Open Government Partnership

Action Plan Co-creation Interim Report: introduction from Juliet Swann

February 12, 2026 by Open Government Team No Comments | Category Uncategorized

Survey after survey tells us that trust in democratic institutions is declining. As Scotland’s Open Government Partnership, we believe that working to support the principles of open government – transparency, accountability, inclusion and participation – can help foster trust. But we wanted to test that

theory: If public trust in government is lacking, what would inspire that trust to be regained? What does a trustworthy government look like?

Understanding what generates trust in our politicians and democratic institutions is of vital importance. We need to be able to trust that decisions made on our behalf with impact on our lives are being made in good faith. Plus, compliance with rules and democratic norms is rooted in a shared trust that we are all in it together.

Finding a way to discuss these concepts and to dig into the reasoning behind what inspires trust is not easy, and I am grateful to SCDC for pulling together a series of prompts and scenarios that enabled such a wealth of useful feedback.

The findings are perhaps not surprising, because they are feelings we all share. But in defining a framework of trust indicators we hope to challenge ourselves to deliver Scotland’s next open government action plan in ways that meet these perceptions of trustworthiness.

Indicators of trust shared in these conversations included – honesty; explaining the  reasons behind decisions; being respectful; offering meaningful consultation with  ongoing feedback loops; putting the public interest first; and demonstrating how  choices will actually tackle a problem.

But I hear you ask, we’ve told government this before; this isn’t news, so why does  the problem persist?

And that is the challenge we face. Our systems of governance are built on structures and processes that assumed trust would be granted by the public, with regular elections providing sufficient accountability.

These systems and processes are no longer meeting public expectations. Open Government principles and ways of working are intended to provide opportunities to re-shape democratic systems so that they better reflect the needs and expectations of all of us. We look to shape how government works, and how it interacts with wider society, so that systems can be transparent, efficient, effective and trusted.

Our next steps here in Scotland are to create a vision of trustworthy government that everyone working on open government, from Ministers to civil servants to third sector colleagues, will be challenged to meet in their day-to-day work.

And as we move forward in developing what the priorities will be for the open government action plan, we will be identifying ongoing opportunities for input, reflection, feedback and change. Because a lot of this work to rebuild trust is testing a theory, and the best way to know if what we think might improve trust is working, is to ask those whose trust we seek.

A final reflection is that I’m delighted so many people who took part in this process were new to open government, and I hope the plans we have both enable you to continue to engage and are themselves engaging.

I would like to put on the record my thanks to SCDC for undertaking this work and doing so with care and empathy, and also my gratitude to the people who generously gave their time to talk about what trust means to them.

Juliet Swann

Civil society chair, Scotland’s Open Government Partnership

Read the full interim-report.

Find out about phase 2 workshops.

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