open government abroad through renewed Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding through the Open Government Partnership.

Summary of commitments

Commitment number and thematic area	Summary of commitment
1. Open Contracting	Deliver the Procurement Act 2023 and secondary legislation, and strengthen implementation through a government Learning and Development Programme, enhanced digital platform, and supporting the development of the civil society procurement community
2. International aid transparency	Strengthening of transparency and accountability of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA)
3. Engagement on anti-corruption	Civil society engagement on anti-corruption and participation in multilateral institutions
4. UN Convention Against Corruption	Improving transparency and inclusiveness of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) country review mechanism

Commitment 1: Open Contracting

Commitment Name

Open Contracting

Our Commitment

Open contracting is at the heart of the government’s Transforming Public Procurement Programme. Our commitment is to deliver the Procurement Act 2023 and secondary legislation, and strengthen implementation through a government Learning and Development Programme, enhanced digital platform, and support the development of the civil society procurement community.  Together, these will enable the most benefit to be gained from the improved transparency the reforms will bring.

Our Stakeholders 

The UK Open Contracting Advisory Group brings together members of civil society to inform the work of the Cabinet Office Commercial Policy team on open and transparent contracting. Attendees include:

• Government: Cabinet Office
• Civil Society:
  • University of Oxford (Oxford Procurement of Government Outcomes Club)
  • Spotlight on Corruption
  • PUBLIC
  • Institute for Government
  • Tussell
  • The University of Bristol 
  • UK Anti-Corruption Coalition Coordinator
  • Spend Network
  • Open Contracting Partnership (OCP)
  • CEO, World Contracting and Commerce (OCP Board chair)
  • Transparency International

Our Analysis

Cabinet Office reported on the open contracting aspects of the transforming public procurement programme to meetings of the UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum. A revamped advisory group was formed with civil society members who had contributed to the development of previous national action plan commitments. 

The group meets regularly with the Cabinet Office providing in depth briefings on the Procurement Bill, the supporting work on digital systems and the associated learning and development programme.

The group’s focus for the Sixth National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP6) was informed by the UK Co-Creation Brief 2023 written by the Open Government Partnership’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) and the outcome of discussions about the public outreach phase at the Multi-Stakeholder Forum (MSF) on 22nd June.

Civil society members submitted a comprehensive input, eight relevant submissions were made covering at least five topics, during the NAP6 outreach stage. Cabinet Office analysis concluded that there is strong potential for Open Contracting due to a diverse set of interlinked suggestions and a clear and coherent stakeholder group through the Open Contracting Advisory Group.

Civil society presented an overview of the submissions at the group meeting on 18 July 2023. The proposals from the eight relevant submissions varied considerably in the scope and complexity of their proposals; the Cabinet Office identified almost 90 individual proposals that can be grouped into about forty topics.

During September, October and November civil society worked with Cabinet Office to assess suitability for inclusion and prioritise them as NAP6 deliverables and milestones in support of the Transforming Public Procurement programme covering:

• The Procurement Act; 
• Associated Secondary legislation;
• Learning and Development Programme; 
• Enhanced digital platform; and 
• Additional Specific Deliverables with a civil society focus.

The Problem

One in every three pounds of public money, some £300 billion a year, is spent on public procurement.  By improving the way public procurement is regulated, the Government can save the taxpayer money and drive benefits across every region of the country.

Following the UK’s exit from the EU, we now have an opportunity to develop and implement a new procurement regime. Following wide-ranging public consultation and stakeholder engagement, we have brought forward legislative proposals to establish the new regime. The Procurement Act helps to grow the economy by creating a simpler and more transparent system that will deliver better value for money, reducing costs for business and the public sector.

The Government wants to make it easier for small businesses to work with the public sector by removing unnecessary rules and tackling late payment in the supply chain. Public bodies will have to consider SMEs when designing their procurements.

