The prime minister has told government departments to publish all new information and communications technology contracts online from July 2010.
In a letter to departments on Tuesday, prime minister David Cameron set out a timetable for the publication of public sector datasets.
In addition to ICT contracts, departments will be expected to published all tenders for contracts worth more than £10,000 on a single website, starting in September 2010.
From November 2010 new items of central government spending worth more than £25,000 will be published online.
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Starting in January 2011 all new central government contracts will be published in full.
Local authority spending will also be covered by the new regime. From January 2011 new items of council spending of more than £500 will be published, along with all council tender documents and contracts of £500 or more.
"Of course, the release of the datasets specified in the coalition programme is just the beginning of the transparency process," says Cameron.
"In advance of introducing any necessary legislation to effect our right to data proposals, public requests to departments for the release of government datasets should be handled in line with the principles underpinning those proposals: a presumption in favour of transparency, with all published data licensed for free reuse."
A Public Sector Transparency Board within the Cabinet Office, chaired by the minister for the cabinet office Francis Maude, will be set up to oversee the implementation of the transparency regime.
Board members will include Tom Steinberg, founder and director of open source organisation mySociety, which runs sites including TheyWorkForYou and fixmystreet.com.
