Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg

Have you ever wondered how taxes are spent in Wales? How Government in Wales works? or how Welsh Law is developed?  If the answer to is yes to any of these questions, then you may be interested in our latest Open Government commitments.

Committed to being open and inclusive….

This is only the second time we’ve pulled together and published our ambitions to be more open and accountable. Having managed to achieve the majority of what we set out to do in our first set of open government commitments we’re keen to continue in this vein.

In bringing together this latest set of commitments, which was recently publicised by the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd, we wanted to try and cover a range of different areas. That’s why we’ve included a number of overarching commitments such as our ‘Engagement’ and ‘Access to Information’ commitments. These include plans to investigate using digital tools to improve engagement, sharing information on how we procure things and helping people find open data – amongst other things.

We’ve also got specific commitments around:

• helping people find and understand more about legislation that applies to Wales;
• increasing awareness and understanding of how funding is obtained and spent;
• encouraging more open data to be published and used; and
• making information about grants and the application processes more easily accessible.

But how did we get to this point?

In developing these commitments, we wanted to find out from others how we could be more open and what areas in particular we should focus on. To help us do this we attended a number of engagement events arranged by the UK Open Government Network. Also our own civil society network, Open Government Network Wales, used a digital engagement tool to gather suggestions for commitments from people and organisations in Wales.

What became apparent was that you wanted to know more about us, about how we work and where you can find the information you need. Using this feedback, we worked with colleagues to find solutions and better ways of working. Some of which have formed the basis for our new commitments.

What next?……

Well we need to follow through on our promises and so over the next 2 years we’ll be focussing on delivering our commitments and milestones. However, we’ll also be looking at where else we can be more open, which is where you come in. Are there any areas in particular that you think should be more open? Do you have any suggestions for future commitments? If so, please e-mail us (digitalanddatablog@gov.wales) and if you haven’t done so already join the Open Government Network Wales.