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| May 2008 Edition |

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General:

1. Treasury Committee Report - "Counting the Population"

2. Commercialisation of NLPG Attracts Substantial Interest
3. Modernising Electoral Services
4. Haringey Council Adopts Gigateway
5. INSPIRE Update
6. CBI Public Services Summit
7. FRS Online
8. Public Sector Projects Can Work
9. Strong Leadership Key To Front-Line Shared Services
10. Underpinning Transformational Government Conference
11. Annual Exemplar Awards
12. IA Continues to Expand
13. IA Vacancy for: Business Development Manager
14. City of London Seeks Planning Officer (Gazetteers)
15. Rugby Borough Council Seeks LLPG Custodian

NLPG:

1. Password Renewals
2. Change Only Updates
3. Health Check Reports
4. Health Check Schedule
5. NLPG Candidate Process
6. DTF 7.3 (v.2.3)
7. NLPG Validation Checks

NSG:

1. Improved NSG Services from IA

2. Level 3 NSG Data Available to all MSA Signatories
3. New Monthly Updates
4. Latest Version of Compliance Test Documentation

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

[General]
**1. Treasury Committee Report - "Counting the Population"**
The House of Commons Treasury Committee's Eleventh [1]Report of
Session 2007-08,
printed on May 14th 2008 noted that the Government has failed to
make any progress
in establishing an address register for the 2011 Census. The
report says, "We
 heard repeated references to the necessity of establishing the
register yet were
surprised to hear that no business case had been published".
[Para 95]

The paragraph went on to question whether leadership weakness,

lack of legislative
means or the financial obligations of the [OS] trading fund
status have contributed
most to the failure.

The remarks concerning a lack of an address register and a

business case will come
as a surprise to the Local Authority Community, which has been
working hard, over
the last 10 years, to establish the definitive address dataset
through the NLPG.
In addition business case studies have been published regularly
demonstrating the
value to the local authorities of the gazetteer, which is
enabling more efficient
service delivery to citizens over a wide range of applications
on a daily basis.

[1]
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmtreas
y/183/183.pdf

**2. Commercialisation of NLPG Attracts Substantial Interest**

The commercial launch of the NLPG, held at the Royal
Geographical Society on the
30th of April was a resounding success, attended by over 130
interested parties,
including mapping specialists, the emergency services, utilities
companies, credit
reference agencies, identify management businesses, engineering
concerns, central
government and information services specialists.

The NLPG is already responsible for quantifiable business

benefits and efficiencies
within local authorities and is at the heart of transformational
government. To
the wider public sector, central government and the private
sector the NLPG offers
unrivalled opportunities for research and analysis, policy
making and planning,
data cleansing, fraud protection, environmental protection,
demographics, licensing
and much more. This is more than reflected in the wide variety
of attendees at the
NLPG launch.
 "We are delighted to have launched the NLPG for commercial use
said Michael Nicholson,
Managing Director of Intelligent Addressing. "Commercialisation
secures the future
of this groundbreaking project and opens up the way for third
party users to benefit
from and contribute to its continual improvement. We have had a
massive response
from potential users who can see the business benefits of this
national dataset
which pinpoints every property in England and Wales".

For further information, see [1]www.iahub.net/docs/.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1210592444694.pdf

**3. Modernising Electoral Services**

IA has been in contact with EROs and LLPG Custodians to discuss
the MOJ's requirements
for converting electoral registers to BS7666 and matching them
to the NLPG. By
the December 2009 deadline, electoral registers must contain a
UPRN for each address
entry and be maintained via links with the authority's LLPG,
with access to the
NLPG for out of area addresses.

IA have received and processed the first three Register of

Electors extracts sent
in by local authorities and have achieved an average match rate
of 95.3%, leaving
the authorities an average of 2,475 records to review. The work
is being carried
out by IA under the terms of the MSA at the MSA defined fixed
rate of £1,806 per
data set.

Tony Black, Operations Director, at IA will be speaking at the

Public Sector Forums
event 'Modernising Electoral Services' at Edgbaston Cricket
Ground on 11th June,
and the NLPG will also feature in the exhibition. The
conference brings together
expert speakers from local authorities, the MOJ and other
organisations who can
give practical information and advice that will help deliver the
changes required
in the electoral registration service. The day will focus on:
Achieving BS7666 compliance
Understanding the legal implications of sharing data from the
register
How CORE and current technologies are likely to impact the
future of voting
 Innovative ways to engage with voters and improve registration
and turn out.
For more information see [1]www.publicsectorforums.co.uk.

