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| September 2009 Edition |

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General:

1. Celebrating 10 years of the NLPG

2. Underpinning Transformational Government
3. Using the NLPG to Mobilise FiReControl
4. Putting the Jigsaw Together
5. TfL Responds to OS Strategy
6. Govt Increases Search Fees
7. PSI in Action
8. OFT Looks at Govt Policy on Competition
9. CORE Data Standards Update
10. CORE Data Matching - Have you finished yet?
11. VOA - Over 99% Matched
12. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea seeks an LLPG
Custodian

NLPG:

1. Welsh Assembly Government Project

2. LLPG Regional Meetings

NSG:

1. NSG Uploads
2. NSG Downloads
3. Eton 5
4. Mapping
5. Health Checks
6. NSG Training
7. Conferences
8. NSG Regional Meetings

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

[General]
**1. Celebrating 10 years of the NLPG**
2009 marks the 10 year anniversary of the NLPG, so this year's
Exemplar Awards will
have a special resonance, which is why we have included
additional Award categories,
and worked closely with our partners in the Department of
Communities and Local
Government and the Ministry of Justice, to recognise the
essential work being done
by local authorities in both the FiReControl and CORE projects.
 For more information about all of the Award categories, see
[1]www.nlpg.org.uk.
Entry forms are also available on the website.

The Awards will be presented at the Underpinning

Transformational Government conference
on 26th November.

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk/nlpg/link.htm?nwid=32

**2. Underpinning Transformational Government**

The UTG conference on 26th November is the key event of the NLPG
and NSG calendar
and aims to be an opportunity for custodians and ALOs from all
across England and
Wales to get together to discuss what is happening in their own
authorities, and
to hear presentations on NLPG and NSG implementations. The UTG
conference has attracted
a number of top notch speakers and session chairs, these
include:

Mike More CBE, Chief Executive of Westminster City Council

Martin Ferguson, Head of Policy at SOCITM
Rita Wilson, Strategic Director Organisational Development,
Lichfield District Council
Nicola Smith, Business Information Manager, Cambridgeshire FRS
Giles Finnemore, Head of Marketing, Royal Mail
Darren Merrill, Highway Asset Manager. Shropshire Council
Tom Lambert, Balfour Beatty General Manager of Street Works
Strategy and Performance
Dermot Padden, Project Manager, FiReControl
Chris Statham, Head of e-PIMS, Office of Government Commerce
Alistair Calder, Head of the Address Register Project for the
2011 Census, ONS
Michael Jennings, former Head of Policy and Development, Surrey
County Council
Mark Ostheimer, Chair of HAUC, Senior Consultant Virgin Media
and Operations Director
of NJUG
Robert Barr OBE, Chairman Manchester Geomatics and Executive
Board Member, Planning,
Regeneration and Housing, Warrington Borough Council.

The event is free of charge to all MSA participants. For more

information see the
[1]Conference Programme. Registration is now open at
[2]www.thensg.org.uk and [3]www.nlpg.org.uk.
 Exhibition, Sponsors, Media Partners and Social Events

A number of suppliers have come on board to sponsor the

conference, and IA and LGIH
would like to thank them as the event could not be run without
their support. As
of the end of September, the following companies have taken up
sponsorship opportunities.

Gold Sponsors of the event include:

Aligned Assets, ESRI UK, Experian QAS

Silver Sponsors include:

Bartec Auto ID, Blom Aerofilm, Envitia, e-Spatial, FiReControl,
Getmapping, GGP
Systems, Hopewiser, IDOX, Postcode Anywhere, TM Search Choice
Ltd

There are still some exhibition spaces left, so if you deal with
a supplier not
listed above, please encourage them to attend!

Media Partners

IA and LGIH have arranged also media partnership deals with a

number of publications
to help promote the event, so watch out for adverts in the
following publications:

BAPCO, GEOconnexions, GIS Professional, Municipal Journal, The

Surveyor

Social Events

The conference and exhibition isn't all about work! IA and LGIH
are sponsoring
two drinks and nibbles receptions for delegates, speakers and
exhibitors. The first
get together is from 8pm on the 25th November, the night before
the conference,
and will take place in a reserved room at [4]Tiger Tiger.
Whilst some nibbles will
be available at the reception, there are many restaurants
available in the area
to suit all tastes and budgets.
 At the close of conference, there will be another drinks and
nibbles reception at
the conference venue, the [5]Victoria Park Plaza Hotel. Why not
stay and enjoy
a drink before setting off home?