As set out in our Transparency Ambitions for the new UK procurement regime, we have made great strides in creating a more transparent public procurement system, but our current arrangements are limited in a number of ways: 

• Disparate and unconnected datasets;  
• No single picture of procurement agreements;
• Lots of data, little insight;
• Lack of organisational identifiers. 

Further, the government’s National Procurement Policy Statement states that public procurement should be leveraged to support priority national and local outcomes for the public benefit. This includes creating new businesses, new jobs and new skills, tackling climate change and reducing waste, improving supplier diversity, and stimulating innovation and resilience.  More transparency will enable the many civil society organisations focused on these areas to collaborate with contracting authorities and contractors around these important policy issues.   

Our Solutions

The Procurement Act 2023 will replace the current EU regime for public procurement by:

• Creating a simpler and more flexible commercial system that better meets our country’s needs while remaining compliant with our international obligations. 
• Opening up public procurement to new entrants such as small businesses and social enterprises so that they can compete for and win more public contracts.
• Taking tougher action on underperforming suppliers and excluding suppliers who pose unacceptable risks.
• Embedding transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle so that the spending of taxpayers’ money can be properly scrutinised and collecting information that will help analyse the overall health and fairness of the UK procurement market. 

The main benefits of the Act include creating an open and transparent system – everyone will have access to public procurement data. Citizens will be able to scrutinise spending decisions. Suppliers will be able to identify new opportunities to bid and collaborate sooner in the process, and this will improve competition because suppliers will find it easier to plan and gear up. Buyers will be able to analyse the market and benchmark their performance against others, for example on their spend with SMEs. 

The reforms will provide everyone with access to the highly valuable information in the UK’s £300bn public procurement market, increasing public trust and improving commercial outcomes in UK government spending.

In the current National Procurement Policy Statement the government recognised that using common benchmarks and standards allows the many examples of best practice in public procurement to be shared across all contracting authorities. This enables a culture of continuous improvement in procurement practice and capability, to not only save the taxpayer money but also drive sustainable economic growth. 

The government also recognised that contracting authorities should act to ensure their procurement and commercial teams have the right capability and capacity to deliver the priorities in the National Procurement Policy Statement. This will ensure transparency in public procurement to support engagement with the market, allow proper scrutiny of procurement decisions, and demonstrate good custodianship of public money.

Transparency will be enhanced by:

• More procurement data being published in a standard, open format using the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) and other standards, so decisions on how public money is spent can be more easily analysed by civil society and other reasonable parties.
• Larger contracting authorities planning to award larger contracts will have to publish ‘pipelines’ of their future procurements so that suppliers can gear up and prepare to bid, especially SMEs where they need time to collaborate and form consortia. 
• Open contracting will help to transform contracting authorities’ approach to data to help improve decision-making and innovation at all levels of government.

The new Procurement Act will give procurers greater commercial freedom and flexibility to design procurement processes that meet their exact needs and drive innovation. It will open up public procurement further to smaller businesses and social enterprises so they can compete for more contracts. 

New requirements will embed transparency throughout the contract lifecycle, so everyone can access procurement data and see how public money is spent. A stronger exclusions framework will make it easier for procurers to exclude suppliers that present unacceptable risks. The new notices will include information that is important to assessing the health of the UK marketplace such as the number of bids.

The Procurement Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. We expect the new regime to go live in 2024, with at least 6 months’ advance notice. The development of secondary legislation will enable the implementation of the Act.  This roll-out will be supported by a Learning and Development Programme for anyone whose work touches on procurement, including procurement and commercial practitioners, and suppliers.  In addition to the core programme for practitioners, we will develop approaches to support the broader use of contracting data, such as communities, strategies, conferences, guidance, and research into benefits and costs.

In addition to the core programme for commercial and procurement practitioners we will: 

• Publish transparency user guidance including on topics raised by civil society in the NAP consultation

The new transparency user guidance will take account of civil society suggestions and concerns around open contracting. The guidance will be in the form of straightforward questions and answers addressing key issues in the context of the Procurement Act 2023 and its implementation. The guidance will provide a user friendly explanation of how the aspects of reform will work in practice. For example, the guidance will address how the withholding of sensitive commercial information under s.94 of the Procurement Act 2023 should be treated by contracting authorities. 

