The final report of the Independent Expert Group for the Scottish Government on Unlocking the Value of Data to the Scottish Government states
This report is the final output of the Independent Expert Group (IEG) on Unlocking the Value of Data (UVOD), to the Scottish Government. This report is a ministerial commission, and was originally commissioned by Mr Ivan McKee, former Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise. Chaired by Professor Angela Daly from the University of Dundee, the IEG was set up to provide 'strategic guidance and oversight' to the UVOD programme on private sector use of public sector personal data in Scotland.
According to the UVOD IEG terms of reference (ToR): The purpose of this programme is to aid decision-making by data controllers regarding the release of, or provision of access to, public sector personal data by the private sector, for public benefit.
The IEG has produced three main outputs over its 15 month lifetime: a recommended Policy Statement, a set of seven Guiding Principles and 19 Recommendations. Altogether, these aim to guide the Scottish Government and Scottish public sector in adopting an appropriate, ethical and engaged approach to Unlocking the Value of Scotland's public sector personal data for private sector use in ways which promote public benefit.
The recommended Policy Statement is:
We consider that when public sector personal data is used by the private sector, this should be done in a way which delivers public benefit and is in the public interest. This requires consideration of matters including: the potential benefits and consequences of data use for the public; people's rights (in particular the right to privacy); and any value (and also any costs and harm) that is expected to be generated by the data use (viewing value in the broadest economic, social and/or environmental terms), including how these benefits and value will be shared with the public.
The Guiding Principles are:
Public engagement and involvement
Public interest and public benefit
Do no harm
Transparency
Law, ethics and best practice
Enabling conditions
Regular review
The 19 Recommendations, addressed to the Scottish Government, are grouped under three key themes: Engage, Enable and Ensure.
Their headings are:
Engage
1. Engage in ongoing meaningful public and practitioner involvement and review throughout the data lifecycle
2. Engage with expert stakeholder groups
3. Engage the general public
Enable
4. Enable early adoption of Guiding Principles in targeted policy areas
5. Enable awareness of the data held
6. Enable a streamlined approach to data access
7. Enable shared standards and protocols and enable high standards and best practices
8. Enable existing intermediaries and join up
9. Enable collaborative research in this area including the collation of further evidence on blockages and proof of concept research
10. Enable user-centred approaches
11. Enable further investigation into technological opportunities
Ensure
12. Ensure action plans, resources and conditions are in place
13. Ensure reasonable public benefit rationale provided by those seeking data access, informed by publics and reviewed and verified over time
14. Ensure Data Protection (DPIAs) and Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs)
15. Ensure red lines on access for certain purposes
16. Ensure transparency from public sector in data access provisions and from private sector about their access to this data
17. Ensure oversight is appropriately resourced
18. Ensure collaboration and further input around benefit-sharing
19. Ensure public can trust the companies accessing the data
This report commences with an Introduction containing background and contextual information about the IEG and UVOD and our approach towards compiling this report. The following section contains the IEG's Policy Statement, Guiding Principles and Recommendations, with associated description and context. This is followed by a Context section comprising: a discussion of data categories and types; relevant laws, policies, organisations and initiatives in Scotland; summaries of the Scottish Government-commissioned literature reviews and public engagement activities; a discussion of public benefit, public interest and value; and an overview of data critique.
In Australia the latest iteration of the Open Government Program noted over the past decade - now the Open Government Partnership - features the following 'Guiding Principles for Commitment Selection'
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is based on the idea that an open government is more accessible, more responsive, and more accountable to citizens, and that improving the relationship between people and their government has long-term benefits for everyone. Australia’s Open Government Forum has members from civil society and the Australian Government. The Forum is working together to draft Australia’s third National Action Plan (NAP3) for the Australian Open Government Partnership. NAP3 may include commitments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. The Open Government Forum has created a co-creation plan to guide this process.
The Forum has also developed Guiding Principles for Commitment Selection to help the Forum members prioritise and select the NAP3 commitments. These guiding principles provide an agreed framework that reflect the Open Government Partnership Participation and Co-Creation Standards.
It will not be possible to include all suggested commitments in NAP3. We will provide a reasoned response to community members where a particular suggestion will not be pursued, or will be deferred with the possibility of being pursued in the future. These principles are inspired by those set out by the United States Government to inform the co-creation of the US NAP5.
Relevance
• Is the commitment relevant to open government and would fulfilling the commitment ensure that the Australian Government is more accountable and transparent? • Will fulfilling the commitment advance one or more of the open government principles (transparency, inclusive participation, accountability, innovation and ambition)? • Does this commitment address a clearly identified problem? o Is this problem a minor, moderate or high risk to the principles of open government in the Australian context? • Does this commitment expand upon international best practice? • Can this commitment be pursued through an open government lens and can we continue to build upon the commitment in the future?
Community views
• Are relevant stakeholders supportive of this commitment and is there interest in this commitment from a diverse range of community groups? • Does the implementation of this commitment respond to feedback received from civil society, the media, academia, the private sector or other community groups? • Should further consideration be given to how we can engage with diverse community representatives in the development and implementation of this commitment?
