Coins

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Government making their spending public

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/04/coins-database-government-bad-debts

The largest release of government data in UK history revealed tens of millions of pounds lost in unpaid student loans and overpaid benefits at a time when the Labour government was getting to grips with the scale of the crisis of the public sector deficit.

The data also showed that spending on consultants, in every case sanctioned by ministers, amounted to £1.8bn in the last financial year. The figure suggests a substantial rise on the previous year, when official estimates put the bill at £1.5bn, after several years in which Labour had reduced the consultancy bill in efficiency savings.

The information, released from the Treasury spending database known as the Combined Online Information System (Coins), covers the last year of the Labour government. It is the first time the government's accounting books have been published, and follows a long-running campaign by the Guardian and campaigners for open government.

something really good coming out of UK government for the first time in a while.

Liberal Conservatives

[Snotty]

the current government has nothing to lose by highlighting the inefficiency of the previous administration

[OneFootInTheGrave]

well I certainly hope that teh government will continue with being open once their own books will be scrutinized... if there was ever a good time to start with the practice it is now - great that they used the chance to upen it up

[Al B. Sure!]

I am puzzled by this... shouldn't government spending be public already?

[OzzyKP]

It is excellent in terms of the intrinsic good of transparency. It could also help with cutting the deficit. Newspapers and advocates will poke through the records and find all sorts of ridiculous boondoggles to mock the government about. Then when people are good and mad about what the government spends money on, the coalition will be able to hack and slash that stuff with much less opposition they would have had normally.

At least that's my hope.

[Al B. Sure!]

Correct me if I'm wrong but in the US, the federal budget is publicly disclosed right? In a massive tome.

Why does the UK not have such disclosure til now?

[OzzyKP]

Because with all of Europe's claims to be open and democratic we are still light years ahead.

[Al B. Sure!]

USA! USA! USA!

[Dauphin]

The 120GB database contains a total of 24m individual items of data, documenting all government expenditure in the financial year 2009-10

Only 120GB?

[Al B. Sure!]

Must be highly compressed.

[KrazyHorse]

Because with all of Europe's claims to be open and democratic we are still light years ahead.

This sounds like it goes into more detail than the US budget does. Unless something is a line item it wouldn't appear, right? (just show up as general expenditures for a given agency)

[Wezil]

Don't ruin their fun KH.


USA! USA! USA!

[Al B. Sure!]

USA! USA! USA!

DRILL BABY DRILL!

[OzzyKP]

This sounds like it goes into more detail than the US budget does. Unless something is a line item it wouldn't appear, right? (just show up as general expenditures for a given agency)

That may be the case, but how many years have we made ours available? (I honestly don't know, but sooner than 2010). And from the reaction of the French official it seems the UK is still years ahead of other European states.