Other Events

The NLPG is also exhibiting at London Connects Conference.

London Connects is about
bringing London's authorities together to discuss how, by
working together and embracing
change, the delivery of London's public services can be
improved. This year's event
focuses on how can efficiency gains can be realised by utilising
the right technologies.

For further information see [2]http://society.guardian.co.uk.

[1] http://www.publicsectorforums.co.uk/page.cfm?pageID=4756
[2] http://society.guardian.co.uk/londonconnects08

**4. Haringey Council Adopts Gigateway**

Haringey Council in London has adopted gigateway as a repository
for all the borough's
metadata.

"At Haringey Council we understand the importance of

geographical information."
said Lisa Simeon- Corporate GIS Project Manager. "Gigateway has
given us the perfect
platform to share our information with colleagues, partners and
members of the public.
We also take the quality of our data very seriously, and
publishing our metadata
on Gigateway has proved an excellent way to make sure that our
metadata is up to
national/international standard.

Now it is clear for anyone to see what data we hold, the source
of that data and
when it will be updated. This has made information sharing at
Haringey much easier
and assisted compliance with the EU directive for establishing
an Infrastructure
for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE)."

We would encourage other local authorities and organisations to

follow Haringey's
lead and make details of their geospatial data holdings
available on gigateway.

See [1]www.gigateway.org.uk for further information.

[1] http://www.gigateway.org.uk
**5. INSPIRE Update**
The Metadata Implementing Rules have been approved by the EU
INSPIRE committee,
but the College of Commissioners has yet to officially adopt
them. It is likely
that this will take up to two months and the final IRs will not
be published until
then.

A revised Roadmap and Work Programme for INSPIRE have been

published on JRC's INSPIRE
website. This doesn't contain as much detail as the previous
version of the road
map - other documents will be released for consultation that are
not listed.

Local government continues to take a direct interest and

involvement in the UK implementation
of INSPIRE. Interested parties should join the INSPIRE CoP on
the IDeA Communities
of Practice. Recent posts include a presentation given by
Gesche Schmid to the
Headstar conference 'GIS in the public sector: the countdown to
[1]INSPIRE'.

[1] http://www.ec-gis.org/inspire/

**6. CBI Public Services Summit**

Tailoring public services to meet the needs of individuals is
necessary for the
next stage for reform and improvement. Public service managers
from public and
private sectors need to understand how services will be changed
and delivered.

This summit for public services leaders in companies, central

and local government,
health and education will focus on the key developments,
programmes and models of
delivery to meet the Prime Minister's objective of "personalised
public services".

Drawing on examples from the public and private sectors and

joint working to deliver
"tailored" services, the conference will give insights into
organisational change,
new markets, financial models and new partnership opportunities.

The summit will set out how leading organisations put consumers
first in reform
in public services, and set out how to deliver services through
increased choice
 and diverse service providers. The NLPG will also be exhibiting
at this event.
For more information see [1]www.neilstewartassociates.com.

[1] http://www.neilstewartassociates.com/bn121/

**7. FRS Online**

[1]FRS Online provides accessible information about the future
of the Fire and Rescue
Service. This site gives a detailed overview of the changes that
are now taking
place in the Fire and Rescue Service. It explains new policies
that are being brought
in on a national level, and reports on innovative work being
carried out in fire
and rescue services.

[1] http://www.frsonline.fire.gov.uk/

**8. Public Sector Projects Can Work**

All too often media stories focus on high profile IT project
failures, especially
in the public sector. This hides the fact that there are many
stories about fascinating
successes to be told.

All the programmes featured in the BCS publication

([1]www.bcs.org/upload/pdf )
were finalists or winners in the BCS's prestigious 2007 Project
Excellence Awards.
These examples are drawn from the categories covering public
sector organisations
of the year, best use of green technology, social contribution
projects and several
other areas. The full list of finalists and winners is available
at: [2]www.bcs.org/awards.

[1] http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/success-public-sector-
projects.pdf
[2] http://www.bcs.org/awards

**9. Strong Leadership Key To Front-Line Shared Services**

Strong political and managerial leadership and a shared vision
among partners with
agreed local outcomes are pre-requisites for successful front-
line, customer-facing
shared services in local government, a new report finds.

