Transparency and open-data rule

Transparency and open-data rule

Purpose

Members cannot hold their institutions to account if they cannot see what those institutions do. This rule makes openness the default: meetings, documents, budgets and data are public unless a specific, narrow exception applies, and the burden of justifying secrecy lies on the body that wants it.

Article 1. Open meetings

1. Meetings of the assembly, the council and standing bodies are open to members and, where practicable, streamed and recorded.
2. Agendas and papers are published at least seven days in advance; minutes recording decisions and each member's vote are published within ten days.
3. A body may meet in closed session only for an item covered by Article 3, and must state which exception applies.

Article 2. Right of access

1. Any person may request any document held by a body of the polity, without giving reasons.
2. The body replies within 20 working days, either releasing the document or stating which exception applies to which part.
3. Access is free; copying may be charged at cost.
4. A refusal can be appealed to the ombudsman, who may order release.

Article 3. Exceptions

Information may be withheld only to the extent that release would: disclose personal data without a lawful basis; endanger a person's safety; prejudice an ongoing investigation or dispute; or disclose a commercial secret of a third party. Each exception is applied to the smallest possible part of a document and lapses after ten years at most, except for personal data.

Article 4. Money

The budget, accounts, every payment above a modest threshold, every contract with its price and every grant are published, in a form that allows them to be searched by recipient and by purpose.

Article 5. Open data by default

1. Datasets that bodies collect or produce in their work are published as open data unless an exception in Article 3 applies.
2. Open data is published in machine-readable, non-proprietary formats with documentation, under an open licence that permits reuse with attribution.
3. Each body keeps a public register of the datasets it holds, including those it does not publish and why.
4. Data about individuals is published only in aggregated or anonymised form, after a published check of re-identification risk.

Article 6. Code, algorithms and consultation records

1. Software developed for or by the polity is published under an open-source licence, unless the assembly decides otherwise for security reasons.
2. For every automated system listed in the AI system register, the logic, the data categories used and evaluation results are published, together with the register entry.
3. Records of public consultations, including all submissions and online deliberation data, are published at the end of the consultation in anonymised form, with a statement of how they were taken into account.

Article 7. Lobbying and contacts

Office-holders publish, each month, a list of meetings with persons or organisations seeking to influence decisions, with the date, participants and subject.