Promoting open governance in the fight against corruption will be one of the elements of the third OGP National Action Plan in the UK.

During the launch of the new plan in July, which brought together representatives from central and local government and the civil society, Rachel Davies from Transparency International UK hosted a session called “Anti-corruption: how can collective governance be used to prevent corruption?”.

In a blog post, Davies said that “the open government project offers the opportunity to change the status quo on many issues by enabling more transparency in how UK systems operate”. She added that “strong institutions that are transparent and accountable are bulwarks against corruption”. Davies believes that Open Governance offers opportunities for government and civil society to eradicate corruption in the country.

According to her, corruption can be fought if the next Action Plan takes into account both local and international collaboration. She said that efforts could be made to open data in public bodies or private companies. Those data could help “detecting and deterring corruption”. Today, “TI research has identified a lack of data relevant to corruption in the UK, making it difficult to analyse and address the problem”, she added.

Lastly, increasing transparency in ownership could be broadened further. “In addition to establishing transparency over who owns the companies that own so much UK property, it’s important to turn transparency into a benefit for companies themselves, and not just other stakeholders”, she said, adding that “the Government could create a transparency dividend, such that transparent companies will be the preferred partners in deals and have greater eligibility for bidding processes”.

Fighting corruption through open governance was also a key element of the speech of Matt Hancock, Minister for the Cabinet Office.