Former local government minister, Nick Raynsford, has called for greater transparency and scrutiny in central, regional and local government. During the Centre for Public Scrutiny's fifth annual lecture, Mr Raynsford said current scrutiny methods were ‘ineffective' and greater transparency was needed to increase peoples' faith of those in power. He argued ‘ill-conceived' legislation is too often rushed through parliament' using the Government's majority on Bill committees to get Bills passed with ‘inadequate evaluation of the likely impact of the legislation'. Mr Raynsford also urged for councils to stop seeing overview and scrutiny as a hurdle, but rather as a ‘powerful tool' to ensure policy was more effective at meeting the needs of local people. ‘Transparency, scrutiny and accountability is not just about donations and declarations,' said executive director of the Centre for Public Scrutiny, Jessica Crowe. ‘It is about the decisions which politicians make on our behalf every day. ‘What really matters is ensuring those decisions are clearly in the public interest, are well thought through, and likely to meet their intended objectives.'