• Publish regular updates on system readiness

Third party providers of e-procurement systems (‘eSenders’) will need to integrate the publishing of notices in their systems with the new Transparency Platform. The Cabinet Office will publish and regularly update a list of eSenders who have committed to completing this integration work.

• Overseeing compliance with the new legal regime

The Procurement Review Unit (PRU) will be responsible for overseeing compliance with the new legal regime and will monitor the data being published by contracting authorities to identify systemic or institutional breaches that may result in an investigation. The PRU will publish reports on the investigation outcomes. As the PRU is mobilised it will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure triggers for investigation are set at the appropriate levels. 

As part of this work, the government will seek input from civil society and other stakeholders who use the data. The government will also collaborate on ways to get actionable insights from the data. This collaboration may take the form of communities of practice and/or data use conference referenced in the other commitments in this document.

• Develop a Data Strategy, including capability to use data

The data strategy will set out the long term direction of the data aspects of public procurement reform, including the capacity for use of their data by all contracting authorities in order to do their jobs better and drive change. Civil society will be engaged in the development of the data strategy. The data strategy will align with the government’s National Data Strategy elements and the Government Data Quality Framework. 

• Create a civil society-led open contracting community of practice 

A community of practice will enable civil society to access learning and development materials and create a forum for discussing aspects of interest to civil society. Examples of issues of concern to civil society include issues of data quality from the central digital platform and the withholding of sensitive commercial information by contracting authorities. 

This community will become a locally managed community of practice that will feed information to the main Transforming Public Procurement community.

Where needed, the main community of practice will invite the Civil Society to share the best practices and enhance the knowledge of open data on the wider commercial/procurement community.

• Sponsor a data use conference 

The data use conference focussed on data use by contracting authorities, suppliers and civil society. It will showcase the new data that will be available and how it can be used and improved in line with the data strategy and the National Procurement Policy Statement. (The current statement is located here).

• Research on benefits and costs

Include civil society in the evaluation of the benefits and costs of implementing the reforms. This is currently being scoped and details will be amended at a later date.

Our Deliverables

Deliverable	Expected Outputs	Expected Completion Date	Stakeholders
Procurement Act comes into force	New legislative framework for public procurement in the UK	Effective [TBC] 2024	Public Sector Contracting Authorities Suppliers Civil Society
Introduce Secondary legislation	Detailed regulations under the Act laid and passed	Effective [TBC] 2024	Public Sector Contracting Authorities Suppliers Civil Society
Roll-out the Learning and Development Programme	Proactive support for procurement professionals through knowledge drops and practitioner training	Effective [TBC] 2024	Procurement professionals
Deployment of the digital platform	Phased implementation of notices	Phase 1 Effective [TBC] 2024 Phase 2 Effective [TBC] 2025	Public Sector Contracting Authorities Suppliers Civil Society
Publish transparency user guidance on the topics raised by civil society in the NAP consultation	The guidance will provide a user friendly explanation of how the aspects of reform of interest to civil society will work in practice	Spring 2024 onwards	Cabinet Office Civil Society
Publish regular updates on system readiness	Publish and update a list of eSenders who have committed to implement integration work	Spring 2024 onwards	Cabinet Office
Overseeing compliance with the new legal regime	Monitoring of data by the Procurement Review Unit (PRU) which will be responsible for overseeing compliance with the new legal regime	Effective [TBC] Spring 2025	Cabinet Office Civil Society
Develop a Data Strategy	Set out the long term direction of the data aspects of public procurement reform	Autumn 2024	Cabinet Office Civil Society
Create a civil society led open contracting community of practice	Forum for sharing experience of reforms from a civil society perspective	Spring 2024	Civil Society  Cabinet Office
Sponsor a data use conference	Joint sponsorship to develop understanding of data publication and use	Autumn 2024	Civil Society  Cabinet Office
Evaluation of the benefits and costs	Civil society input to Cabinet Office work on assessing impact of reforms	Ongoing	Cabinet Office Civil Society

