Local Transparency and Open Data

What is the value of transparency and open

data to local government?

Gesche Schmid

@GescheSchmid

Programme Manager Transparency

Local Government Association Local Transparency road show June 2014

www.local.gov.uk

Local Transparency

• transparency fosters greater accountability and

democracy

• ready access and meaningful use of open data

– Innovates and transforms local public services

– Empowers citizen, business, community groups

• The pace of the transition from closed to open data is

based on local needs and demand

• Local government supports a

presumption in favour of

transparency and open data

Social, environmental and economic

Drivers for transparency and open data

• Legal and policy drivers (accountability and

transparency)

• Information economy and economic growth

• Public service transformation (efficiencies and

effectiveness)

• Citizen and community engagement and self

service, localism (social growth)

• Smart places (environmental, social and

economic growth)

Legal and Policy Drivers to Open Data

• Legal Driver: – FOI A: release of datasets for reuse

– INSPIRE: regulation for accessing geospatial data

• Government Policy Drivers – Open data white paper: Unleashing the

potential

– Government department open data strategies

– National Information Infrastructure

– Open Government Partnership: Data Charter

– Information Economy and Data Capability

• Local policy drivers: – Improving Local Government

Transparency: Code of practice for local government on transparency

– Localism: public service reform, empowering communities

Open Data Charter

• Open Data principles:

– Open Data by Default

– Quality and Quantity

– Useable by All

– Releasing Data for Improved Governance

– Releasing Data for Innovation

• Technical commitment

– Use robust and consistent metadata

– And others…. • https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-data-charter

What is open?

Open Data Careful sharing of data Closed data

The vast majority of

government data will be

published as open data and

available through

Dataportals such as

data.gov.uk

Where it is not possible

to publish data as open

data, Government will

explore opportunities to

share this safely across

Government

Departments and where

appropriate with relevant

outside organisations in

“sandbox” / “datalab”

environments

Data remains secure

and is not shared

outside a particular

government

department or agency

Reasons could include:

•Privacy

•National security

•Some commercial

information

Government Response to Shakespeare Review set out a

three pronged approach to releasing further open data

National Information Infrastructure

Make explicit the main departmental data

through the ‘National Information

Infrastructure’

Data requests

Maintain and strengthen the bottom-up approach we already have in place

via ODUG and Data.gov.uk which allows

data businesses and others to request

particular datasets which are crucial to their

business

Data release

Continue to press for the release of

particular ad-hoc datasets that provide the opportunity for

transformational benefits for UK

citizens.

Central government approach:

How will local data feed into this approach?

Open Data User Group

• to help government understand the requirements of people who are using, or could use, the datasets it collects.

• Advises Public Sector Transparency Board on key dataset requests – Develops business cases for key data requests submitted on

data.gov.uk

• Local government data requests for making data more easily and openly accessible and available to a consistent format

Information economy

• Open data and information drive technology-led economic

growth. Estimated £ 1.8 bn direct value to the economy and

another £ 5 bn of indirect benefits (DeLoitte Marketstudy 2013).

– promote the smart use of information technology and data

in UK business in particular supporting SMEs

– ensure that citizens benefit from the digital age and are able

to use digital service confidently.

• Thriving information economy relies on

– public sector information to be easily and openly

accessible and interoperable based on standards

– A workforce that have the skill to make use of the data

Local transparency

• Open by default (Vision Redbridge)

• Closed data is dead data (Future Cities)

“There are only two types of data in Bristol City Council: confidential data

which we can’t share, and open data which will be made available.” Councillor

Mark Wright, Bristol

• Used within public sector to transform services

– Self assessment and self service(community budgets).

– Sharing of Insight

• Make data open so that it can be reused by citizen, business,

community groups,

– Apps, location analysis, commissioning, engagement with communities

• £ 70 million value in efficiency savings through the better use of

public sector information in local government alone (DeLoitte

2013)

Public service transformation

• Offering a more efficient and effective public

service through better collaboration:

Underpinned by sharing information and knowledge

Community and citizen engagement • Citizen self service and self assessment of

services

• Community led services: Neighbourhood

planning, Right to buy, etc.

• Customer led transformation: Customer

insight, needs and demands

Smart Places

• A system or city/community that runs on its own

and is sustainable.

• Open Data plays an increasing role as a basis for

measuring the need and demand and the function

and performance of a city/community.

• Role of Local authorities: As a custodian of the city

or community may take the lead to publish and

manage civic data upon which others could build.

Open Data Engagement

• Government information and data are common resources,

managed in trust by government.

• A commitment to open data involves making information and data

resources accessible to all without discrimination; and actively

engaging to ensure that information and data can be used in a wide

range of ways.