Alignment
• Have we confirmed that commitments are not in opposition to government priorities/reform activities, whilst also ensuring proposed commitments prioritise innovation and ambition? • Does the commitment complement current initiatives?
Impact
• Can the entity that would be responsible for implementing the recommendation be identified? • Are there existing identifiable resources within civil society, the private sector or government who can carry out, or assist with carrying out, this commitment? • Can we identify the community groups that would benefit from the implementation of this commitment? • Does the commitment further social justice in Australian society? • Once the commitment has been achieved, can we continue to build on the outcomes over the course of further National Action Plan processes using the data that has been collected? • Is it possible to measure the ambition, fulfilment and impact of the commitment and what sources of evidence will we use to do this?
Timeframes
• Can the commitment be achieved within the OGP 2-year National Action Plan timeframe? o If not, could a proposed commitment be modified to take relevant timeframes into consideration? • Should the topic be noted as a topic of interest in the NAP3 and considered as a future commitment in the NAP4 or as an OGP Future Interest Topic (OGP FIT)?
The Third OGP National Action Plan (NAP3) states
What is the Open Government Partnership? The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral initiative established in 2011 that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. The Australian Government has been a member of the Open Government Partnership since November 2015.
Member governments work with civil society to ‘co-create’ a National Action Plan every two years, with independent reporting on progress. Civil society is a term used by the Partnership to broadly refer to people and organisations outside of government, including non-government organisations, business, academia, community groups and the public.
Further information can be found at www.opengovpartnership.org.
This Third Open Government Partnership (OGP) National Action Plan for 2024–25 (the Plan) is focused on delivery of 8 commitments to improve public participation and engagement in government, strengthen government and corporate sector integrity and enhance Australia’s democratic processes. Specifically, the commitments in this Plan will:
• Commitment 1 - Create transparency in the use of automated decision making and responsible use of artificial intelligence.
• Commitment 2 - Improve public participation of youth in government.
• Commitment 3 - Further strengthen integrity within the Commonwealth public sector.
• Commitment 4 - Build a pathway towards a beneficial ownership register.
• Commitment 5 - Increase accountability and transparency in procurements and grants.
• Commitment 6 - Improve protections for public sector whistleblowers.
• Commitment 7 - Strengthen transparency in political donations and political advertising.
• Commitment 8 - Improve media literacy in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, including to counter the impacts of mis- and dis information.
These commitments will be implemented across 6 different ministerial portfolios.
The commitments align with several of the ‘challenge areas’ identified in the Open Government Partnership 2023-2028 Strategy including:
• access to information
• civic space
• fiscal openness
• public participation
• anti-corruption
• digital governance
• justice
These commitments will also contribute towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in Australia. In particular:
• Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, which focuses on reducing corruption and bribery in all their forms, as well as access to justice and effective, accountable and transparent institutions, and
• Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals, which encourages effective multi-stakeholder partnerships to share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources.
How the Open Government Forum developed this Plan
Membership of Australia’s Open Government Forum (Forum) was refreshed in April 2023. The Forum consists of 9 civil society members and 9 government members. Membership details are available on the Attorney-General's Department (AGD) website.
The Forum developed this Plan using a co-creation process that ensured productive collaboration between civil society, government agencies, subject matter experts and the broader Australian community. The Forum established 3 working groups to identify and discuss potential commitments under the themes of: • public participation and engagement • government and corporate sector integrity, and • strengthening democratic process.
From April to December 2023, the Forum met 5 times and the working groups met 18 times to support the development of the commitments. This collaborative and phased approach enabled Forum members to consult across government to identify and prioritise potential commitments. The agenda and minutes for each Forum meeting are available on the AGD website. A detailed timeline of the development of this Plan is at Annex A.
The Forum also undertook two phases of public consultation: 1. Phase 1: sought input on the co-creation process and the working group themes 2. Phase 2: sought views on the 8 draft commitments.
The submissions and outcomes of the consultation are available on the AGD’s CitizenSpace consultation hub.
Informed by the first phase of public consultation, the working groups considered more than 30 topics of interest and proposed 12 potential commitments to the Forum for further consideration. The Forum considered these potential commitments and agreed that it would be important that the Plan should focus on the commitments where the Forum will have the greatest impact through its ongoing monitoring role. As a result, the Forum prioritised 8 draft commitments to progress to the second phase of public consultation and to become the final commitments detailed in this Plan. The second phase of consultation provided an opportunity to seek views on the importance of the commitments, examples of good practice and what impact these commitments could have to promote open government.
The Forum will continue to meet in 2024 and 2025 to monitor implementation of the Plan.
During the course of considering potential commitments, the Forum identified a number of topics of interest that, while they are not the subject of specific commitments in this Plan, will continue to be a focus for the Forum during 2024 and 2025. This is discussed in more detail at Annex B. ;