Our Milestones 

Milestone	Expected Outputs	Expected Completion Date	Stakeholders
L&D Programme goes live	Appropriate training for public sector and suppliers	TBC [Q3 23-24] onwards	Contracting Authorities Suppliers
Secondary legislation laid and passed in Parliament	Detailed regulations for Phase I	TBC [Q1 23-24]	All
Central Digital Platform Deployed	Phase I platform in place for the start of the new regime.	TBC [Q4 23-24]	Cabinet Office
New Procurement Act regime goes live	New UK public procurement legislation comes into force	TBC [Q3 24-25]	All
Publish transparency user guidance	Publish guidance	TBC [Q1 24-25]	Cabinet Office  Civil Society
Publish regular updates on system readiness	Publication on gov.uk Updates	TBC [Q4 23-24] TBC Quarterly updates	Cabinet Office
Overseeing compliance with the new legal regime	Monitor the data being published by contracting authorities to identify systemic or institutional breaches that may result in an investigation	TBC [Q1 25-26]	Cabinet Office
Develop a Data Strategy	Discovery Initial draft for review by community Publication on gov.uk	TBC [Q1 24-25] TBC [Q3 24-25] TBC [Q4 24-25]	Cabinet Office  Civil Society
Create a civil society led open contracting community of practice	Agree programme scope for community First meeting	TBC [Q4 23-24] TBC [Q1 24-25]	Cabinet Office  Civil Society
Sponsor a data use conference	Agree agenda for the data use conference.   First UK open contracting data use conference.  Review and decision point on follow up conference.	TBC [Q1 24-25] TBC [Q3 24-25] TBC [Q4 24-25]	Civil Society Cabinet Office
Evaluation of the benefits and costs	Scope out research into the benefits and costs of implementing the reforms with civil society	TBC Q3 25-26	Cabinet Office

Commitment 2: International Aid Transparency

Commitment Name

International aid transparency

Our Commitment

Strengthening of transparency and accountability of UK Official Development Assistance (ODA)

Our Stakeholders

Government:

• Lead – Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
• Support – Other ODA-spending departments

Civil society:

• Lead – Bond Transparency Working Group
• Support – Publish What You Fund, Save the Children, Development Initiatives

Our Analysis

Development of the aid transparency commitment was informed through close collaboration between government and civil society including four working group meetings. The working group considered previous lessons learned from the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) UK Co-Creation Brief 2023 as well as reflecting upon the development and delivery of the Fifth National Action Plan aid transparency commitment. Detailed analysis of each relevant milestone under the Fifth National Action Plan was undertaken to identify opportunities for development. 

Positive progress was noted on engagement with independent reviews and coordination with other International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) donor publishers whilst further opportunities were identified regarding data quality and technical feedback. 

The government-civil society working group also considered relevant submissions from the open call for ideas from both government and civil society, identifying challenges to be addressed and alignment in potential solutions. 

Finally, the government-civil society working group considered relevant findings and recommendations from independent assessments of aid transparency including the 2020 review of ten UK government ODA-spending departments as well as the 2022 global Aid Transparency Index and the 2023 Development Finance Institution (DFI) Transparency Index.  Collectively, these materials provided the basis for discussion within the government-civil society working group and overall co-creation of the commitment.

The Problem

Aid transparency ensures accountability to taxpayers whilst empowering those in receipt of aid and strengthening coordination across development actors, ultimately enabling more effective aid delivery. The UK has long set a high standard for transparency of ODA and its commitment to transparency is reflected in UK policy including through the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy and the International Development Strategy (IDS).

Notable issues in transparency and accountability across the international development sector include:

• Changes in government department structures: Following the establishment of the FCDO, legacy IT systems required integration. This resulted in a temporary pause in FCDO publication to IATI. The split in February 2023 of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will similarly require development of aid transparency processes across its successor departments.
• Assessments and Accountability: Whilst the IDS is a whole of government approach to international development, the FCDO is the only UK government department that will be assessed in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index. The IDS also sets out the UK government’s approach to working more with the private sector and investors to mobilise new, innovative investments. British International Investment (BII) came 12th from 21 non-sovereign DFIs assessed in the 2023 DFI Transparency Index.
• Data Use: As well as regular publishing of high-quality aid data by development actors, users (and potential users) of aid data need to be sufficiently aware of, and have the necessary capacity to use, published information effectively.
• IATI Transition: IATI recently established a new Secretariat. Whilst continuity of IATI services was maintained throughout this process, IATI strategic developments have progressed more slowly as a result of the transition.

Our Solutions

The proposed solutions reaffirm the UK government’s commitment to aid transparency across ODA-spending departments and build upon the success and progress against the Fifth National Action Plan’s aid transparency commitment.

The solutions set out FCDO’s ambition for aid transparency as a department, with a focus on strengthening the quality and timeliness of aid transparency data to better support all stakeholders.

The solutions also ensure that FCDO continues to have meaningful, inclusive, and deliberative engagement with civil society on aid transparency, responding to feedback from data users as well as working towards best publishing practices and improving data use globally.

Beyond FCDO, the solutions focus on continued progress for other ODA-spending departments through maintained standards, regular cross-government engagement and an independent assessment. Furthermore, they set out the UK government’s commitment to encouraging aid transparency developments across wider stakeholders including other donors internationally and the private sector.

Finally, the solutions champion data use internationally – building on FCDO’s commitment in its response to the 2022 Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) review of UK aid transparency.

This commitment is relevant to the OGP values of transparency and public accountability as it ensures accessible data on UK ODA, helping demonstrate to the public how UK aid is spent and to whom taxpayers’ money is given. Transparent aid data, published to the IATI Standard, also supports public accountability by tracking delivery across development actors and monitoring progress towards aid policy priorities. Additionally, the commitment will support civic participation by providing opportunities for both scrutiny of ODA spend and feedback on the UK’s approach to aid transparency.

Our Deliverables

Deliverable	Expected outputs	Expected completion date	Stakeholders
Deliverable One: FCDO aid data quality	Continued improvements of FCDO aid data quality	By end of 2025	FCDO
Deliverable Two: FCDO aid data timeliness	Continued improvements of FCDO aid data timeliness	By end of 2025	FCDO
Deliverable Three: Aid transparency across UK ODA-spending government departments	Continued aid transparency improvements across UK ODA-spending government departments	By end of 2025	UK Government
Deliverable Four: Stakeholder engagement	Strengthened engagement with IATI data users	By end of 2025	FCDO, Civil society
Deliverable Five: UK leadership on aid transparency	Continued championing of aid transparency improvements globally	By end of 2025	FCDO, IATI, Donor publishers

Our Milestones

	Milestone	Expected outputs	Expected completion date	Stakeholders
1	Linked to Deliverable One, FCDO will achieve ‘Very good’ in the 2024 Aid Transparency Index.	- FCDO score of at least 80% in 2024 Aid Transparency Index	August 2024	FCDO
2	Linked to Deliverable One, FCDO to respond to 2024 Aid Transparency Index including consideration of which recommendations it can address and deliver.	- Statement from FCDO on GOV.UK responding to results of 2024 Aid Transparency Index	Within 6 weeks of publication of 2024 Aid Transparency Index	FCDO
3	Linked to Deliverable One, FCDO to improve quality of programme and project descriptions.	- FCDO to improve its score for ‘Project attributes – Description’ in 2024 Aid Transparency Index - FCDO to seek feedback from civil society on its project descriptions and relevant internal guidance	August 2024 By December 2024	FCDO
4	Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO to be consistently (for at least 10 out of 12 months each year), publishing data one month in arrears.	- Timely data available through IATI and DevTracker	By end of 2025	FCDO
5	Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO publishes its Annual Report and Accounts (ARA) in a timely manner.	- ARA 2023-2024 published on GOV.UK by end of July 2024 - ARA 2024-2025 published on GOV.UK by end of July 2025	July 2025	FCDO
6	Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO publishes its official Statistics on International Development (SID) report in a timely manner.	- Final SID 2023 to be published by the end of Autumn 2024   - Final SID 2024 to be published in Autumn 2025	Autumn 2025	FCDO
7	Linked to Deliverable Two, FCDO updates its country development summaries in a timely manner.	- Country summaries updated on GOV.UK by March 2025	By March 2025	FCDO
8	Linked to Deliverable Three, government departments assessed in the 2025 UK Aid Transparency Review to respond to the Review including consideration of which recommendations it can address and deliver.	- Written response shared with civil society on findings from 2025 UK Aid Transparency Review	By end of 2025	ODA-spending departments
9	Linked to Deliverable Three, the HMG Transparency Community of Practice to meet annually to review strategic priorities on transparency.	- Two in-person events for Transparency Community of Practice	By end of 2025	ODA-spending departments
10	Linked to Deliverable Four, FCDO to engage regularly with civil society to explore user feedback and technical issues as well as review progress against recommendations from the 2022 ICAI review of UK aid transparency.	- Quarterly meetings with civil society - Joint FCDO- Bond User research workshop to identify potential DevTracker developments - Joint FCDO- Bond workshop on data use focused on use cases and experiences from local NGOs and partner country governments	By end of 2025	FCDO, ODA-spending departments, Civil society
11	Linked to Deliverable Four, FCDO to provide in-country training on IATI data use.	- Training provided to at least 2 country posts including meetings with local CSOs to discuss IATI data use	By end of 2025	FCDO, Civil society
12	Linked to Deliverable Five, FCDO to support the launch of a BII Transparency Roadmap – setting out actions BII will take to increase the amount of information it makes public with the ambition of being a leader on transparency amongst bilateral DFIs.	- FCDO to regularly engage with BII on its approach to transparency with the intention of increasing its transparency as measured by external indices over time	By end of 2025	FCDO
13	Linked to Deliverable Five, FCDO to participate as IATI member in review of IATI Strategic Plan.	- Contributions through relevant forums on IATI Strategic Plan	By end of 2025	FCDO
14	Linked to Deliverable Five, FCDO to engage with other IATI donor publishers to share good practices on data quality and data use.	- At least 4 meetings with relevant IATI donors - Active involvement in relevant IATI working groups	By end of 2025	FCDO

Commitment 3: Engagement on anti-corruption

Commitment Name

Civil society engagement on anti-corruption and participation in multilateral institutions.

Our Commitment

Commit to regular engagement with civil society on HMG’s development and subsequent implementation of the UK Anti-Corruption Strategy, led by the Joint Anti Corruption Unit. This includes holding quarterly meetings with the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition, and the inclusion of a civil society representative in the UK delegation to the 2025 Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption.

Our Stakeholders

Government:

• Lead: Joint Anti-Corruption Unit (JACU)

Civil society:

• Lead: UK Anti-Corruption Coalition (UKACC)

Our Analysis

The participation of civil society is vital to ensuring a holistic approach to preventing and countering corruption. Civil society input is invaluable in ensuring effective development and implementation of governments’ anti-corruption strategies. 

The Problem

The UK strongly values the contribution of civil society to anti-corruption efforts both at home and abroad. However, we also recognise that effectively making use of civil society perspectives requires consistent and regular engagement and is aided by having dedicated structures to do so. This is vital in ensuring that civil society has an active and meaningful role in the development and implementation of the UK’s anti-corruption efforts. 

Our Solutions

To ensure the UK is able to consistently and meaningfully utilise the expertise of civil society and academia in the development and subsequent implementation of the UK’s Anti-Corruption Strategy, we will continue to hold quarterly meetings with the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition. We will use these meetings as a regular channel to obtain insight from civil society and academia, and as a forum to engage with emerging research, analysis and insight from civil society on key topics in anti-corruption. 

