[wdmmg-discuss] HMT guidelines on departmental spending

[Anna Powell-Smith]

Did you get any sense that they have plans to adapt the guidelines in the
near future?

The guidance on commercial confidentiality is the most important point.

We could maybe get round points 1 and 2 by asking departments for their
internal charts of expense types and how (if at all) they map to PSPES.

On 6 October 2010 11:14, Lisa Evans <lisa.evans at okfn.org> wrote:

> I met Karren Sanderson, one of the authors of the guideline, on Monday.
>
> No they didn't ask our advice on it.
> I think in future they will.
>
> On Tue, 5 Oct 2010, Anna Powell-Smith wrote:
>
>  Just been looking at the Treasury guidelines for the forthcoming
>> departmental spending releases [1], and several things seem disappointing.
>>
>> 1. Prescriptive structure of 9 columns, with only 1 column for 'expense
>> type' - so we can't use our bubble viz, with no hierarchy of
>> classifications. Why not have 8 columns + an arbitrary number of 'expense
>> type' columns at the end?
>>
>> 2. No requirement for standard classifications using e.g. PSPES, so hard
>> to
>> compare across departments. OK, they want to get the data out fast, but if
>> some departments use both PSPES and internal expense types (as DCLG seemed
>> to in their 2009 release) would be nice to have both. Because the
>> structure
>> is so prescriptive, looks like departments won't include this.
>>
>> 3. Permissible redactions include: "Potential betrayal of a commercial
>> confidence, or prejudice to a legitimate commercial interest". This is
>> part
>> of FOIA, but the Local Data Panel guidance to councils warned: "Very rare
>> and will need to be justified". No such guidance here.
>>
>> Did HMT ask us for any advice when writing this document?
>>
>> [1] http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/transparency_spend_over25100910.pdf
>> [2] http://data.gov.uk/blog/local-spending-data-guidance
>>
>>
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