'Delivering public service transformation 2008 - front office

shared services,'
is published by the local government Improvement and Development
Agency (IDeA) ([1]www.idea.gov.uk).
It is based on work commissioned by the Cabinet Office,
Department for Communities
and Local Government, IDeA and the Local Government Association
in 2006 to investigate
opportunities for more integrated and efficient services through
shared 'front office'
arrangements, including one-stop shops, contact centres and web
portals.

[1] http://www.idea.gov.uk

**10. Underpinning Transformational Government Conference**

The responses to the Call for Papers for the annual Conference,
to be held at the
ICC in Birmingham on 16th October, have been reviewed and the
programme is now being
finalized.

Confirmed morning speakers include: Jos Creese, Head of IT,

Hampshire County Council
and Member of Local Government CIO Council, John Hayes, Director
at IDeA, Glyn Evans,
Assistant to the Chief Executive on Business Transformation,
Birmingham City Council,
and Member of Local Government CIO Council.

Speakers confirmed for the afternoon include: British Transport

Police, Macclesfield
Borough Council, Shepway District Council, Rushcliffe Borough
Council, Kent Highways
Services Alliance and Kingston-upon-Hull City Council.

The exhibition which is running alongside the conference is

gathering interest.
Exhibitors so far include: Aligned Assets, Astun Technology,
Bartec Auto ID, Bluesky
International, ESRI (UK), Hopewiser, IDOX, GeoInformation Group,
GGP, Ordnance Survey
and Spatial Technology.

Further information for exhibitors can be seen at

[1]www.iahub.net/docs/.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1207749042599.pdf

**11. Annual Exemplar Awards**

The categories for the awards are now being finalised and entry
forms will be sent
out during June for an early September closing date.

**12. IA Continues to Expand**

Henry Rios has been appointed as Assistant Support Manager on
the IA Helpdesk to
 provide support for the NLPG and NSG.

Henry was previously at South Bucks District Council as the GIS/

LLPG technician
for three and half years where he was responsible for completing
the first LLPG
and thereafter maintaining it. He was also involved with various
GIS/data capture
projects. Before working in this field of GIS/LLPG he taught
English in South Korea.
Henry can be contacted on [1]hrios@intelligent-
addressing.co.uk.

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

**13. IA Vacancy for: Business Development Manager**

A Business Development Manager is now required to lead, shape
and promote every
aspect of the commercial launch in April this year of the NLPG
Nationwide Property
Identification System. The onward uses of the NLPG are
potentially huge, from wider
public sector use to commercial applications in insurance,
customer profiling, logistics,
satellite navigation and more. IA has a range of skills that can
also be made available
to help organisations realize the benefits of their adopting the
NLPG i.e. in consultancy
and address matching.

Closing date for applications June 13th2008.

Further detailed information from: [1]Business Development

Manager

The deadline for applications for the [2]Contracts Analyst and

[3]Business Analyst
have been extended to June 13th 2008 due to administrative
errors at one of the
organisations we have used to advertise the vacancies.

If you have any queries about the positions please send them to
[4]jobs@iaddressing.co.uk.
To apply please send your cv and a covering email/letter
outlining your suitability
for the position that you are applying for to Paul Strutt:
[5]astrutt@btconnect.com.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1212068736760.pdf
[2] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1212068804435.pdf
[3] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1212068851635.pdf
[4] mailto:jobs@iaddressing.co.uk
[5] mailto:pastrutt@btconnect.com
**14. City of London Seeks Planning Officer (Gazetteers)**
The City of London is seeking an enthusiastic specialist to take
the lead on delivering
the City's obligations under the Mapping Services Agreement to
maintain its Local
Land and Property Gazetteer. The post holder will also
implement the City's street
naming and numbering process and integrate it with the LLPG, and
will deputise for
the Team Leader.

Salary:£ 30,920 - £ 36,000 p.a. inclusive. Grade: E

The post would suit someone who has experience of gazetteer work
in a local government
context and is familiar with standard data management procedures
and software including
GIS. Skills and qualifications in planning or geographic
information or surveying
would be appropriate.

For an informal discussion about this post please contact Stuart

O'Callaghan on
020 7332 1843.

Closing date for the receipt of completed applications is 9th

June 2008. It is
anticipated that interviews will be held during the week
commencing 16th June 2008.

The City of London Corporation is committed to equal

opportunities and welcomes
applications from all sections of the community.

