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| July 2008 Edition |

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General:

1. Govt to Examine OS Trading Fund Model

2. APPSI Reports to Ministry of Justice
3. PSI Alliance Puts Pressure on PSI
4. CORE Data Matching
5. Electoral Commission Publishes Registration Standards
6. OPSI Sets up An "unlock that data" Channel
7. The Post Code Debate
8. Govt Offers £20,000 Prize in PSI Competition
9. 'Underpinning Transformational Government, Everything Happens
Somewhere' Conference and Exhibition
10. 2008 NLPG NSG Exemplar Awards
11. New Exemplar Awards Logo
12. Photo Montage at Awards
13. Technical Assistant for LLPG sought at King's Lynn & West
Norfolk
14. Thurrock is Seeking a LLPG/LSG Custodian

NLPG:

1. Health Checks
2. Rejected Records
3. LLPG Data Entry Conventions
4. LLPG Regional Custodian Group Meetings
5. NLPG Literature

-----[articles]-----

[General]
**1. Govt to Examine OS Trading Fund Model**
Those of you who have been following the IA/OS debate on the
availability of data
may be interested in the recent [1]announcement by the
Department for Business
and the Treasury of a new review which will examine the impact
of Trading Funds'
business models and consider the benefits to the wider UK
economy from any potential
changes to the trading funds' business model.

It has been a long held view of IA that the OS model and

licensing terms were unfair
and restrictive.

The priority group of Trading Funds to be included in the

assessment includes Ordnance
Survey, Meteorological Office, UK Hydrographic Office, HM Land
Registry, Driver
and Vehicle Licensing Agency and Companies House.

The review will also be informed by the views of relevant

Government departments,
industry and data users, and will draw on previous work
including the OFT Market
Study, the Power of Information Review and the Cambridge Report
on Models of Public
Sector Information Provision. Advice will be provided to Chief
Secretary to the
Treasury Yvette Cooper and Business Minister Shriti Vadera in
the autumn.

[1]
http://www.shareholderexecutive.gov.uk/publications/pdf/tradingfun
ds250608.pdf

**2. APPSI Reports to Ministry of Justice**

Professor David Rhind CBE, chair of the Advisory Panel on Public
Sector Information
(APPSI), has written Michael Wills MP, Minister of State for
Justice, with recommendations
to progress the re-use of public sector information (PSI).

The [1]letter outlines the blocks to progress in widespread use

of PSI, as seen
by the bulk of APPSI members and says the some form of
guaranteed right of access
and use (subject to limited exception, such as personal
information) is essential
to encourage the widespread use of PSI.

He remarks on the lack of clarity in the process of defining

public task pointing
to "mistrust" between various parties, suggesting that a proper
process is required
to define public task.

The letter was accompanied by a report [2]The Impact and Success

of Legislation
on the Re-use of Public Sector Information

(Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and Council of

17 November 2003
and the UK Regulations) -

which will form the basis of APPSI's formal response to the

EC's public consultation.

[1] http://www.appsi.gov.uk/reports/minister-letter-ec-submission-
07-2008.pdf
[2] http://www.appsi.gov.uk/reports/ec-submission-07-2008.doc

**3. PSI Alliance Puts Pressure on PSI**

Rolf Nordqvist, the recently elected PSI Alliance's Board
Chairman, is calling for
the rapid development of Public Sector Information (PSI) re-use
activities across
Europe; this will stimulate the development of a fair,
innovative, dynamic and competitive
marketplace, and release the under-exploited economic and social
benefits.

He said that,"PSI producers are state-owned and responsible only

to politicians.
It is difficult for SMEs active in the market to bite the hand
that feeds them,
and political action is needed to breed dynamism in the sector.
Only political decision-makers
can enforce change, and this is where the PSI Alliance comes in.
We need a strong,
pan-European industry action group to push for change in the PSI
marketplace and
realise its real potential".

**4. CORE Data Matching**

IA are receiving a steady flow of Electoral Register data for
cleaning and matching
and are well placed for taking more files since building up the
data team. ER
managers and LLPG custodians are being encouraged to submit
their data earlier rather
than later to ensure that they have ample time to research any
anomalies that are
sent back. Currently the team has processed files from all
the leading software
vendors and the turnaround time is well within the 20 days
stipulated in the MSA.
In order to proceed, authorities need only supply a purchase
order for £1806.00+VAT
and subsequently the address element of the data, including the
unique static reference
number. All personal details such as names and dates of birth
should be removed.
Data can be sent via email to core@intelligent-addressing.co.uk
or via ftp download.
A dedicated ftp download username and password will be issued
to each authority
wishing to use this secure site.