We will also continue to include civil society representatives in the UK delegation to the biennial Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption. By doing so, we will ensure civil society partners are able to meaningfully shape the development of international standards through the UNCAC and promote accountability for states’ implementation of the convention.

Our Deliverables

Deliverable	Expected Outputs	Expected Completion Date	Stakeholders
Meetings between the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition and the Joint Anti-Corruption Unit (JACU)	Input from civil society stakeholders on HMG’s development and subsequent implementation of the ACS and other anti-corruption priorities	Ongoing – quarterly	JACU, UKACC
Civil society representation in the UK Delegation to the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption	Input from civil society stakeholders in the development and implementation of global anti-corruption standards	December 2023 December 2025	JACU, UKACC
Ongoing review of arrangements for civil society representation on the UK UNCAC delegation	Improved UK government and civil society input to the UNCAC.	Ongoing	JACU, UKACC

Our Milestones

Milestone	Expected Outputs	Expected Completion Date	Stakeholders
Attend UNCAC COSP	UK government and civil society influence on COSP agenda and outcomes	December 2023	JACU, UKACC
Attend UNCAC COSP	UK government and civil society influence on COSP agenda and outcomes	December 2025	JACU, UKACC
Meetings between the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition and the Joint Anti-Corruption Unit	Input from civil society stakeholders on the development and subsequent implementation of the ACS and other anti-corruption priorities	Ongoing – quarterly	JACU, UKACC

Commitment 4: UN Convention Against Corruption

Commitment Name

Improving transparency and inclusiveness of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) country review mechanism. 

Our Commitment

To meet this commitment, UK government and civil society will work alongside the UNCAC Coalition and Open Government Partnership to build a coalition of countries committed to promoting transparency and inclusiveness of the UNCAC’s implementation review mechanism (IRM).

Our Stakeholders

Government:

• Lead - Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO),
• Support - Joint Anti Corruption Unit (JACU)

Civil society:

• Lead - Open Government Partnership and UNCAC Coalition
• Support - UK Anti Corruption Coalition. 

Our Analysis

The UNCAC is the foundational global treaty on anti-corruption. The Convention is the cornerstone of the international anti-corruption framework and, when fully and effectively implemented, helps to robustly combat corruption. 

Focusing on improving transparency of the review mechanism is a necessary requirement for enabling progress on inclusiveness and impactful follow up measures. This is because it will enable a wider set of actors to engage with States Parties, helping to clarify if progress has been made, better identify any gaps in effective implementation of the UNCAC and prompt stronger domestic follow-up.

The Problem

The IRM has promoted legislative and institutional changes that have helped implement the standards of the Convention. However, as set out by the UNCAC Coalition, the effectiveness of the IRM is currently limited by three significant shortcomings with the current approach: transparency, inclusiveness, and impactful follow-up measures.

Our Solutions

The UK wants to promote a stronger collective voice on implementation of anti-corruption standards.

To do this, we will lead a group of willing countries committed to engaging with the UNCAC’s Implementation Review Mechanism in a transparent and inclusive manner, by committing to:

• Publishing timelines for the UK’s next review and keeping country focal point details updated. 
• Publishing the full report of the UK’s next review.  
• Publishing how civil society and non-state actors can engage in the review and follow-up process.

These commitments from the UK will be done with a view to increasing the number of countries upholding the above commitments at the end of the current review cycle.

To signal this commitment, the UK will also lead the delivery of a collective plenary statement, in partnership with other States Parties, the OGP and UNCAC Coalition, at the 10th Session of the Conference of States Parties (11-15 December).

