News
21st July 2009:
The Parliamentary Standards Bill passed into law, establishing the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to monitor MPs expenses. Open Door Democracy welcomes this event, arguing that formation of an institution to scrutinize expense claims is essential for a long term culture of transparency.
23rd June 2009:
John Chilcott, chairman of the investigation committee of the most recent Iraq war enquiry, declared that he would endeavour to make as much of the enquiry public as possible. Open Door Democracy applauds this improvement, however sees that the onus must be on the committee to prove why parts of the investigation need to be held in private rather than why parts can be held in public.
19th June 2009:
MPs' expenses were finally released by the Commons authorities, but with huge amounts of information blacked out. While Open Door Democracy appreciates the need to comply with legislation regarding the publication of documents, it sees many of the redactions as excessive, and a barrier to transparency.
15th June 2009:
Gordon Brown's announcement that the enquiry into the Iraq war is to be held in private has been met by a public outcry. Parliamentarians, NGOs and people from all parts of civil society have called for a public enquiry so that voters can better understand one of the seminal events in British politics in the 21st century.
4th June 2009:
Open Door Democracy welcomes a report by the Health Committee calling for statistics to be compiled and made public on the NHS expenditure on management consultants. "The public must be able to scrutinize all expenditure by the NHS, this is not only the responsibility of the National Audit Office, but that of individual people as voters" the Director of Open Door Democracy said in a statement on the issue.
