Recommendation 2

Publishing details of the rationale and success criteria for a major programme is essential for public transparency and assisting parliamentary scrutiny. This is not only a democratic good in itself; by exposing the justifications for their interventions to scrutiny, departments can hope to strengthen the design of their policies and gain greater public confidence in their decisions. In future, whenever the Cabinet Office launches a named programme, it should publish a prospectus document in advance of its operation, setting out details including the programme’s rationale, key objectives, and evaluation plan. It should additionally maintain a dedicated webpage on GOV. UK, on which it periodically publishes updated metrics of progress, as well as other corporate announcements related to the programme. Retrospectively, the Cabinet Office should, alongside the response to this report, publish this information, both for Places for Growth and for its Plan for London, on a dedicated GOV.UK webpage, and commit to updating it with metrics of progress at regular intervals, at least annually. In publishing this information, the Cabinet Office should clearly show how Places for Growth and the Plan for London fit together.

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