At the time of going to publication IA has processed over 2.5

million records with
 an average match rate of 96.3%. Two local authorities achieved
a match rate in
excess of 99%.

**5. Electoral Commission Publishes Registration Standards**

The Electoral Commission published [21st July 2008] performance
standards for Electoral
Registration Officers (EROs) in England, Wales and Scotland. The
standards will
apply to the work EROs across Great Britain undertake to
register electors in their
area.

Starting from this autumn's annual canvass, EROs will report on

a variety of aspects
of their work and submit this information to the Electoral
Commission. The Commission
will then publish an assessment of EROs' performance against
these standards in
the spring of 2009.

The 10 standards were developed after extensive consultation

with local authorities
and other stakeholders. They are designed to cover a wide range
of performance issues
for this vital public service function, including improving the
accuracy and integrity
of the register as well as public engagement and planning. The
10 standards are:
Using information sources to verify entries on the register of
electors and identify
potential new electors
Maintaining the property database
House-to-house enquiries
Maintaining the integrity of registration and absent voter lists
Supply and security of the register and absent voter lists
Public awareness
Working with partners
Accessibility and communication of information
Planning for rolling registration and the annual canvass
Training

The Commission will publish comprehensive guidance material for

EROs on completing
the performance standards later this summer.

**6. OPSI Sets up An "unlock that data" Channel**

On July 7th 2008 The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI)
set up a [1]website
where you can request data sets you want released.
 As the regulator for public sector information re-use, OPSI
knows that people can
encounter problems from time to time getting hold of the
information they need in
the formats they want. Difficulties can include problems with
charging, licensing
or the data standards that public sector information is provided
in.

These problems aren't about access (which is dealt with under

Freedom of Information
legislation), but all the other issues which can occur when you
want to do something
with public sector information - copy it, remix it with other
data or add value
and republish it. OPSI says that if you are trying to re-use
some public sector
information, but the data you need is locked-up, this service is
for you.

To view requests made so far go to [2]Requests and Offers and to

make your own request
go to [3]Make a Request.

If the request is "OK", having checked it through, OPSI will

contact the public
sector information holder and see what can be done to unlock the
information for
re-use. To keep things simple, if the problem relates to an
issue specifically covered
by the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations or the
Information Fair Trader
Scheme, it will treat it accordingly - so you won't need to make
a separate complaint.

At the time of going to press an online "voting functionality"

was being prepared.

[1] http://www.opsi.gov.uk/unlocking-service/OPSIpage.aspx?
page=UnlockIndex
[2] http://www.opsi.gov.uk/unlocking-service/
[3] http://www.opsi.gov.uk/unlocking-service/OPSIpage.aspx?
page=RequestNew

**7. The Post Code Debate**

Tom Watson MP, the Cabinet Office minister on the Power of
Information taskforce,
has started an interesting debate on his [1]blog, about the
usefulness of the Postcode
Address File.

An Early Day Motion, proposed by Mahmood Khalid, MP for

Birmingham Perry Barr,
 at the House of Commons, dated July 1st "That this house
believes that the Register
of Postcodes is a national public asset and should be freely
available", which was
backed by 68 signatures, was withdrawn.

[1] http://www.tom-watson.co.uk/?p=2076

**8. Govt Offers £20,000 Prize in PSI Competition**

Ever been frustrated that you can't find out something that
ought to be easy to
find? Ever been baffled by league tables or 'performance
indicators'? Do you think
that better use of public information could improve health,
education, justice or
society at large?

The UK Government wants to hear your ideas for new products that
could improve the
way public information is communicated. The Power of Information
Taskforce is running
a competition on the Government's behalf, and it has a £20,000
prize fund to develop
the best ideas to the next level. You can see the type of thing
it is looking for
[1]here.

To show it is serious, the Government is making available

gigabytes of new or previously
invisible public information especially for people to use in
this competition.
Rest assured, this competition does not include information
about people.

