DATA IS KING


John Connell, Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG)


John Connell heads the Pathfinders Programme for the Government. He is a regular member of the ACES/DCLG Working Group and leads in a number of area based asset management projects. He gave the response to the President’s keynote address at the Annual Meeting in Edinburgh on 11 November 2011. john.connell@communities.gsi. gov.uk


History of Transparency Agenda


“While setting out the minimum amount of data local authorities should publish, the Code also sets clear policy expectation for greater transparency in the future for local authorities and the public. As the title to the latest consultation suggests, this voluntary code is now to become mandated.”


For those of you still reading here is some background on transparency. Transparency has been at the heart of the Government’s agenda, empowering citizens to hold public bodies to account. On these lines DCLG issued a voluntary Code on 29 September 2011 following a previous consultation on what information people would find helpful. The Code enshrines 3 key principles of transparency:


Introduction


In earlier issues of The Terrier you may have read my articles about strategic asset management. A repeated theme throughout, which I am returning to in this article, is data. I am doing this as DCLG will shortly be consulting on new regulations on the “CODE OF RECOMMENDED PRACTICE FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES ON DATA TRANSPARENCY”


Before you stop reading I promise it will be more interesting than the long- winded title suggests but just in case, here is what you need to know:


ll Government will shortly be consulting on asset attribute information


ll It could be mandatory to collect


ll You will have the chance to comment and help shape the regulations


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ll Demand-led ll Open and ll Timely


While setting out the minimum amount of data local authorities should publish, the Code also sets clear policy expectation for greater transparency in the future for local authorities and the public. As the title to the latest consultation suggests, this voluntary code is now to become mandated.


Interestingly in the meantime the National Audit Office has published a report on the transparency code and highlighted how much information is available on council websites. Unfortunately land and property was something that only 5% of authorities seemed to publish.


Therefore we are using this consultation


as a chance to raise this and identify for the public where the £120 billion of local authority assets are. Before you ask what about Central Government Departments? - they are already doing this. The Government Property Unit has promoted this and with each quarterly release is publishing more attribute information.


Through work with Capital and Asset Pathfinder authorities there have been 30 attributes on the DCLG website which the 11 Pathfinders areas felt were needed. Over the past few months, through working with ACES and others, this has been refined and clarified to provide a shorter list of 21 attributes in an Annex to the consultation.


I encourage you to have a read, make your views known and respond to the consultation.


Some people who have already looked have commented that property should not have been allowed to slip down the local authority agenda in many authorities and this consultation will get it noticed again. Others feel that in these straightened times why would councils put in more resources to provide data as resources need to be focussed on the areas which might lead to real change, real savings and realisation of receipts.


A sometimes whispered response has been that authorities do not hold this information. This worries me the most


THE TERRIER - Summer 2012


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