The UK government has joined the likes of Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Paraguay in committing to the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) which focuses on providing transparency in government contracting practices. The project plans to promote disclosure and participation in public contracting through an easy-to-understand data standard that is open and machine-readable. OCDS was produced by the Open Contracting Partnership, and developed by the World Wide Web Foundation. The Public Accounts Committee released a report in March 2014 that stated the UK government was failing to properly manage private contractors and their use of outsourcing, and this is the next step by the UK government to address this problem.
