PM outlines plans for transparent Government
The Prime Minister has outlined plans to make Government more transparent and allow people to hold ministers and public services to account.
In his first podcast, David Cameron said he would “rip off the cloak of secrecy” surrounding Government information and help to rebuild trust in politics.
As a first step, details of public spending over the past 12 months, information about hospital infections and some of the salaries of senior Whitehall officials will be published next week.
The PM said:
If there’s one thing I’ve noticed since doing this job, it’s how all the information about government; the money it spends, where it spends it, the results it achieves; how so much of it is locked away in a vault marked sort of private for the eyes of ministers and officials only.
I think this is ridiculous. It’s your money, your government, you should know what’s going on. So we’re going to rip off that cloak of secrecy and extend transparency as far and as wide as possible. By bringing information out into the open, you’ll be able to hold government and public services to account.
The podcast was recorded as the Prime Minister returned from a trip to Yorkshire where made his first major speech since becoming PM. Speaking in Shipley, Mr Cameron set out plans for economic growth and promised to make the coming decade the most entrepreneurial and dynamic in Britain’s history.
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Speeches and transcripts: PM’s podcast on transparency