If you any need advice on hotels in the area, please contact

Laura on [6]lbrown@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1248876821559.pdf
[2] http://www.thensg.org.uk/iansg/link.htm?nwid=103
[3] http://www.nlpg.org.uk/nlpg/link.htm?nwid=31
[4] http://www.tigertiger-london.co.uk/
[5] http://www.parkplaza.com/londonuk_victoria
[6] mailto:lbrown@intelligent-addressing.co.uk

**3. Using the NLPG to Mobilise FiReControl**

Fire and Rescue services across England are preparing for
control convergence as
part of the FiReControl project, which will provide an
integrated and modern network
of nine Regional Control Centres. The NLPG has been selected as
the core source
of location information for the project.

These 4 case studies examine the successful ways in which the

FRSs have worked with
the local authorities in their areas to prepare for FiReControl,
exchanging information
and developing successful working practices to ensure that the
NLPG meets the purposes
of the receiving authorities as well as the creating
authorities.

All of the case studies can be seen in the NLPG [1]library:

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue: [2]Top level buy-in delivers
high quality gazetteer
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue: [3]Confronting the Issues, Taking
the NLPG towards
FiReControl
Surrey Fire and Rescue: [4]New Command, Control and Mobilisation
System uses the
NLPG for Accurate Incident Location
West Midlands Fire and Rescue: [5]Command and Control for
Mobilisation

The NSG: Reducing Congestion and Delivering Service Improvements

A new NSG brochure has now been published providing more up-to-
date information
about the composition of the NSG, together with descriptions on
how it is being
used in local authorities, the emergency services and the
utility sector. The brochure
is available [6]here, or if you would like a hard copy, please
contact Laura at
[7]lbrown@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk/nlpg/link.htm?nwid=56
[2] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1253030778057.pdf
[3] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1253030863225.pdf
[4] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1253030971156.pdf
[5] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1253030452876.pdf
[6] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1253783825673.pdf
[7] mailto:lbrown@intelligent-addressing.co.uk

**4. Putting the Jigsaw Together**

As part of its new unitary status, Shropshire Council used the
opportunity to refine
its processes for maintaining LSG and LLPG information. The
council identified that
the most effective and efficient method for the creation and
maintenance of LLPG
and LSG records required direct links between the different
functions. To read
more about how Shropshire Council did this, the problems they
faced, and how they
tackled them, please see the [1]LGIH website.

[1] http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8302494

**5. TfL Responds to OS Strategy**

The Guardian's Free Our Data Blog (FoD) has recently published
[1]Transport for
London's critical response to OS's strategy consultation. This
was gained via a
Freedom of Information request, and expresses TfL's major
concerns with the issues
of Derived Data. In a separate story FoD illustrates how getting
data "out there"
can be useful, using a Show Us a Better Way Winner's suggestion
for locating post
boxes. Royal Mail says it still holds the rights to the
locations of the post
boxes - although it does not hold grid references for them; only
street name and
postcode. See [2]FoD article "Do you know where your post boxes
are?"

[1] http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=491
[2] http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=503

**6. Govt Increases Search Fees**

On September 16th Bridget Prentice, Parliamentary Under
Secretary, Minister of Justice,
[1]announced that the fee for a personal search of the local
land charges register
should be increased from £11, the level at which it was set in
2003, to £22. This
increase balances the interests of LAs, the private sector and
consumers. The new
fee will come into force on 1st January 2010.

[1] http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wms/?id=2009-09-16a.157WS.2

**7. PSI in Action**

Following the success of last year's conference, Civil Service
World, with support
from OPSI, APPSI and the Cabinet Office, is holding another
conference this year
to discover how PSI is transforming the information landscape
and further explores
the issues surrounding PSI. Michael Wills, Minister of State, is
a keynote speaker
for this event.

PSI in Action will look at how public sector information policy

is being developed
and shaped and how the PSI agenda is being delivered on three
fronts:

Economic activity and the benefits to the information industry;

Social benefits that flow from removing obstacles to re-use; and
How re-use can transform public service delivery.