To apply online, please visit

[1]www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/jobs. Alternatively, please contact
the Corporate Recruitment
Unit on 020 7332 3978 (24hr answerphone) or email:
[2]cru@cityoflondon.gov.uk quoting
reference number PLN041. A minicom service for the hearing
impaired available on
020 7332 3179.

[1] http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/jobs
[2] mailto:cru@cityoflondon.gov.uk

**15. Rugby Borough Council Seeks LLPG Custodian**

Your Primary responsibility, as one of our System Support
Officers, will be for
the management and promotion of the Council's Land and Property
Gazetteer. You will
be responsible for technical management of the LLPG, street
naming and for taking
a more strategic view, ensuring use of the LLPG is promoted
throughout the Authority.

Matching and cleansing data are still underway and as part of a

small team you will
be leading the way with minimum supervision. Full details will
be available nationally
in early June 2008. Salary Scale 5/6 (£18,907 - £22,845, pay
award pending) depending
on experience.

For more information, please contact Chris Phillips on 01788

533602 or [1]chris.phillips@rugby.gov.uk

You can apply for this vacancy via the Council's website
[2]www.rugby.gov.uk/jobs
or postal application packs are available by ringing 01788
533564.

[1] mailto:chris.phillips@rugby.gov.uk
[2] http://www.rugby.gov.uk/jobs

[NLPG]
**1. Password Renewals**
For security purposes NLPG and NSG website passwords expire
after 90 days and users
are required to input a new one. Users can do this themselves by
logging on with
their current login details and then hitting "change password".
The new password
must be alpha numeric, containing both upper and lower case
letters and at least
four digits. If your password is not accepted a pop up message
will give you further
instructions.

**2. Change Only Updates**

It is encouraging that an increasing number of authorities are
submitting their
COUs via FTP. This site is monitored 24hrs per day and ensures
a quick response
and automatic loading of files, which do not require manual
intervention, out of
normal office hours. Files with errors are dealt with during
normal office hours.
If you are not currently using FTP for COU submissions we
would encourage you
to look at this as a primary option.
**3. Health Check Reports**
May Health Checks are now available to download from the FTP
site (ftp://ftp.nlpg.org.uk/)
from the NLPG_Supply folder in the OUT directory.

Various suggestions on how to improve the format of the health

check reports were
received from local authorities. In response to this
constructive feedback we have
reviewed and amended the report layout to include the following
changes:
Critical and non-critical (warnings) anomalies are now clearly
distinguishable.
Only the errors present in your data are shown in the report
(therefore error codes
that are not applicable to your data are not reported).
Error check text has been reviewed to make clearer.
Percentage of unclassified records will be reported only on
'live' records.
Cross-reference errors are now reported at the end of the
report.
Street Only BLPUs check has been split between open and closed
streets for clarity.
Please continue your hard work and correct the items listed in
your report as errors/warnings.
These records should be checked locally and where appropriate
corrected as part
of your regular LLPG maintenance. These corrections should be
included in your COU
files to the NLPG Hub.

The CORE data team has already started the matching and cleaning
routine for a number
of authorities. The data submitted is formatted to BS7666
prior to matching to
the LLPG and this has highlighted instances where LLPG data does
not meet the BS7666
Conventions; the great majority of these anomalies are
contained in the "health
checks", and this illustrates the importance of resolving these
issues as soon as
possible. By correcting these items Custodians will potentially
increase the CORE
match rates considerably.

If your authority is planning to send Electoral Registration

data to Intelligent
Addressing for data matching to the NLPG (and therefore your
LLPG) as part of the
CORE project, then it is advisable to prioritise the following
two checks:
 LPI-V12D PAO_TEXT begins with a number
LPI-V12C SAO_TEXT begins with a number

**4. Health Check Schedule**

Your next health check report is scheduled for July; development
on the health check
format (including generation of a summary report) will continue
throughout June
so please be aware there will not be a June health check report
generated. This
will allow custodians extra time to review and correct their
data.

If you have any questions regarding your report, especially on

how to resolve errors/warnings,
please contact the helpdesk on 020 7747 3502 or
[1]helpdesk@intelligent-addressing.co.uk.

[1] mailto:helpdesk@Intelligent-addressing.co.uk

**5. NLPG Candidate Process**

The NLPG candidate process has now been approved by the LLPG
Regional Chairs - the
final document will soon be available (as a PDF) to download
from [1]www.nlpg.org.uk(click
on 'MSA Support' - 'Resources').