Our Deliverables

Deliverable	Expected Outputs	Expected Completion Date	Stakeholders
Publishing timelines for the UK’s next review and keeping country focal point details updated	Timetable for next review cycle	Next review cycle (TBC)	JACU, UKACC, UNCAC Coalition, OGP
Publishing the full report of the UK’s next review	Report findings and recommendations to inform future progress.	Next review cycle (TBC)	JACU, UKACC, UNCAC Coalition, OGP
Publishing how civil society and non-state actors can engage in the review and follow-up process	Provide outline for how civil society and non-state actors can engage in the review and follow-up process	Next review cycle (TBC)	JACU, UKACC, UNCAC Coalition, OGP
Collective plenary statement at the UNCAC Conference of States Parties (COSP)	Achieve agreement on commitment to strengthen the IRM	December 2023	JACU, FCDO, UNCAC Coalition, OGP

Our Milestones

Milestone	Expected Outputs	Expected Completion Date	Stakeholders
UNCAC COSP	Plenary sessions, negotiation of resolutions, bilaterals	December 2023	JACU, FCDO, UNCAC Coalition, OGP
UNCAC Working on the IRM Group, Vienna	Proposals for strengthening the IRM	June 2024	JACU, FCDO, UNCAC Coalition, OGP
UNCAC Working on the IRM Group, Vienna	Proposals for strengthening the IRM	June 2025	JACU, FCDO, UNCAC Coalition, OGP
UNCAC COSP	Plenary sessions, negotiation of resolutions, bilaterals	December 2025	JACU, FCDO, UNCAC Coalition, OGP

Monitoring implementation

The implementation of the Sixth National Action Plan for Open Government will be monitored through quarterly meetings of the UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Open Government.

Building Capability

As part of efforts to enhance progress in open government, the government and civil society are committed to developing capability to engage in co-creation on thematic areas beyond those covered in this plan.  This work will be done outside of the NAP6 commitments, and both government and civil society will be mindful of geographic and socio-economic diversity, and equality with respect to protected characteristics and neurodiversity.

The current focus of building capability is on potential amendments to NAP6 and forward planning for the future Seventh National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP7).  The thematic areas under consideration include digital governance, freedom of information, beneficial ownership, open justice, government transparency returns, and open government collaboration.

Digital Governance

Digital governance is an important area for the UK government and one of several thematic areas identified by OGP in their Open Government Challenge.  Delivering the National Data Strategy and Roadmap for digital and data will remain the focus of cross-government effort through to the end of 2025.  As part of regular business planning, CDDO has expressed an interest in, and civil society are supportive of, generating closer civil society-government cohesion and readiness for NAP7 on the topic of digital governance.

Freedom of Information 

During NAP5 an Information Rights User Group was established. The focus over the next months will be embedding this group and developing its work to discuss how the FOI Act is working and look at what can be done to improve best practice and increase public trust and understanding.  This ongoing activity will be reviewed as part of future National Action Plans.

Beneficial Ownership

By the end of 2023, the Government will consult on how we can improve the transparency of information on trusts holding land. This will allow us to get the views of businesses, operational partners, civil society and others to inform any changes in accessibility and the publishing of trust information. The Government will consider stakeholder views and publish a response to the consultation which sets out the proposed way forward.

Open Justice

In parallel to NAP5, a Call for Evidence on Open Justice was launched in 2023. The focus of the next few months will be to analyse and process the outcome of the consultation. This ongoing activity will be reviewed, with the potential of either an amendment to NAP6 or a further commitment in NAP7 on Open Justice.

Government Transparency Returns

The government is committed to improving access to consistent and easily understandable transparency returns data relating to ministers, special advisors and senior civil servants.  This data has been made available in increasingly standardised formats for over a decade.  The government is seeking to develop a central dashboard for this data to increase transparency further.  Cabinet Office will explore options for civil society and government engagement on this topic to inform the development of the dashboard and its underpinning data.

Open government collaboration

Developing the openness of government is broader than just that of the UK Government.  The UK Government is routinely liaising with open government counterparts in the Devolved Administrations, is exploring options for broadening engagement with different levels of local government within the UK, and is liaising with counterparts in other countries to develop a shared understanding of challenges and opportunities to further open government internationally.