A view on Transparency from the Spikes Cavell analysts

spotlightonspend helps public bodies achieve the new coalition Government’s ‘open doors’ approach to government. The coalition is committed to making this information available to the public to engage debate and promote value in public sector spending.

It’s about attitude as much as it is about action

However, transparency is more than simply throwing open the doors. It’s about a shift of power away from the state and a fundamental trust in the ability of people to work together to transform our society. It’s about reconnecting with the electorate and restoring faith and confidence in our political system. It’s about far reaching cultural and behavioural change.

Why not just supply the raw invoice data?

There is a view that that the government should just make the raw data available and, while that is better than getting no information at all, there is a barrier in this approach for people without advanced data analytics skills. The raw data is far from ‘user friendly’. But, aside from requiring advanced spreadsheet skills, what exactly does it tell you? Well, other than the names of suppliers and the dates and amounts of invoices, not a lot. It’s like being told that a new and exciting library has opened, only to find that all the pages of the books have no titles, no covers and the pages are all in a big pile in the middle of room. Without context it takes time to understand and draw out the true meaning of a story. This is why classification adds value. It lets everyone read the story.

Transparency has to be meaningful

To achieve change the information used for the debate has to be meaningful to as many people as possible. spotlightonspend presents information classified into categories rather than raw invoice data because this will help more people understand the what they are looking at. Consistency across different public organisations will further help people understand how money is really being used. With deeper understanding innovative ideas for improvement can come forward.

What could the future hold?

We hope that by publishing the purchasing information of public organisations a greater level of understanding about how the public actually functions will result. Once people can see how it works clearly innovative ideas for change can emerge. The clarity also helps achieve other political goals, such as how much is spent locally or with SMEs. Financial data transparency can also help us to understand emissions as we to get to grips with CO2 targets. At spotlightonspend we are excited about the possibilities for future public debate based on a real understanding of what is being spent, and where!