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk

**6. DTF 7.3 (v.2.3)**

In light of the migration to BS7666:2006 the DTF 7.3
documentation has been reviewed
and will soon be available (as a PDF) to download from the NLPG
website[1]www.nlpg.org.uk
(click on 'MSA Support' - 'Resources') once it has been approved
by the LLPG Regional
Chairs.

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk

**7. NLPG Validation Checks**

The NLPG Validation checks have been documented and will soon be
available (as PDF)
to download from the NLPG website [1]www.nlpg.org.uk(click on
'MSA Support' - 'Resources').

[1] http://www.nlpg.org.uk

[NSG]
**1. Improved NSG Services from IA**
 The publication of the Traffic Management Act, and the recent
changes to the revised
Regulations under the New Roads and Street Works Act for the
Code of Practice and
Technical Specification managed by the DfT have added
considerably to the level
of work required by the NSG Custodian in terms of the
development of new services
and back office support by IA.

Below are the relevant sections, which enforce changes on how

the NSG is run and
managed.

(i) Code of Practice for the Coordination of Street Works

The NSG to administer the process of 'registering an interest in

a neighbour's streets'.
The NSG must accept ASD and ODD from organisations that are
street authorities,
but not Local Highway Authorities
Statutory Undertakers should forward ODD files to the NSG to
form a central repository
of OD data for distribution from the hub.
LSGs should use USRN definitions and attribution as defined in
BS7666:2000 Part
1 moving to a BS7666: 2006 implementation from October 2008.

(ii) Technical Specification for EToN4

Submission of ODD in XML format by other Highway Authorities,

containing key financial
information.
Submission of OD and AOI by statutory undertakers to the NSG
Custodian
Submission of ODD in XML format by Local Highway Authorities,
containing key financial
information
Hosting of the TRSG on the NSG Hub

Follow the link [1]here to see the new model for the NSG. The
yellow icons denote
the previous model and the magenta represent the additional
requirements in the
new model.

The main beneficiaries of the new Regulations are the Highway

Authorities, the Highways
Agency and Statutory Undertakers, who are not signatories to the
MSA and therefore
not contributing to the development and ongoing maintenance of
the NSG; other than
through ad hoc and informal arrangements for the supply and
publishing of their
data.

Discussions are ongoing between IDeA, DfT and affected parties,

but in the meanwhile
the cost burden of these improvements has fallen on the Local
Authority community.

LGIH has recently written to all affected authorities outlining

the extra fees which
will be added to their forthcoming payment for improved NSG
Services.

[1] http://www.iahub.net/docs/1211541114543.jpg

**2. Level 3 NSG Data Available to all MSA Signatories**

Don't forget that if your organisation is a signatory of the
Mapping Services Agreement
you are entitled to download and use copies of the Level 3 LSG
file submitted by
Local Highway Authorities. With over 1 million streets with
complete ESU centre
line geometry and additional street attribution the NSG could
prove to be a useful
resource for your organisation! Visit the registration pages of
[1]www.thensg.org.uk
for more details.

[1] http://www.thensg.org.uk

**3. New Monthly Updates**

Now that the dust has settled around the implementation of EToN4
the NSG has moved
to a monthly update of Level 3 LSGs and ASD. The dates for
publication during 2008
are as follows; 2nd June, 2nd July, 4th August, 2nd September,
2nd October, 4th
November, 2nd December. All gazetteers due for publication must
be submitted to
the National Hub via the website before the 10th working day of
each month.

Before compliance testing can start each Local Highway Authority

must upload the
following files.

Street xxxx_01.csv
ASD 21 xxxx_21.csv
ASD 22 xxxx_22.csv
ASD 23 xxxx_23,csv (optional)
ODD xxxx_OD.csv
**4. Latest Version of Compliance Test Documentation**
Many custodians are still using old copies of the Compliance
Check manual. The latest
version (version 2) is available for download at the following
location [1]www.nlpg.org.uk/docs/NSG_Compliance_Check.pdf.

The NSG website is now accepting, validating and hosting

Operational District Data
files (ODD) for the statutory undertakers. All registered
statutory undertakers
can upload and test their files via the upload pages of
[2]www.thensg.org.uk. Schema
validation is in place to ensure the file is valid as per the
regulations.

All submitted files will be published along with the rest of the
NSG at the start
of each month. Have a look at the download pages of
[3]www.thensg.org.uk.

[1] http://www.thensg.org.uk/docs/NSG_Compliance_Check.pdf
[2] http://www.thensg.org.uk
[3] http://www.thensg.org.uk