The all day conference will be held on the 20th October, in

central London. Further
details can be found at: [1]www.psiinaction.co.uk/

[1] http://www.psiinaction.co.uk/

**8. OFT Looks at Govt Policy on Competition**

The OFT has published a guide for policy makers in Whitehall and
beyond on how they
can identify and minimise unintended long term impacts on
markets when fulfilling
other policy objectives. [1]Competition an essential
consideration for successful
government policy, also provides an analysis of how Government
intervention can
affect markets for the good as well as for the bad.

[1] http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2009/109-09

**9. CORE Data Standards Update**

While the CORE project has been paused until its fit with the
emerging policy on
 individual registration has been decided, the project team, at
the MoJ, will continue
to complete the work on electoral registration data standards
towards their full
implementation on 1st December of this year. The data standards
have benefits in
isolation of CORE and will provide for the first time a single
format for electoral
data across Great Britain - an outcome that will have benefits
in its own right
for users of the data.

The CORE team, at the MoJ, will shortly be issuing guidance on

how to claim for
the 2nd Tranche data standards payments, which are intended to
cover the remaining
costs incurred by local authorities in complying with the data
standards. The claim
forms and guidance will be sent to all local authorities and
published on the Ministry
of Justice website. A quality assurance process is also being
designed to ensure
benefits of the data standards are fully realised.

A further planned initiative will be publication of further

supplemental guidance
that will take account of issues and questions that have been
raised by stakeholders
throughout the past few months, including guidance on when UPRNs
should be allocated
in specific circumstances.

Please contact [1]Alison Franco for further questions or

comments.

[1] mailto:Alison.Franco@justice.gsi.gov.uk

**10. CORE Data Matching - Have you finished yet?**

No?
Don't panic!
Send Intelligent Addressing your Register of Electors data as
soon as you can and
we will match it for you. The Special Projects Team at IA has
processed over 9
million records and has achieved an average match rate of
97.31%. The service costs
£1,806 ex VAT. If you're interested in using IA to match your
data, contact Catherine
on 020 7747 3500 or email [1]core@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.

Yes?
Are you sure?
Is it right?
 Intelligent Addressing offer a validation service which will
analyse matches between
your Register of Electors (RoE) and the National Land and
Property Gazetteer (NLPG).
It will, amongst other tests:
check that all UPRNs that are matched to RoE records exist in
the NLPG
check whether there are any UPRNs that are duplicated in the RoE
data
check whether any of the UPRNs are located outside the local
authority area or do
not exist in the NLPG
check whether any of the RoE xrefs are duplicated
If you wish to take advantage of this free service IA will
require a file containing
the Register of Electors unique reference and the NLPG UPRN that
is matched to that
unique reference. The file can also include the address elements
from the RoE as
an optional extra. Please send this file to [2]core@intelligent-
addressing.co.uk.
In return IA will send all participating local authorities the
results via email.
If you wish to receive a full, detailed report there will be an
administration charge
of £150. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to
contact Catherine Teare
on 020 7747 3500.

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

**11. VOA - Over 99% Matched**

Since July, IA has received more than 540,000 records over three
monthly updates
from the VOA. The total number of CTAX records has increased by
87,151 and the total
number of NDR records has increased by 53,599. There have been
just under 300,000
changes made to VOA records. The current CTAX match rate has
leapt to 99.02%. There
are now 8 regions with average CTAX match rates of above 99%
(only 2 more regions
to go) and there are 254 authorities with a CTAX match rate
above 99%, no local
authorities with a CTAX match rate of less than 90% and only 13
local authorities
with a CTAX match rate of less than 95%.

The updates from the VOA have added records, deleted records and
altered addresses,
postcodes, billing authority references and statuses. It is for
this reason that
 IA did not send out the unmatched Non Domestic Rates files to
local authorities
at the beginning of September. IA are working to move the NDR
figures back up to
where they were in July, pre-updates, and will send out the
unmatched files in October.

**12. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea seeks an LLPG

Custodian**
The Royal Borough has a vacancy for an experienced LLPG
Custodian to maintain the
high quality of its gazetteer with the skills and drive to
continue its promotion
as a key information system. Salary £30,500 - £41,300 +
Performance Related Pay

Our LLPG underpins all our core systems such as Council Tax,
Parking, Planning,
Environmental Health, CRM, Electoral Register and GIS. Its
importance is appreciated
at all levels and a cooperative environment has been established
to help maintain
it.

