Big society policies will require more transparency and changes to IT, says public auditor

A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said that big society policies, which aim to have services delivered by charity and voluntary bodies rather than central Government, will require changes to the way public sector IT works if they are to be successful.

The prediction came in a report on information and communications technologies (ICT) and their use in Government (48-page / 459KB PDF).

It said that plans to have services delivered by third parties will be dependent on public bodies opening up access to public data in new ways.

"Stronger information strategies and more transparent government information and data will be factors enabling the delivery of public services by charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises," said the report. "This requires a step change from earlier attempts to open up government (for example, the Freedom of Information Act) as the duty to publish data would be placed on government at all levels, rather than citizens having to ask for it."

The report also said that such policies will be reliant on public sector IT systems in new ways.

"This means that new demands will be placed on existing ICT systems across the whole of government," it said. "[This will include demands for] access to data at low cost using common data standards, a system of identity assurance that can be used by government’s partners, sufficient information security where necessary, assurance about the quality of data and the timely release of data."

The report said that departments had been publishing data sets, in line with the Government's policy to increase the transparency of Government data. It said that 5,600 data sets were now available.