Friday, 4 June 2010

 
 
TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 4th June 2010
 
Transparency at last 

In pay...
This week the Cabinet Office took a pivotal step and released a publication revealing the salaries of all the civil servants earning over £150k. We see this as an important victory for the TPA as we've been producing our annual Public Sector Rich Lists, which show the most highly paid executives in the public sector, for the past four years. 

This decision provides long overdue - but nevertheless extremely welcome - transparency that will mean taxpayers get a much better idea of how their money is spent. But there's still work to do. Though the publication is a step in the right direction, the TPA thinks the government can go further so that taxpayers have access to as much information as possible and decide for themselves whether pay for senior staff in public sector organisations represents good value for money.
 
The coalition government need to follow through on an announcement they made two weeks ago that all public salaries, which are equal to or greater than the entry level salary for a senior civil servant – currently £58,500 – will have their pay and expenses published online. There are many public sector employees making less than £150k but who are responsible for key projects and they too should be accountable to taxpayers.  Expanding the range of public sector employees covered, beyond the civil servants covered in the list released this week, is also extremely important. Employees of non-departmental public bodies, the BBC, public corporations, quangos, NHS Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities, police forces and other emergency services should be included.  All of these public bodies – as the TPA’s research has shown – have very well paid senior staff who should face the same scrutiny as the Civil Service. 

...and spending
We're also delighted today to see the online publication of the Treasury COINS database - the most comprehensive resource of data on public spending.   As most of you will know, spending transparency has been a long standing objective for our campaign, indeed, "publish full data on spending" was one of the policies for the first three months of a new government in the TPA manifesto.  As we said in that document: "Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent".

This morning, the Treasury has released an initial tranche of the data held in the COINS database, which is great news on a number of fronts, including:

  • It should allow a broader swathe of civil society outside government to more effectively help identify potential cuts in spending.
  • The public will be able to better understand how their money is spent, which will allow for a more informed political debate over the options open to politicians.
  • As US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, "sunlight is the best disinfectant".  If politicians, officials, contractors, journalists and inquiring members of the public are able to see how money is spent, it is far less likely to be lost to corruption or fraud.
Given the potential of spending transparency to drive greater efficiency, this should be a huge win for taxpayers. Many authorities have already shown the way with spending transparency. Local government is increasingly publishing its spending online with Windsor and Maidenhead leading the way and a number of authorities now following their lead, most recently Northamptonshire who put the measure in place after a meeting with the TaxPayers' Alliance.
 
If you're feeling ambitious and know your way around a database, visit this handy explorer.  Let us know if you find anything interesting!
 
Moral victory on welfare 

This week TPA Research Director Matthew Sinclair appeared on popular Radio 4 show the Moral Maze.  He made the case that the welfare system was chasing unrealistic objectives and, as a result, had become so complicated it was too expensive, failing to look after many of those really in need and trapping people in dependency.  He refuted the idea of some of the panellists that this was about bashing the poor, and made it clear that politicians who have put in place a system that means it isn’t worth those on benefits working are the ones to blame for the dire state of Britain’s welfare system.  Do listen to the interview here! 
This sets the stage for major research work on welfare policy that is coming soon from the TPA.  The new coalition government have indicated an interest in making serious changes in this area and we will be providing them with a detailed plan to reform how the massive welfare budget is used, tackle benefit
dependency and deliver better value for taxpayers’ money.
 

MEPs should tell us what they're up to 

As many of you will have seen in the media, we’ve regularly raised concerns that a lot of the European Parliament’s international trips by delegations of MEPs are little more than lavish junkets. Certainly accounts have come out in the past of MEPs (and MPs on Westminster trips) enjoying fine wining and dining in various paradises, all at taxpayers’ expense. Of course, MEPs have tried on a number of occasions to refute those concerns, but they have normally simply tried to dismiss it as anti-politician bias. Roger Helmer, an MEP for the East Midlands, has this week demonstrated a better way to deal with such criticism. Whilst he disagrees with us about the value of many of these trips, and we still stand by our opinion, he has done the right thing and actually started publishing some information about what such trips involve on his blog. 

Wouldn’t it be good if more of our representatives, particularly those in the distant EU, followed his lead and used blogs or Twitter to be more open about exactly what is done with our money?
 
 
New Scottish branch taking root
 
Did you hear the story of the council who spent £400,000 rebuilding some garages, only for drivers to discover they were so narrow that it was impossible to get out of the car? Well if you did, you may well live in Aberdeen and recognise just why we're hoping to set-up a local TPA branch there! 

If you live in Aberdeen or the surrounding area and would be interested in getting more involved with the TaxPayers' Alliance as an activist, then we'd very much like to hear from you. Do drop me an email or call the number below (fiona.mcevoy@taxpayersalliance.com) and I'll explain just what sorts of activities our branches tend to get up to, and how you can help us campaign for lower taxes and less government waste.

If you don't live in Aberdeen, or indeed Scotland, but would still be interested in joining or starting up a branch, do make yourself known! We're very keen to expand our grassroots network even further and would really love to hear from any willing volunteers.        
 
 
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Posted by Britannia Radio at 20:22