Although there has been some improvement in transparency releases since the Labour government came into office, there is “enormous room for improvement”, a report commissioned by the Ethics and Integrity Commission has found.
The EIC asked Spotlight on Corruption, Transparency International UK and Unlock Democracy to conduct research into the operation of government transparency releases as part of its Lobbying, Disclosure, and Access to Government Review.
The report outlined a number of issues around the publication of transparency releases – which reveal who has access to key decision makers in Government – including:
a. Although there has been an improvement in timeliness since Q4 2024, there is no guarantee that this will continue, and transparency releases are still not published until 3-6 months after the meetings have taken place. This lack of timeliness can mean that the public is not aware of who the government is meeting in the crucial stages before bills are passed or decisions are made.
b. The meaningfulness of descriptions has remained the same throughout the past three years, with no noticeable improvement and the continued use of generic descriptors in contravention of Cabinet Office guidance.
c. There are significant gaps in the data where officials have not included meetings that we know from other sources took place.
d. The files are difficult to find and even more difficult to search, being published across 24 locations per quarter (for ministerial releases alone), in different file formats, with different file names, despite five years passing since CSPL and the Boardman review recommending transparency releases be centralised. This compares unfavourably to the searchability of other countries’ equivalent transparency releases.
e. Transparency releases are difficult, and sometimes impossible, to reconcile with the Lobbying Register, such as where it is not stated in the transparency register which client a consultant lobbyist is representing and where they are listed as having multiple clients in the Lobbying Register.
f. The transparency releases do not have explicitly stated objectives. We can infer objectives for them, including informing the public, holding politicians to account, and improving public trust, but the releases do not seem to be meeting these.
The EIC expects to publish its recommendations in July.