• Engaging open data should:

★ Be demand driven

★ ★ Put data in context

★ ★ ★ Support conversation around data

★ ★ ★ ★ Build capacity, skills and networks

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Collaborate on data as a common resource

http://www.opendataimpacts.net/engagement/

Examples Food Inspections as an indicator for choosing restaurants

Usage of Car parks as an indicator for town centre activity

LG Inform: LGA data service

‘The LGA’s free data service which presents you with up-to-

date published data about your local area and the

performance of your council’.

www.local.gov.uk/lginform

Approach to open data: Technical

implementation

• Choose a platform

• Reuse existing components and software

(inventories, schemas, apps, INSPIRE)

• Publish data as machine readable (3 star

proprietary, 5 star linked data)

• Publish your metadata on data.gov.uk

• Certify your data by the Open Data Institute for

level of openness

• Good data management is key

Approach to open data:

Engagement

• Open by default

• Get senior management buy-in

• Work collaboratively across the local area

• Find out what users want (FOI, Blogs, etc.)

• Encourage the meaningful use of data

– Get the users involved through hackathons, etc.

• Skills training and capacity building

https://certificates.theodi.org

Local Open Data Breakthrough Programme

• Enables open data release and ease of access to open data

to stimulate engagement, innovation and growth

• Overcome particular technical barriers in opening up data or

assisting in the release of locally or organisationally held data.

– Infrastructure and software that enables the release of data;

– Standardising data and making it linkable so that it can be easier

combined and compared

• Enables data to be better understood, accessed, shared and

reused as open data bringing together open data for onward

use and supporting local communities to understand and use

the data through applications

• Breakthrough fund 2013/14: 19 successful projects

• Funding for 2014/15: www.local.gov.uk/local-transparency

Open Data Breakthrough Projects 2013/14

“... There are some great

examples of authorities using

open data to benefit their

communities and we hope this

money will help local groups

and businesses access data

and drive social and economic

growth in their areas.“

Cllr Tim Cheetham, chair of the

local government review panel

http://www.local.gov.uk/local-

transparency

Open Data Breakthrough Projects 2013/14

• Lancashire County Council -

Lancashire Local Information Service

(LIS) Project

• Cambridgeshire County Council -

Cambridgeshire Insight Open Data:

Stimulating Economic Growth and

Encouraging Innovation.

• Devon County Council - Local

Government Community Data –

opportunities for localities and

businesses*

• Leeds City Council - development of

the West Yorkshire Observatory* and

Hackathon/Leed Data Mill

• City of York Council – Community

service directory – Empowering

communities to access services

www.cipfa.org/Services/Research-and-Statistics/Datashare

Neighbourhoods

.esd.org.uk

Cambridgeshire Insight: Who

uses our information…

51.9% are repeat visitors

Real Estate/Residential

Properties Consumer

Electronics/Mobile

Phones

Home & Garden/Home

Improvement

Autos &

Vehicles/Motor

Vehicles

Financial Services/Investment

Services

In-Market Segments

Economy

Employment in the hi-tech community: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough 2012

Cambridgeshire East of England Forecasting Model 2013 Baseline

Housing Local Housing Allowance (LHA) Changes Registers of expressed need compared to lettings and sales Affordable Housing Completions Planning Permission Granted and Housing Completions Housing need register applicants parish preference, social rented lettings

and bidding behaviour

Demography Cambridgeshire Dwelling Stock Forecasts 2012 Cambridgeshire Population and Dwelling Stock Estimates 2012 Cambridgeshire Population Forecasts 2012

Transport Traffic Counts

Integrated transport and weather information pilot

https://itwip.sunderlandsoftwarecity.com/

LG Incentive Scheme

• The local government incentive scheme encourages

local authorities to publish datasets according to a

given schema which combined will deliver a national

view of the data.

• Themes: Planning applications, public conveniences,

licenced premises

• Managed through the LG Inform Plus (formerly esd

toolkit) programme funded by Cabinet Office,

through the Public Sector Transparency Board

• Soon to be released.

http://data.gov.uk/blog/every-forward-step-progress

Local Government sector-led

approach • Encourages a meaningful approach to the release of open

data with the emphasis of a sector-led approach to

improvement and innovation.

– Local Transparency programme managed by the Local

Government Association (LGA)

– Local Open Data Group to promote a common local data

infrastructure and local domain on data.gov.uk

– Local government open data breakthrough programme

funded by the Department for Business Innovation and

Skills (BIS), data release and incentive programme funded

by Cabinet Office

– http://www.local.gov.uk/local-transparency

Services supporting

Local transparency and open data

Local Transparency: http://www.local.gov.uk/local-transparency

Email: transparency@local.gov.uk

LG Inform: www.local.gov.uk/about-lginform,

Email: LGInform@local.gov.uk

Esd toolkit: www.esd.org.uk