It is confident that you'll have more and better ideas than it

will. You don't have
to have any technical knowledge, nor any money, just a good
idea, and 5 minutes
spare to enter the [2]competition on the "Show Us a Better Way"
website.

[1] http://www.showusabetterway.com/call/examples.html
[2] http://showusabetterway.com/

**9. 'Underpinning Transformational Government, Everything Happens

Somewhere' Conference and Exhibition**
Booking for the conference are coming in thick and fast from
local authorities and
emergency services across the country. Last year's event
attracted over 200 attendees
and we are already on track for exceeding this number. Please
book [1]here as soon
as possible to be sure of a place and encourage colleagues from
other directorates
who are interested in the power of the NLPG and NSG to come
along as well.

The target audience for the 2008 event includes: heads of

service, policy, ICT,
Transformation and e-Government in local authorities, directors
and managers of
highways, land and property professionals, LLPG and LSG
custodians, CRM specialists,
GIS specialists, electoral registration officers (EROs),
authority liaison officers
(ALOs), street naming and numbering officers (SN&NOs), managers
and practitioners
from the emergency services and national parks authorities.

The agenda is now finalised and we have a line up of 15 speakers

from local government,
police and fire. Please see [2]here for the conference
brochure.

The exhibition is now sold out with 20 leading companies from

the local government
sector. See [3]here for the list of exhibitors.

[1] http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?
sm=9ziRjNjA_2b58oO7ZqcC5gRw_3d_3d
[2] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1216913806845.pdf
[3] http://www.nlpg.org.uk/nlpg/link.htm?id=2019

**10. 2008 NLPG NSG Exemplar Awards**

The Exemplar Awards are about celebrating innovation,
collaboration, partnership
and best practice within the local government and emergency
services community,
supporting better service delivery and joined-up e-govt.

Authorities LLPGs and LSGs are increasingly being embedded

within a wide range of
local government activities and areas such as transformation,
partnership working,
integration of gazetteers with each other and with other
corporate datasets and
systems, the, use of the gazetteers for emergency response as
well as by the emergency
services and the utilities, and readiness for Traffic Management
Act (TMA) and Streetworks
Registers.

If your authority has used your LLPG in such a way, please

enter the Exemplar Awards.
Even if your entry is not selected as a winning entry by the
judges, it may still
 be the basis of a press release or case study.

Please remember the closing date for the Awards is 3rd September
2008.

The Awards [1]brochure and [2]entry form can also be downloaded

from the [3]NLPG
and [4]NSG websites.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1214326110057.pdf
[2] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1214393428453.doc
[3] http://www.nlpg.org.uk
[4] http://www.thensg.org.uk

**11. New Exemplar Awards Logo**

To highlight the importance of the Exemplar Awards, we have
designed a new logo
intended to encapsulate both the NLPG and NSG under the banner
of the Exemplar Awards.
This will be appearing on the websites and our promotional
material.

**12. Photo Montage at Awards**

We are planning to put together a photo montage of out of the
ordinary and unusual
buildings/property/streets that would make an interesting
display at the Awards.
The subject submitted would need to have a UPRN or USRN
attached to it and could
be submitted on the basis of being an unusual or historic
structure, being in a
remote or difficult to access area, or having a peculiar
function.

If you have an image of somewhere/something in your authority

that would meet these
criteria, please email the photo, plus the UPRN/USRN to
[1]ggander@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.
The 12 best images will be incorporated into a calendar for
2009 which will be
sent out to all local authorities during December. Closing date
for entries is
September 12th 2008.

[1] mailto:ggander@intelligent-addressing.co.uk

**13. Technical Assistant for LLPG sought at King's Lynn & West
Norfolk**
Part Time Technical Assistant (GIS/LLPG Team). Starting salary
between £13,998 and
£17823 (pro rata). 30 hours per week (Tuesday to Friday).
 You will be responsible for the management and promotion of the
Local Land & Property
Gazetteer (LLPG). You will be part of a small team and become
the main point of
contact for the LLPG as well as providing technical and
administrative support to
the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Officer.

We are looking for someone educated to atleast 'A' Level (or

equivalent) standard
with good computer and keyboard skills including experience of
spreadsheets, databases
and word processing. You will be able to read and interpret
maps and plans and
have good communication skills to effectively liaise with others
and confidently
present clear advice.

Benefits of working for the Council include a performance

related pay scheme, final
salary pension scheme, 32 days leave (including bank holidays),
flexible working
hours scheme (for office based posts) and great opportunities
for training and development.