The post is part of the central GIS team of five based in the
Information Systems
Division.

The vacancy will be advertised w/c 5 October at

[1]http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/jobs.aspx
from where you can apply on-line.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 23 October.

[1] http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/jobs.aspx

[NLPG]
**1. Welsh Assembly Government Project**
As some of you may already know, Shaun Powell LLPG custodian at
Newport Council,
has been seconded to the Welsh Assembly Government. Shaun's
role will be to examine
the degree of progress local authorities in Wales have made in
implementing consistent,
high quality LLPGs across their organisations. The project will
look at how the
common data-standard gained through the use of BS7666:2006 could
be used to promote
and encourage widespread use of the NLPG within public services
in Wales to the
 benefit of service providers and citizens. This work has been
commissioned by the
'Making the Connections team' within the Welsh Assembly
Government and is aligned
to a programme of work to improve citizens access to public
services. Shaun will
be in touch with all Welsh authorities as part of this work.

**2. LLPG Regional Meetings**

South West LLPG Custodians Group on the 23rd October

[NSG]
**1. NSG Uploads**
Despite August being the holiday season and many people being
away,the NSG received
a good number of successful submissions and are again pleased
to see that more
Authorities have moved to the new DTF7.1. August saw a total of
115 Authorities
successfully submit.

For those that have not to date been able to make a successful
submission in the
new DTF7.1 format or if you are having any other problems
submitting data please
contact IA regarding your current position.

The NSG team would like to remind everybody that submissions

should be made within
the first ten working days of the month (5 days for London). In
exceptional circumstances
the NSG hub are able to receive submissions until the last day
of the month, therefore
for those Authorities who have yet to submit in September there
are a few more days
left.

**2. NSG Downloads**

NSG Downloads have remained steady through the summer with over
2000 files downloaded
in August. It is currently still possible to download data in
both DTF7.1 and the
downscaled NSG CSV formats. However the NSG CSV will only be
available until April
1st 2010. With only 6 months until this date Authorities should
make sure that their
internal systems are able and ready to move to the DTF7.1
format.
 It is strongly recommended that all Highway Authorities should
download their data
each month to make sure they know exactly what data is being
published and are aware
of what data Statutory Undertakers are seeing, and more
importantly using the data
for their streetworks activities.

For help or advice with downloads please contact the

[1]helpdesk@thensg.org.uk.

[1] mailto:helpdesk@thensg.org.uk

**3. Eton 5**

The NSG team would again like to remind Authorities that they
should now have moved
to EToN v5. There are only a few Authorities left who are still
on EToN v4 or earlier.
The change over date for use of EToN v5 files was January 13th
2009, therefore
please make sure that your street works systems are EToN5
compliant and that you
are publishing an up-to-date, current ODD file.

**4. Mapping**
Your mapped NSG data has now been published to your FTP sites.
Currently IA are
only able to provide the data in MapInfo TAB format. If you have
forgotten your
FTP Login details please contact the [1]helpdesk@thensg.org.uk
who will be able
to reset your passwords.

[1] mailto:helpdesk@thensg.org.uk

**5. Health Checks**

The new health checks are now complete and will be made
available from mid October.
These checks will be based on any data you submitted in
September. If you have
any queries over them please do not hesitate to contact the
[1]helpdesk@thensg.org.uk
for advice.

[1] mailto:helpdesk@thensg.org.uk

**6. NSG Training**

The first of the new training sessions were held earlier this
month and were very
successful. The training has been extremely popular, and
therefore IA are adding
 an additional two days:

26th October 2009 (now full).

11th November 2009 (New Date)
20thJanuary 2010 (New Date)

If you are interested in attending one of these training

sessions (to be held in
IA's offices at Ivybridge House, 1 Adam Street, London WC2N
6DD), please do not
hesitate to contact the NSG helpdesk ([1]
helpdesk@thensg.org.uk) for more information.

[1] mailto:helpdesk@thensg.org.uk

**7. Conferences**
Over the next month the NSG team will be attending the following
event:

Anglia HAUC at Newmarket. 7th October 2009. Please feel free to

come and discuss
your LSG issues. If you would like NSG attendance at any events
please contact the
NSG team who will endeavour to send a representative.

**8. NSG Regional Meetings**

West Midlands 2nd October 2009

For more information on Regional Meetings please contact your

Regional Chair.