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  • Transparency and Open Government

    Governments are responsible for using public money to shape the society we live in and the decisions they make impact on the day to day quality of life that everyone enjoys.

    Northern Ireland Open Government commitments

    An Open Government is one that proactively shares information in an open and transparent way, by empowering people to challenge its actions, while encouraging and supporting them to take part in the decisions relating to policies and services that affect them.

    The Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global platform and multilateral initiative, launched at the United Nations in September 2011. It is designed to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in all aspects of governance, including information and data, policy and decision-making, public service delivery, and use of new technologies to strengthen governance. To participate in the OGP, governments must partner on an equal basis with civic society.

    The UK government was one of the founding members of the OGP. In 2016, engagement broadened to the devolved nations, with civic society networks being formed in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. All governments agreed to contribute commitments towards a joint UK Open Government Action Plan, which is refreshed every two years.

    Transparency and Open Government team

    The Transparency and Open Government Team, within Corporate Services Division, undertake the lead role in the development of Northern Ireland’s Open Government commitments. This work involves engaging with departmental representatives and civic society to develop commitments that are ambitious, challenging and cover a wide range of government activities.

    To assist with this the Open Government Implementation Group was formed consisting of senior representatives from each department and civic society colleagues. This group is jointly chaired by the Open Government/Open Data team and all participants are committed to the Open Government agenda and are working towards making all information, where possible, ‘Open by Default’.

    • Open government implementation group - terms of reference
    • Open government Implementation group - agendas and minutes

    Northern Ireland's current Open Government commitments were published on 27 May 2019 as part of the UK's fourth National Action Plan.

    View the latest Northern Ireland commitments

    contents

    FOI Disclosure Log

    This page provides links to information released by the Department of Finance in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) requests.

    DoF Customer Service Standards and Complaints Procedure

    Department of Finance Customer Service Standards.

    DoF Publication Scheme

    Department of Finance Publication Scheme.

    Information released by DoF in 2024

    A list of FOIs from January to December 2024.

    Information released by DoF in 2023

    A list of FOIs from January to December 2023.

    Information released by DoF in 2022

    Information released by DoF in 2022

    Information released by DoF in 2021

    Information released by DoF in 2021.

    Related to Transparency and Open Government

    Most recent publications

    • FOI DOF/2025-0248 - Total Costs for use of Accountancy Firms 2022-2025

      Published 2 May 2025
    • EIR DOF/2025-0206 Breakdown of vehicles in use within the department

      Published 18 April 2025
    See all publications in this topic

    Most recent news items

    • Utility Regulator Chair and Board Member Terms of Appointment

      Published 10 October 2022
    • Minister Murphy launches £40,000 Open Data Fund

      Published 9 December 2020
    See all news in this topic

    Access to information

    How to request information from the Department of Finance including Freedom of Information (FOI) and the use of our Publication Scheme.

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