CLG datasets in open format by 2012

In its business plan for 2011-2015, the department says that the measures are part of its efforts to "increase transparency by letting people see how their money is being spent". The department intends to start the process in January 2011 when it will prepare a comprehensive list of the data it holds and the information it plans to publish in an open and standardised format. The document also reiterates CLG's drive to publish local data held by central government and says that it will work with the Cabinet Office to prepare departments for the publication of open information by March 2011. "We will use transparency to facilitate the choice and democratic accountability which will replace top down targets and micromanagement," says the document. It pledges to "decentralise power as far as possible" and says it will develop a single, reduced list of the data requirements placed on local government by central departments by April 2012. This will involve identifying exceptional areas where central government needs to retain an oversight role. The CLG also discloses its intentions to transfer historic data and IT infrastructure from the abolished quango, the Government Office for London, to the Government Office Network by March 2011.