Northern Ireland Open Government commitments
An Open Government is one that proactively shares information in an open and transparent way, by empowering people to challenge its actions, while encouraging and supporting them to take part in the decisions relating to policies and services that affect them.
The Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global platform and multilateral initiative, launched at the United Nations in September 2011. It is designed to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in all aspects of governance, including information and data, policy and decision-making, public service delivery, and use of new technologies to strengthen governance. To participate in the OGP, governments must partner on an equal basis with civic society.
The UK government was one of the founding members of the OGP. In 2016, engagement broadened to the devolved nations, with civic society networks being formed in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. All governments agreed to contribute commitments towards a joint UK Open Government Action Plan, which is refreshed every two years.
Transparency and Open Government team
The Transparency and Open Government Team, within Corporate Services Division, undertake the lead role in the development of Northern Ireland’s Open Government commitments. This work involves engaging with departmental representatives and civic society to develop commitments that are ambitious, challenging and cover a wide range of government activities.
To assist with this the Open Government Implementation Group was formed consisting of senior representatives from each department and civic society colleagues. This group is jointly chaired by the Open Government/Open Data team and all participants are committed to the Open Government agenda and are working towards making all information, where possible, ‘Open by Default’.
Northern Ireland's current Open Government commitments were published on 27 May 2019 as part of the UK's fourth National Action Plan.
View the latest Northern Ireland commitments