MoJ, Home Office and Foreign Office ‘worst-performing’ depts for transparency

The Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Justice were named as the worst-performing government departments for transparency, in a report released today by the Institute for Government.

The report analysed information regularly published across Whitehall that detail who ministers, civil servants and special advisers meet with.

The Home Office released required data on its senior officials’ meetings across just three of 23 quarters between the 2015 general election and March 2021.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, created in September 2020, published no information on meetings held by its ministers or officials until September 2021.

The Ministry of Justice was found to be the least reliable department on ministerial releases. It often publishes data late and has failed to publish any information on five occasions, and has failed six times to publish special adviser data.

Published information also often lacks sufficient detail. The Treasury described the purpose of five meetings held by its permanent secretary between July and September 2018 as simply “meeting”.

From July to September 2018, special advisers at the Cabinet Office met with media representatives 16 times, and eight of these occasions were simply described as “lunch” in official publications.

This report comes after a year of successive transparency issues for the government as concerns surfaced over former health secretary Matt Hancock’s appointment of Gina Coladangelo and former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying of ministers and senior civil servants on behalf of Lex Greensill’s firm.