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Prepare the data

The Cabinet Office Transparency Data team has provided this guidance on how to collect and interpret your data for publication

Special Advisers Transparency Guidance (PDF, 151 KB, 14 pages)

They will commission you with templates, timing and support on appropriate approval processes.

This guidance will apply to transparency data for the period of January - March 2024 onwards.

Government is committed to publishing this data quarterly.

Publish the data

Create a new GOV.UK publication page for each data release.
Create a collection page on GOV.UK for all data releases, with links to each individual publication page.

Consider creating a www.data.gov.uk collection page for each individual data set

Publication page template

The publication title, summary, detail and file name is a government standard and must not be changed.

Publication type: Transparency data

Title: [Department name or acronym]: special advisers gifts, hospitality and meetings, [month to month] [year]

Example Title: Cabinet Office: Special advisers gifts, hospitality and meetings, April to June 2024

Summary: Data on gifts and hospitality received by special advisers, and meetings they attended with senior media figures.

Body:

[Department] publishes quarterly details of special advisers meetings with senior media figures and any gifts or hospitality they received on a quarterly basis.

Associations

Policies: Government transparency and accountability

Policy areas: Government efficiency, transparency and accountability

CSV attachment titles

• [Department]s special advisers gifts, [month to month] [year]
• [Department]s special advisers hospitality, [month to month] [year]
• [Department]s special advisers meetings with senior media figures, [month to month] [year]

For example:

1. Cabinet Office special advisers gifts January to March 2025
2. Cabinet Office special advisers hospitality January to March 2025
3. Cabinet Office special advisers meetings with senior media figures January to March 2025

Collection page [GOV.UK]

Add the new publication to your departments collection page for this data.

Make sure the collection page is tagged to the Government transparency and accountability policy.

Collection page template

Title: [Department name or acronym]: special advisers gifts, hospitality and meetings

Summary: This collection brings together all documents about [department]s special advisers gifts, hospitality and meetings with senior media figures.

Body (optional):
[Department] publishes details of meetings between special advisers and senior media figures. It also includes details of gifts and hospitality received by special advisers.

Subheadings: Add headings for each calendar year, most recent first.

DATA.GOV.UK page templates

When the dataset is published, add a link to it in your departments section on data.gov.uk.

We recommend that this is maintained as a series of collection pages listing all historic publications on GOV.UK with a direct link to the .CSV resource.
A individual page will need to be maintained for each of the following:

1. Gifts,
2. Hospitality, and
3. Meetings with Senior Media Figures.

Title: [Department]: Special Advisers [the specific data set]
Example - a page for each data set:

1. Cabinet Office Special Advisers Gifts Data
2. Cabinet Office Special Advisers Hospitality Data
3. Cabinet Office Special Advisers Meetings Data

Summary: This is a collection and collation page for an element of [your department] Special Advisers Transparency publications [see published here: {your special advisers transparency collation pages on gov.uk}].

Guidance: Each CSV published on GOV.UK will be listed here, to enable easy access to a single stream of data on Special Advisers. Please use the naming conventions present on www.gov.uk to ensure data is accurately described and dated to specific period and year.

Historical Data

Where possible - review historical datasets on www.gov.uk and convert these to CSV format for ease of use within both www.gov.uk and for referencing within www.data.gov.uk.
Do not ever archive or remove historical publications from www.gov.uk.