Partner Article

Bye-bye jargon

Councils in the UK have been banned from using incomprehensible jargon such as ‘predictors of beaconicity’ and ‘rebaselining’. New guidelines from the Local Government Association outlaw 100 words and phrases and say they should be replaced with plain English.

Other terms that may no longer be used include ‘value-added’, ‘improvement levers’, ‘stakeholder’ and ‘empowerment’, reports the Guardian. Also banned are ‘across-the-piece’, ‘gateway review’, ‘holistic government’, ‘early win’ and ‘functionality’.

The list was compiled by Richard Stokoe, head of news at the LGA, who admitted he was unsure what some of the terms actually meant.

He said: “I have no idea what ‘predictors of beaconicity’ means, even though it was the title of a 20-page report. Why bother using ‘innovative capacity’ or ‘rebaselining’ - it does not mean anything. ‘Community engagement’ just means getting people involved and what kind of dialogue is there other than ‘meaningful dialogue’?”

The BBC has the full list of words here, and we’re glad to see that it includes both “actioned’ and the awful ‘going forward’. Are there any words you think should have been included in the list?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .