Government releases data on all spending over £25,000

But visitors to data.gov site complain that the information is hard to interpret

The UK government is touting its open government credentials, after releasing files detailing spending by every department over £25,000 in the past six months, totalling around £80bn of public money - the most comprehensive release of public spending data to date.

The data has been released through the data.gov web site, which has received the backing of prominent UK technologists such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, of Southampton University.

The release will help make the UK government spending more transparent and accountable, said Francis Maude, Cabinet Office Minister. "By publishing this data, taxpayers will be able to see exactly how we spend their money," he added.

Digital advocacy campaigners The Open Rights Group (ORG) said it broadly welcomed the move.

"Putting the information on the internet makes it more accessible for everyone," said Javier Ruiz, an open data campaigner at the ORG.

But for the data to be truly accessible, central government needed to put strict rules in place around the process for releasing information and doing so in a way that was easy for the public to interpret.

Under the current scheme, for example, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills differentiates between expenditure on "ICT maintenance and upkeep", "ICT maintenance and upkeep (PFI)", "IT maintenance and management" and "local IT maintenance and support".

Several of the data.gov users complained that it was difficult to interpret the data, making it hard to get any sense of where taxpayers' money was really going.

"I have looked at a few of this data but although I can see how much was spent, I cannot see how much it was spent on," one wrote.

Another complained: "I hear all the rant and rave of making things more transparent, but no good if we can't see what the money was spent on."