Open Data Manchester has submitted four responses to the UK’s National Action Plan (NAP7) consultation, exploring how openness, accountability and participation can keep pace with changes in public service delivery, infrastructure and digital government.
The way public services are delivered, infrastructure is managed and decisions are made is changing rapidly. Increasingly, these processes are shaped by private contractors, regulated utilities, algorithms and complex data systems. Yet the mechanisms that allow citizens and communities to understand, scrutinise and participate in these systems have not always kept pace.
The UK’s National Action Plan (NAP7) consultation provides an opportunity to think about how transparency, accountability and participation should evolve in response. Drawing on our work with public sector partners, civil society organisations and communities across Greater Manchester and beyond, Open Data Manchester submitted four proposals that explore different aspects of that challenge.
These proposals emerge from practical experience. Through our work with local authorities, combined authorities, researchers, community organisations and residents, we regularly encounter situations where data that could support better decision-making, public accountability or civic participation is unavailable, difficult to access or released inconsistently.
As governments increasingly invest in AI, digital public infrastructure and data-driven services, questions of transparency and accountability are becoming more important rather than less.
While the submissions address different policy areas, they are connected by a common challenge. Public services are increasingly delivered through complex networks of contractors, regulators, digital systems and public bodies. The structures of accountability have not always evolved at the same pace. Our proposals explore practical ways to ensure openness remains embedded within these changing systems.
Open Data and Transparency Obligations for Private Organisations Delivering Public Services
As public services are increasingly delivered through private contractors and commissioned providers, information about how those services are performing can become harder for citizens, communities and even commissioning bodies to access. Data generated through publicly funded services often sits outside the transparency frameworks that apply to the public sector itself.
This reflects challenges we have encountered in projects involving procurement, public infrastructure and service delivery, where information generated through publicly funded activity can become difficult to access once delivery is outsourced.
Our submission explores how transparency obligations might travel with public money, ensuring that publicly funded services remain publicly accountable. We propose stronger open data requirements within public service contracts, clearer data ownership arrangements, and greater consistency in how performance and spending information is made available to the public.
Open Data Obligations for Privatised Utilities and Public Infrastructure Operators
Utilities such as water, energy and rail operate essential public infrastructure, serve captive customers and generate data of significant public interest. Yet there is no consistent expectation that this information should be openly available.
Our interest in this area is informed by work on environmental data, resource management and community engagement, where access to high-quality data is often a prerequisite for meaningful participation and informed decision-making.
Drawing on examples from rail and energy, where open data has helped improve accountability, innovation and public engagement, our submission argues that openness should become the norm across regulated utilities. In particular, we highlight the opportunity for a Water Data Taskforce to help create a more transparent and participatory approach to managing one of our most important shared resources.
Strengthening Algorithmic Transparency: From Compliance to Genuine Accountability
The introduction of the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) was an important step towards greater openness around automated decision-making in government. However, transparency often arrives only after systems are already influencing decisions that affect people’s lives.
This submission builds on work undertaken with partners across Greater Manchester to explore how residents can be involved in decisions about the use of automated systems and emerging technologies in public services.
We argue that transparency should begin much earlier in the lifecycle of automated systems. We call for greater visibility of pilots, proofs-of-concept and procured tools, alongside stronger publication requirements and a meaningful role for civil society in scrutinising published records. Transparency should not simply be a compliance exercise; it should support genuine accountability and public participation.
Reinstating a Government Open Data Coordination Function
Open data underpins many of the services, products and insights that people rely on every day. Yet responsibility for promoting and coordinating its release has become increasingly fragmented across government and the wider public sector.
Through our work we regularly see both the benefits that open data can create and the barriers that emerge when publication practices are inconsistent, standards vary, or there is limited support for organisations seeking to release data openly.
Our submission calls for the re-establishment of a formal open data coordination function within government. We believe stronger coordination can help build confidence in data release, encourage the adoption of common standards, improve engagement between data publishers and data users, and strengthen understanding of the wider social, economic and democratic value that open data creates.
Explore the Full Proposals
You can read our full consultation responses below:
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Open Data and Transparency Obligations for Private Organisations Delivering Public Services
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Open Data Obligations for Privatised Utilities and Public Infrastructure Operators
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Strengthening Algorithmic Transparency: From Compliance to Genuine Accountability
Together, these proposals reflect a simple principle: transparency and accountability should follow public power wherever it is exercised.
We look forward to continuing the conversation with government, civil society and public sector partners about how openness can support better decisions, stronger accountability and more meaningful public participation.
*Photo: Chenspec, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_transparent_crystals.JPG