Lawyers have been hired to challenge Doge’s data grab
Reform UK’s controversial Elon Musk-styled Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) unit is hitting major roadblocks.
Lawyers and data handlers at several councils have so far blocked unelected volunteers running the party’s so-called ‘Doge’ team from accessing personally and commercially sensitive data.
Reform-led Kent County Council has hired lawyers to push back against Doge’s attempts to access internal data, The Financial Times has reported.
A senior Reform figure told the FT that no data-sharing agreements have yet been signed with any Reform-run councils.
The source added that there has been “resistance in some councils” and accused legal teams of “slow-rolling things”.
Reform ‘Doge’ unit launched in June, promising to use artificial intelligence, advanced data analysis and forensic auditing techniques to “identify wasteful spending and recommend actionable solutions”.
So far, the unit has been reliant on publicly available information and has misunderstood council spending and contractual information.
For example, head of ‘Doge’ Zia Yusuf recently wrongly claimed Kent County Council had tendered a £350 million contract for recruitment.
It turned out it was not a council contract, but a national procurement framework open to all public bodies across the UK.
One source familiar with legal conversations at a Reform-run council said local officials were struggling to find a legal route that would enable Nigel Farage’s party to access confidential information.
They said an open procurement exercise would probably be needed for any external organisation to obtain the legal right to inspect confidential data.
This would mean Doge would have to compete with other organisations for the job, with no guarantee of being selected.
Despite the pushback, another source told the FT that ‘Doge’ is making progress and that Reform expected to sign data-sharing agreements in the coming days.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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