19 March 2014
It’s time we extended
Freedom of Information to public services run by private companies – just ask
Jago the Rabbit
Anyone
who knows the story of Jago the rabbit will understand why we need to extend
Freedom of Information to private companies who deliver public sector
contracts.
Jago was
the pet rabbit that was successfully registered as a court
translator. He was
even booked in for shifts, after the Ministry of Justice bungled the outsourcing
of language service contracts.
Jago’s
short-lived career as a translator says less about his talent and much more
about why we need to ensure private providers delivering public services are
properly held to account.
This
week’s headlines on the scandal of G4S and Serco overcharging for electronic
monitoring of offenders are a further reminder of what can happen when third
party contractors escape scrutiny.
The two
companies have had to pay a combined £214m to the taxpayer after charging
millions of pounds for tagging offenders who had died, moved abroad, or who
were already back in prison.
Cases
like these are why we proposed reforms in Parliament this week to make private
contractors delivering Government contracts comply with Freedom of Information
(FOI) requests in the same way public bodies have to.
With
billions of pounds of public money at stake, we need transparency about what
these firms are doing.
Disappointingly,
Government MPs blocked our amendments to the Criminal Justice & Courts Bill
yesterday morning. Less than an hour after voting down our proposals however, Ministers
floated their own watered down idea for a new code of practice on the use of
FOI.
What they
propose is a code of practice that encourages public authorities to request
data from private firms they contract with. Most already do this, often with
rather poor track records of actually getting any of the required information.
Clearly
this won't go as far enough and won't compel companies to release
information. It does show however that the debate on Freedom of
Information is shifting.
We all
know that the delivery of public services is changing. Government currently
spends £187bn on goods and services with third parties each year, around half
of which goes on contracting out services.
Private
providers are queuing up to bid for the lucrative financial rewards that come
with these large-scale contracts. As outsourcing is stepped up, more and more
information about public services and public money is being pulled out of the
public domain.
This
presents a very real challenge that we cannot avoid. The rewards third parties
stand to gain need to go hand-in-hand with a duty of transparency and a
willingness to share information.
The
Freedom of Information Act does technically apply to supply chain companies
deemed to be holding information on behalf of a public authority. In practice
however contracted providers are not subject to anywhere near the same
transparency requirements as publicly run services.
We can
see this in the new private prisons, in parts of our increasingly fragmented
NHS, and the companies struggling to deliver the Government's failing Work Programme.
That’s
why we need to build Freedom of Information into the contracts Government take
out with third parties. The influential Public Accounts Committee recommended
this just a few days ago.
Many
Government departments are not providing information on how these contracts
work on the grounds of commercial sensitivity. That is not an excuse that the
public will accept for much longer.
Of course
commercial confidences need to be respected. There should be an onus on
contractors however to do all they can to work around this, and provide the
public with as much information as possible without breaching it.
People
should be able to ask about how, and how well, the service they are paying for
is being run. Otherwise we risk eroding trust and confidence in the basic
services our society relies on every day.
Labour
has pledged to tackle this issue head-on and bring companies providing public
contracts fully within the scope of Freedom of Information legislation.
Freedom
of Information can be uncomfortable. It can give Government ministers sleepless
nights and shed light on difficult issues. But that’s the point.
David
Cameron used to speak about leading ‘the most transparent Government ever’. Two
years ago he spoke about “the power of information” and how “it lets the people
hold the powerful to account.”
We agree
with the Prime Minister. Jago probably does too.
No comments:
Post a Comment