The introduction of the Freedom of Information Act is one of the things that has contributed to a culture change among people working in government, and the introduction of social media tools, particularly things like Twitter and Facebook, has meant that increasing numbers of civil servants, particularly in the middle ranks, have made themselves available in the public domain and talked about their work. This, for some people, has exposed them to a degree of scrutiny, in some cases in the national media, that they wouldn't normally expect to have in their everyday lives. It's also meant that for people outside government they have completely different channels to be able to engage with government. So if somebody wants to engage with a particular official who they know is responsible for a particular thing, they can send them a message on Twitter and they can get a response on Twitter, which is I think a mark of how a culture of openness is becoming much more systemic than perhaps it was even five years ago. The use of social media tools is certainly underpinning that very much at the middle level of officials who are beginning to adopt and use these tools.
It was a big step forward for the government to establish, probably about 18 months ago, a clear set of policy guidelines about civil servants' participation in social media, what it's possible for people to do, where the lines are in relation to their civil service code. That certainly enabled an increasing number of civil servants to talk about their work more openly, using those channels as part of a wider cultural change that is happening. Maybe when the history books are written, people will look back and say it was the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act that really marked the starting point for that.