First Reform Council to approve DOGE data sharing
The Reform UK Cabinet approved a legal framework at a meeting on Wednesday
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is the first to approve a data sharing agreement with Reform UK’s DOGE team. However, according to the authority, any insights gained will remain the council’s property and can’t be used for ‘political purposes’.
The Reform UK Cabinet approved a legal framework at a meeting on Wednesday (July 16), which will see the party’s team of volunteers work with the authority to find further savings and efficiencies in budgets.
No data has been shared so far, but a list of records WNC has pre-emptively put together includes publicly available information on financial data, as well as a focus on potholes, housing asylum seekers and demand-led services.
The unitary authority says personal data held by the Council about residents, individual cases, or services will be excluded from the information that may be shared.
On top of this, the Council has noted that as the DOGE team is connected to Reform UK, which is a political party, any subsequent reporting on the findings would remain the intellectual property of WNC. It adds that the data would be reported only to the Chief Executive Officer, or a nominated deputy, in the first instance and be “controlled through strict confidentiality requirements in the legal agreements”.
It explains that the next step would be for the Leader and relevant Cabinet Members to be briefed by the Chief Executive Officer in confidence. The information would only be able to be shared publicly if the Financial Officer verifies that savings can be made.
This would be reported to the Cabinet in turn and would be made available more widely through public meetings.
This comes at a time when councils across the country are facing tough financial decisions. Since its creation in 2021, the Council has already saved around £115 million by working more efficiently, but it says the budget setting process for next year could be “the toughest yet”.
The Council is already subject to regular and rigorous financial checks, with extensive inspections and audits carried out every year. The authority has confirmed that the DOGE review will come at no cost to the taxpayer, but did note that a small amount of officer time will be used to collate requested information.
Cllr Mark Arnull, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council, said DOGE presents a “unique opportunity” to support the budget-setting process.
He added: “I am confident the team will be able to support the Council in identifying further efficiencies and potential future savings whilst continuing to protect and deliver services for residents across West Northamptonshire.”
Opposition councillors have remained sceptical of the Reform UK efficiency team since it was first announced and questioned the need for the project and the intentions behind it.
Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Jonathan Harris argued that it was the job of elected representatives and officers to work out where savings could be made.
He said: “I suspect there was a view that you would come in and find masses of money hidden away in a cupboard somewhere. I hope that there is a realisation that it isn’t just about efficiencies, it’s going to be about looking at investment.
He also warned that some earmarked areas looked like they were there to be “politicised” and said that any attempt to “take advantage of it in an inappropriate way will be called out”.
Cllr Daniel Lister, the Conservative group leader, added: “I have serious concerns about what’s being proposed. We’re being asked to approve sharing data with people we cannot name.
“This isn’t politically neutral and it is politically branded. We already have extensive internal audit LGA peer reviews, ongoing transformation programmes- are we really saying that all of this professional expertise has missed savings that political volunteers can find?”
He asked the administration to ‘de-politicise’ the process if they were determined to continue on the path, by establishing a cross-party group of leaders and ensuring scrutiny of all recommendations before implementation.
West Northamptonshire Council Chief Executive Anna Earnshaw has called the legal protocols and confidentiality requirements in the data sharing agreement “clear and robust”.
“This is simply about giving ourselves every possible tool to protect essential services and keep delivering for local people, even in tough times,” she said.