Who's Spending Britain's Billions? >>> 'confidentiality' and contracting out public services

Jacques Peretti has put together some pretty startling documentaries:
Futures Forum: Planned Obsolescence: and The Men Who Made Us Spend
Futures Forum: Billion Dollar Business Deals >>> How our world has been changed by people we have never heard of, transforming our lives without us realising it had even happened.

His piece on outsourcing allsorts to 'consultants' is being aired again:

Who’s Spending Britain’s Billions?

Jacques Peretti skims the surface of the scandal that is outsourcing. Having been told by the government to make savings, councils have given buckets of public cash to management consultants. Peretti discovers that the contracts are usually confidential, and he often doesn’t quite join the dots to prove the money was wasted before skipping on to his next case study. But perhaps this will prompt viewers to investigate more deeply themselves. Jack Seale

Tuesday’s best TV: Who’s Spending Britain’s Billions?; Ordinary Lies; Insecure | Television & radio | The Guardian

As we've seen in Sidmouth, consultants' reports are subject to 'confidentiality' agreements...

Whether at Knowle:
Futures Forum: Knowle relocation project: latest news on the FOI tribunal
Information Commissioner v East Devon District Council – report on morning session | East Devon Watch

Or at Port Royal:
Futures Forum: Plans for Port Royal: anticipating a Regeneration Board >> the Scoping Study, the Local Plan and the use of consultants
Vision Group for Sidmouth - Plans for Port Royal: anticipating a Regeneration Board >>> Scoping Report and Project Brief >>> 26 questions

In other words, it's very much about transparency - or the lack of it:
Transparency vs. Secrecy « East Devon Alliance

Jacques Peretti does not spare other councils:





BBC Documentary - Who's Spending Britain's Billions - YouTube

Now showing on BBC Two and the i-player:


Who's Spending Britain's Billions?

As Britain continues to spend less on the public sector, do we really know where our taxes are being spent?

Spending on schools, hospitals and foreign aid are well debated. In this one-off documentary, Jacques Peretti looks beyond the well-known budgets to the range of projects the public know less about, from the virtual receptionists at Brent Civic Centre to the night-vision goggles being used to spy on dog walkers in Staffordshire.

Peretti uncovers what is happening behind closed doors in cash-strapped Britain and finds that local councils across the UK are signing contracts with management consultancy firms who can take a percentage of any savings they find.

Peretti also reveals that hundreds of the millions of taxpayers' pounds spent on these contracts are covered by confidential deals meaning very little detail is known about them. In this revealing insight, Peretti asks if the public deserve to know more about how those charged with managing Britain's billions are spending it.

BBC Two - Who's Spending Britain's Billions?
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