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UK Gov't Spending Details Now Online

Posted by timothy on from the I'll-have-what-they're-having dept.

krou writes "The UK government has released a treasure trove of public spending data in an effort to lift what Prime Minister David Cameron calls the government's 'cloak of secrecy.' 'The first two tranches of data are from 2008/09 and 2009/10. The Combined Online Information System (Coins) includes what departments were authorised to spend, what they actually spent and what they are forecast to spend in future.' Since the government admits that 'some degree of technical competence' will be needed to use the files, they have asked the Open Knowledge Foundation to help make it 'more accessible,' and have also promised 'more accessible formats' by August. The datasets can be downloaded from data.gov.uk." And on a similarly happy note, reader mccalli writes "Bletchley Park's archive is to be digitised and put online. It seems HP made an offer to help out with scanners and expertise, and the result is that these texts will be made available to all."

4 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. UK data release vs US annual reports? by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How does the UK spending report shape up vs a US Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_annual_financial_report
    That would show an accurate picture of the UKs institutional funds, financial holdings, assets and total investment incomes, for the government.

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    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  2. Re:Splendid by jabithew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's the Daily Mail. They probably just made it up.

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    All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
  3. Re:Torrrents. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, let's hope the RIAA does. It might make them less keen to pass RIAA (or BPI)-friendly legislation in the future...

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    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  4. Re:The downside of all this by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Presumably that purchase order goes into some sort of computer system even now, the amount spent and a code for type of purchase.

    Once it's in there the rest can be automated, no need for a 'layer of junior civil servants' to re-type the data.

    If I was paranoid I might suspect there will be another layer of people censoring it and fiddling with it to look good, but that's another story...

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