Open Government Partnership Summit

Thursday 5th June 2014 Written Statements

[The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)]

The UK Government hosted the open government partnership (OGP) annual summit on 31 October to 1 November 2013. The summit marked the end of the UK’s chairmanship of the OGP and brought over 1,500 people together to: learn from each other; reflect on the OGP’s achievements to date; set ambitious new commitments for greater openness and demonstrate that open government tangibly improves the lives of citizens. The ambition was to bring together as many Government and civil society reformers as possible from across the OGP network, as well as business leaders, journalists and bloggers and representatives from international organisations—in the end we welcomed over 1,500 participants from 83 Governments and civil society organisations around the world. The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster was hired as sufficiently large enough to accommodate a varied and innovative agenda and it offered the flexibility to operate different kinds of sessions simultaneously. The venue was well equipped for our security needs, as Heads of Government were invited from a number of countries. It also provided the facilities needed for translation services.

The summit was co-ordinated by the Cabinet Office with involvement from the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development, the OGP support unit and other interested civil society representatives. The event production company WRG was hired to run the event logistics, which included managing the venue and on-site media operation, producing delegate materials and liaising with speakers. Foreign Office embassies were involved in engaging the participation of 82 overseas Governments in the event, and their lobbying efforts helped to secure the announcement of new commitments on openness from 37 Governments at the summit.

Due to a number of high-profile Ministers being in attendance, the Metropolitan police provided security and special protection for VIPs. Further questions about the police operation should be directed to the Metropolitan police. A pre-summit reception and dinner was held for 300 guests in Lancaster house on 30 October, and a reception sponsored by the World Bank was held for all delegates in the summit venue on 31 October.

It was important for the event to engage the widest possible audience. It was live streamed online and video content from each session was subsequently uploaded to the OGP website and YouTube channel. Live streaming enabled individuals around the world to participate remotely, including the US Secretary of State John Kerry who took part in one of the plenary sessions via video link. The venue housed a media centre for press conferences and to enable key participants to be interviewed. Interpreters provided simultaneous translation of the main plenary session in addition to some breakout sessions in French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Broadcast, print, online and social media meant we were able to reach millions of people around the world who did not attend the summit. This considerable external interest in the summit was evidenced by the fact that it was placed second on the BBC news website and that #OGP13 was trending on Twitter in the UK.

The emphasis on peer learning in the OGP led to the development of an exhibition of 60 innovative projects from across the globe that had either developed to facilitate or as a consequence of open government initiatives. The aim of the festival was to provide participants with the opportunity to learn how to make progress on open government, explore the work of others, create new ideas, solutions or services and encourage networking.

The central funding for the event came from the Cabinet Office, supported by funding for the pre-summit reception from the Foreign Office. We agreed a budget of £1.6 million for the summit but every effort was made to balance the need to deliver a powerful event engaging the widest possible audience with the need to reduce costs. As a result the actual amount spent was significantly less, at under £1.3 million. In-house resources were used as much as possible and delegates were required to cover their own costs to attend. The Cabinet Office did not provide any travel support to delegates, and instead a travel support fund was co-ordinated by the OGP support unit. The Cabinet Office furthermore secured sponsorship from Omidyar Network for live streaming costs and the World Bank for the main reception on 31 October.

Below is a breakdown of the summit costs: