A website where government departments’ business plans set out their policies and timetables for achieving them is being launched.
Prime Minister David Cameron said it would be a move towards greater transparency in Whitehall.
The government’s business plans have been given an awfully big political build-up. In the prime minister’s words they represent “a power shift” from government and “one of the biggest blows for people power”.
But haven’t we been here many times before? First, we had John Major’s much mocked Citizen’s Charter, then Labour’s Public Service Agreements and only this summer the coalition launched a series of Structural Reform Plans.
Government sources say the difference between the coalition’s approach and that of previous governments is targets.
The business plans don’t contain targets. Instead they have timelines and milestones.
What’s the difference? Government officials say milestones empower the public to assess what progress has been achieved. Targets are Whitehall-imposed.
Somehow, one suspects, it is a difference that may still elude many.
He describes the move as a “power shift”, giving people enough information to hold government to account.
Plans for the website were first outlined in July.
Mr Cameron said at the time that the idea was to bring all the data together in a single website.
Each department will have to produce a monthly progress report – and the secretary of state will have to account to the prime minister if they are not on track.
The government dismisses suggestions that Labour had a similar scheme, with its widespread use of published targets. They say their approach is democratic while Labour’s was bureaucratic.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander told the BBC: “All departments in previous governments have had plans for what they are going to do.
“The difference is that we’re making our plans public, so that the public can see how we intend to go about our business, what we intend to do in any department, any area that people are interested in.
“It’s about transparency, it’s about giving the public the chance to really scrutinise government, not just once every five years at election time but step by step on each of the policies that people care about and want to see, they’ll be able to hold us to account.”
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