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Waverley Borough Council Deploys spotlightonspend for Greater
Transparency on Public Spending
spotlightonspend enables Council to publish and compare
spend data over £500 against standardised metrics in line with
'Programme for Government' requirements
Newbury, Berkshire – 7 July 2010 – Waverley
Borough Council has deployed spotlightonspend,
an online transparency platform, designed to radically improve the
accessibility, relevance and value of Government spend information
to the general public. In line with the new 'Programme for
Government' requirements on public spending and transparency, which
come into effect in January 2011, the council can now provide easy
access to its residents and business ratepayers about how it spends
its annual resources, specifically focusing on all transactions
above £500 in value.
spotlightonspend is a web-based platform providing an easy and
intuitive way for councils to publish information on overall spend
on goods and services being purchased above £500 or £25,000 for
Central Government, and in addition, information on which private
sector companies are doing the supplying. Published spend
information can be compared against useful standardised metrics,
making comparisons possible between authorities of differing sizes.
Metrics include: per full time employee, spend with small and
medium sized enterprises (SMEs), spend relative to the number of
households, working population, persons of pensionable age and
number of children that make up the resident population.
Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local
Government, said, "I'm really excited about the opportunities of
transparency and it's something this Government is utterly
committed to. spotlightonspend demonstrates that, when
innovative businesses work with far-sighted public bodies, we can
inform the public, reduce costs and improve democracy both locally
and nationally."
Mary Orton, CEO, Waverley Borough Council, said, "Publishing the
information in this easy to use format demonstrates Waverley's
focus on openness and value for money. Waverley was one of the
first councils in the country to open up its decision-making
process to the public by webcasting meetings and we are proud to be
one of the first to publish how we spend our money."
Waverley Borough Council's financial data will be available to
search and view via its website, www.waverley.gov.uk/spend
under 'Spotlight on Spend'. It will contain information on
how much the Council pays external suppliers of services such as
street cleaning and housing. Waverley will also be publishing
information relating to pay and benefits for all staff earning over
£50,000 per annum, in the coming months. Other early adopter
customers include Guildford Borough Council, and RBWM, to name but
a few, with additional councils due to go live in the coming
weeks.
spotlightonspend enables standardisation and a consistent method
of classifying spend making it possible to compare a public bodies'
spend to either the average level for that public body type or
another public body, facilitating a deeper level of transparency.
spotlightonspend allocates suppliers and their associated spend
into clearly labelled categories, with easily recognisable terms
for goods and services, such as 'building supplies' or 'taxis' for
example.
spotlightonspend is powered by Spikes Cavell whose products and
services are currently being used by more than 720 public sector
bodies nationwide to support their drive to improve the way they
buy goods and services with the objective of saving money as well
as addressing important policy related questions, including
transparency http://www.spikescavell.net/.
About spotlightonspend:
spotlightonspend is an innovative online platform and supporting
data processing infrastructure that has been designed to radically
improve the accessibility, relevance and value of Government spend
information to the general public http://www.spotlightonspend.org/.
For further information, please contact:
Hayley Wienszczak
Spikes Cavell & Co
Tel: +44 (0)1635 556970
Email: [email protected]
Vanessa Land
Devonshire Marketing
Tel: +44 (0) 7768 693 779
Email: [email protected]