The growing importance of location information to frontline public services, the UK economy and the government’s digital engagement agenda is highlighted today. The first annual report by the UK Location Council, the body implementing a four-year national strategy to maximise the value of geospatial datasets, charts innovative moves to put location at the heart of decision making. The report, published at www.defra.gov.uk/location, shows how essential data is more easily accessed and shared through a common infrastructure of ‘core reference geographies’ and technology standards that include open source software where appropriate. A local government example - increasing the take-up of council tax benefits in Dudley in the West Midlands - illustrates how location information can help to join up processes, patterns and data. Council officers have combined housing, electoral roll, council tax and socio-demographic data with unique location references to identify which areas and demographic groups to target. A national collaboration on flood management provides another case study.

The Atlantis Initiative, set up following the summer 2007 floods which cost tax-payers £3 billion, draws together interoperable data from different government departments to predict and mitigate future flooding. Sources include hydrographic, geological, weather, transport and topographic datasets. In a further example of evidence-based policy making, the Places Database run by Communities and Local Government is enabling local strategic partnerships to develop their Local Area Agreements through analysis of integrated information from 12 central departments referenced by location. The database is also being used by third-sector organisations and businesses.

The report recognises that despite such early adopter case studies, the national strategy is required to ensure location information can be reused and integrated more easily for driving cost-effective business change and collaborative projects.   The Council says the “fundamentals have now been established to support the implementation of key elements of an infrastructure aimed at making it easier to discover, access and share location information, thus reducing costs and duplication”.     Huw Irranca-Davies, the Defra Minister responsible for the strategy, said it was necessary to widen access and “release the potential of location information.”

Writing in the foreword, he said: “Location information is increasingly being used to ensure emergency services arrive at incidents in time, to support the formulation of policies to mitigate the impact of climate change, to ensure that services are better targeted to citizens’ needs and to empower citizens and communities to manage their localities more effectively.   “But despite the wide range of beneficial applications of location information, the true value of this asset to the public, government and the private sectors is not being realised.”   In the report, the UK Location Council says it is taking forward its strategy within a “dynamic information landscape”.

This includes changes to Public Sector Information policy and new technologies enabling greater digital engagement such as linked data under the Making Public Data Public initiative.   A web-based geoportal is being developed by the Council to allow data providers to publish their data and services and let users discover, view and evaluate location information.   The Council says it is critical that the programme demonstrates ‘end user’ value early on, to stimulate engagement and demand, to secure resources and to achieve an early return on investment.   To achieve this, the programme will incorporate early adopters and a series of end user application pilot projects this year, sponsored by stakeholder organisations, to gather evidence of benefits and best practice.   In highlighting the importance of location information, the Council points to the Prime Minister’s announcement in November 2009 that key Ordnance Survey data is a critical public asset which should be made more freely available, so unlocking social and economic activity and benefit.

The report also discusses the recent transposition into UK law of the EU INSPIRE Directive. This is designed to improve public access to location information supporting environmental policies such as monitoring the effects of climate change across national boundaries.   Notes to editors - The UK Location Council is the body responsible for implementing the UK Location Strategy and the EU INSPIRE Directive under the UK Location Programme. The annual report published today covers the period from November 2008 to the end of December 2009. It reports on the work carried out to date and sets out the implementation action plan for the year ahead. Covering activities from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, it represents an integrated programme of work across UK Government. In addition to reporting the work within the UK Location Programme, examples are given of case studies that show the early benefits that can be achieved by following the principles as set out in the UK Location Strategy.

Early adopters and specific pilot projects are planned as a means to develop further the benefits realisation as evidenced in those case studies. The report carries a foreword from Huw Irranca-Davies, Minister for Marine and Natural Environment, responsible within Defra for the programme. UK Location Strategy The report shows the work carried out to deliver on the UK Location Strategy, a new strategy to maximise the value of location information to the public, government, UK business and industry.

Launched in November 2008 in the report Place Matters: The Location Strategy for the United Kingdom, it sets out strategic actions for public services that will help them to: know what data we have and avoid duplicating it; use common reference data so we know we are talking about the same places; share the data easily through common technology, standards and business relationships; gain the appropriate skills to support its use; and drive strong governance through a UK Location Council to enable change, including the implementation of both the UK Location Strategy and the EU INSPIRE Directive. INSPIRE Regulations The EU INSPIRE Directive became part of UK legislation with the recent INSPIRE Legislation (2009) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the INSPIRE (Scotland) Regulations 2009 that came into effect on 31 December 2009.

The main purpose behind this legislation is to lay the foundation for a general framework for a ‘Spatial Data Infrastructure’ (simplistically a web site enabling access to a wide network of location-based data) at the UK level and in Europe. In the UK this infrastructure will be delivered through the UK Location Programme. The annual report is available from the UK Location website at www.defra.gov.uk/location and is also available on request in printed format. Please see the contact details below. Background : about the UK Location Programme UK Location has been established to bring the benefits of better sharing and interoperability of location data.

It helps data providers, often in the public sector, make their data more readily accessible and usable to their users. This is defined within the UK Location Strategy and the EU INSPIRE Directive (now a part of UK legislation) and overseen by a transformational government body, the UK Location Council. The UK Location Programme is a package of work, led by Defra but spanning involvement from many Government departments and the devolved administrations, defined to implement this strategy over a four-year period and so fulfil the vision of the UK Location Strategy and meet the requirements as set out by the EU INSPIRE Directive. Within this programme exist a number of workstreams to build the infrastructure necessary and to ensure that the benefits of UK Location are understood, acknowledged and realised. Background : about the UK Location Council (UKLC) The UKLC also acts as a programme board managing the UK Location Programme that is implementing the UK Location Strategy and the EU INSPIRE Directive.

It ensures that location information initiatives: deliver public good outcomes through more effective and efficient services to the public; are driven by user needs and priorities to deliver these public good benefits; and that are co-ordinated and best practice is promulgated and adopted. The majority of members of the UKLC are senior officials drawn primarily from major providers and users of location information across the public sector who contribute financially or in kind to the programme, including representatives of the devolved administrations. Liaison with the Knowledge, Chief Information Officer and Chief Technical Officer Councils is achieved through overlapping memberships. The Association for Geographic Information is represented to provide strong engagement with a wide range of stakeholders in the location information sector.

* * * * * For more information : please contact the UK Location Programme team by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or via Andy Bray, Communications Manager, UK Location Programme, 07903 674411.