Coins causes Whitehall unease

The release of the Combined Online Information System (Coins) database showing government spending has prompted fears that the data is at risk of being manipulated. Last Friday, the government published the raw public spending data as part of its commitment to greater transparency, but the release has been controversial , with some ministers expressing unease about every spending decision they make being exposed in this way. There has also been criticism that the huge amount of data is hard to understand. The government has already said it will publish more user-friendly subsets of the Coins data by August. It is also committed to publishing online all new items of central government spending over £25,000 from November. Tom Scampion, information and technology risk partner at consultancy Deloitte, says some may question the benefit and relevance of providing such information to the public. Interpreting the vast and complex set of Coins data requires specific technical expertise, he points out. Scampion says that there is also a danger that the data could be "manipulated at the expense of its original purpose" and has called for guidelines to be put in place to ensure that data is guarded against misuse. The release of the data has prompted a flood of articles about central government spending. The Guardian has already highlighted some of the major spending areas, including a controversial £60m refit of the National Audit Office's headquarters. Other highlighted areas include: • Bad debts: £596.4m owed to government departments • Consultants: £1.8bn spent on consultancy by government departments, up from £1.5bn in the previous year • Spending: £60bn public expenditure in March before the election - in August (the lowest month) it was £44.3bn • European parliament: £6.8m spent on goods and services for members of the European parliament • Swine flu: £100m tackling the flu pandemic • Westminster: £25m net cost of the House of Commons • Academies: £31.83m spent by the Department for Children, Schools and Families • Lost legal fees: £111m Ministry of Justice provision for unbilled legal fees in October - up from £73m in April last year • Counter-terrorism: £4m Office of security and counter terrorism payments to local authorities The Identity and Passport Service spent £38m on consultancy and £275m on other non-capital purchases in 2009-10. It also spent £116m in wages and £122m on capital items. But the Guardian also points out that much detailed information is missing from the database, including some of the spending on individual suppliers.