Application packs are available online at [1]www.west-

norfolk.gov.uk or by contacting
Personnel Services at [2]personnel@west-norfolk.gov.uk or on
01553 616662.

Closing Date: 7 August 2008

[1] http://www.west-norfolk.gov.uk
[2] mailto:personnel@west-norfolk.gov.uk

**14. Thurrock is Seeking a LLPG/LSG Custodian**

Post No: Z04136. Salary: £27,783 - £36,273 per annum Hours: 37
hours per week

Thurrock Council is looking for a LLPG/LSG Custodian to assist

the GIS Manager in
the maintenance of the LLPG and LSG. The successful candidate
will be responsible
for the overall management, maintenance and integration of the
LLPG and LSG, ensuring
that quality standards, local and national conventions are
adhered to.

The post plays an important role in the e-government

modernisation of Thurrock Council,
and we are looking for candidates that have enthusiasm and
vision within the field
of information management, preferably to degree standard.
Candidates will need to
have knowledge of relational database concepts, data migration
and experience of
using GIS, preferably ArcGIS. Knowledge of BS7666 and an
understanding of the roles
of GIS and the LLPG in local government are essential.

For further information about this vacancy please contact Lee

Henley on 01375 652500.

For full details on this and other vacancies in the Thurrock

area, and to apply
on-line, please go to [1]www.thurrock.gov.uk/jobs

If you do not have Internet access, please call 0870 787 1176
between the following
times: (Mon-Fri 0800hrs - 1900hrs, or Sat 0900hrs - 1400hrs)

Please E-Mail enquiries to: [2]Recruitment Team

Closing Date: 10/08/2008

[1] http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/jobs
[2] mailto:recruitment@thurrock.gov.uk

[NLPG]
**1. Health Checks**
The latest set of NLPG health checks were placed on the ftp site
on the 20th July.
There was a significant reduction in the number of errors
nationally compared to
the previous batch. Thanks to all of the custodians that have
used the health checks
to improve the quality of their data.

Following feedback from previous months a Summary Report has now

been included with
the Health Check along with minor edits to the main report to
assist Custodians
in understanding some of the checks that are made to the data at
the NLPG Hub.

The health checks and summary reports will be placed in a new

Health Check folder
in your out directory on the ftp site. These will now be
distributed monthly in
the middle of the month.

**2. Rejected Records**

As of the 1st October we will be changing the way we deal with
Rejected internal
records at the hub. BLPUs with a logical status of 9 will not
be permitted to be
upgraded to another logical status after this date. In effect
this will mean that
changing the logical status of a BLPU to 9 will be similar to
deleting it from the
NLPG. In the meantime we are continuing to report warnings
where Rejected records
are returned to a 'live' or historic logical status.

**3. LLPG Data Entry Conventions**

The Conventions Working Group has discussed the BLPU
Classification Scheme extensively
over their last two meetings. Output from the group was passed
to IDeA and the
Regional Chairs for comment at their recent meeting. The codes
made will be made
available shortly to download from the [1]NLPG Website subject
to some queries
and further review. Please note that these codes will not come
into use until
1st October 2008 and the early release of the detail is to allow
LLPG software vendors
the chance to update existing packages and validation in
readiness. Please liaise
with your product supplier about dates to support these changes.

The Working Group will be meeting several times over the course
of the summer to
discuss other aspects of the Conventions document that have been
raised by the community,
but as always, if you have any suggestions for improvements to
the conventions please
send them to [2]conventions@nlpg.org.uk.

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk/nlpg/link.htm?id=52
[2] mailto:conventions@nlpg.org.uk

**4. LLPG Regional Custodian Group Meetings**

Meeting dates have been arranged for the following regions:

South West - September (tbc)

East Midlands - 19th September The Council House, Nottingham
West Midlands - 24th September 2008 (Sandwell)

**5. NLPG Literature**

A number of new leaflets have been produced about the NLPG,
please see the NLPG
[1]website :
 National land and property gazetteer: glossary and references
National Land and Property Gazetteer: product service
information sheet
National Land and Property Gazetteer: technical information
sheet
National Land and Property Gazetteer: the intelligent address
NLPG potential commercial applications: a more detailed approach

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk/nlpg/link.htm?id=62