Online info makes council more transparent
Friday April 15, 2011
In another first for Britain’s most transparent local authority, Hammersmith & Fulham Council is now publishing Request for Information (RFIs) responses under FOI online.
H&F Council, a former LGC Council of the Year, has led the way in openness and transparency and last year became one of the first authorities to put all spending above £500 online.
And now, it is going one step further by putting RFI responses on its website, www.lbhf.gov.uk.
As a particularly high profile borough, H&F receives a huge number of requests. In 2010, 969 enquiries were answered, up from 203 in 2005.
Cllr Harry Phibbs, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, said: “Residents have a right to hold the council to account and ask the questions that matter on how their money is spent and how services are provided. By putting all RFIs online we are saying to our taxpayers, come and scrutinise what we are doing, warts and all. We want to make openness a real force to drive out waste and inefficiency so that we can ensure every available penny goes towards frontline service delivery.
“The information online is written in simple layman’s terms so that it is meaningful and easily understood to the general public. This is about opening ourselves up to constructive criticism, not hiding behind bureaucratic council speak. Everyone at the council will be given another reason to think twice about spending money unnecessarily. We want to be champions of openness and transparency in order to deliver value for money for our residents.”
By visiting the dedicated ‘Transparency’ page - www.lbhf.gov.uk/transparency - on the council website, taxpayers will also be able to see senior officer salaries, details of all councillors’ expenses, the borough’s asset register and departmental organisation charts.
The council’s transparency procedures have been backed by the Taxpayers Alliance that said recently: “Hammersmith & Fulham Council has made a great step forward in this area of their own accord, publishing detailed structure charts with every single job title. A win for transparency which other councils should emulate. Hammersmith & Fulham should be congratulated for their moves toward greater openness and transparency.”
