TOWARDS THE LOCATION STRATEGY FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM Phil Watts – Ordnance Survey Alistair Calder – Office for National Statistics Joint Working Party on Geography for Statistics Luxemburg – 3 March 2008

UK Geographic Information Panel: Aims To give high-level advice to Ministers on geographic information issues of national importance for the United Kingdom, in particular to: Identify the key medium to long-term geographic information issues and advise Government through regular short reports to Ministers; Encourage more effective, extensive and systematic use of geographic information, led by the example of Government Departments and other public bodies where appropriate; Facilitate a co-ordinated position on potential legislation, both national and international, that might impact on the geographic information market ; To promote a coherent approach to the management of geographic information in the United Kingdom. The Panel is advisory and has no regulatory role

The United Kingdom Geographic Information Panel Announced in April 2005 Members appointed by UK Government Ministers Members represent key interest groups in government, the private sector and the wider UK GI industry Secretariat provided by one of the organisations represented (presently Ordnance Survey)

GI Panel Membership: appointed by Ministers Association of British Insurers Association for Geographic Information Delivery & Transformation Unit, Cabinet Office Demographic User Group Department for Communities & Local Government Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs Ministry of Defence Office for National Statistics Ordnance Survey (Chair) Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland Registers of Scotland Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Society of Local Authority Chief Executives

Steps towards The Location Strategy for the United Kingdom June – December 2005 – Scoping study November 2005 - Transformational Government strategy - reference to development of UK GI Strategy June 2006 – Consultancy awarded following tender July 2006 – Industry consultation commences December 2006 – Consultants’ draft completed January – July 2007 – Discussions with senior officials across UK Government – draft refined August 2007 – renamed: “Place Matters: The Location Strategy for the United Kingdom” October 2007 - Strategy submitted to Ministers

Why does UK need a Location Strategy? … understanding the drivers

To assist in aligning the GI vision – Local to European INSPIRE Member State sharing sharing Regional UK Regional GI Strategies Local UK Location Strategy ALIGNING <<< Organisations >>>

Housing Stock (condition) Enabling greater cross referencing of information to gain better analysis and potentially financial and service efficiency savings Census Fire records Education Housing Stock (condition) Council tax benefit Insurance Risk Address Id (linked to bldg Id) Building Id

The target environment Standardised collection of information and universal use of such data; Currently some beacons of good practice GI and location information being used to excellent effect, and demonstrating the benefits … but use of such analysis is far from the norm …

Local authority service improvement Local authority uses road network data together with pupil home address records and road flow/congestion data to analyse school bus routes Council saves £160,000 annually by improving school bus services for just two secondary schools AND gives the children a better service Local decision-making improved - cash savings Service improves – satisfied users

Health and Well-being - Increasing patient registrations Transient populations = low patient registration at doctor’s surgeries Helping patients to register saves the NHS money. Registered patients more likely to visit doctor at start of illness before it becomes acute and cost of care increases significantly Address data and multiple occupancy information combined with patient registration information identifies addresses with no record of registered patient. Targeted mail shots sent to ‘non-registered’ properties - encourage people to register with doctor Targeted addresses monitored for effectiveness of project Improved patient address list supports future health campaigns and surveys Improved Services – reduced costs Healthier patients

Water industry efficiency & service improvement Combining data about plant, equipment, pipes, sewers, and other assets with mapping information. Return on investment real and demonstrable: for one company alone – Additional income in one year of over £1m through improved management of empty properties. Sustainable cut of at least £60k in operating costs through the call centre efficiencies. Significant savings in time and cost in the provision of timely & accurate asset information to field technicians. Business and operational efficiencies – cost savings to company and consumer Better management of assets - Environmental benefits Improved services

Flooding Events – 2005 -2007 Summer 2007: Insured losses: ~£3Bn Uninsured losses: ~£1Bn+

Carlisle Floods: January 2005 ‘blue area’ shows the actual Carlisle flood limit and flooded roads lack of integrated data for risk analysis whole emergency plan coordination data was held in the basement of the Council Offices shown in the top right hand picture

Learning lessons from the 2007 floods: The Pitt Review - December 2007 number of submissions made about the value of visual, map-based tools that allow better spatial assessment of what is happening on the ground. Potential to have pre-identified hot spots, drainage information or vulnerabilities at ground level. could be used in flood planning exercises to run a range of scenarios to help local responders better prepare could be used during flooding events to assess potential impacts. Need / opportunity: knowledge of what datasets are available for an area including statistical data, and their quality – INSPIRE principle data collected and maintained to agreed data standards to permit speedy integration scenario planning and comparative analysis of which interventions work use by emergency services as the local situation changes

Adding the Statistical Component – an update Context … NATIONAL STATISTICS Move to independence & standards ANALYSIS – not just “numbers” Neighbourhood Statistics Census …. Role of Statistics in the geographic framework

The problem for UK Statistics ? The problem for UK Statistics

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Avon 1995 19

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Yorkshire and Humberside 19

Yorkshire and Humber 19

Yorkshire and the Humber 19

Yorkshire and The Humber 19

RICHMOND UPON THAMES 17 Thank you Lionel I now wish to take you through our assessment of the options 17 16

LOBH DETR L5810 BH DfEE 318 DSS 050130 ONS 01BD Dept of Health English 0270 Forestry Commission BH ONS 01BD English Heritage LOBH RICHMOND UPON THAMES 17 16

The problem for statistics 4 Nations collect and publish for complex geographies rarely align fragility – lots of boundary change lack of harmonisation on naming and coding

Move to low level referencing 1 Move to low level referencing

Postcode level referencing 68

Address level referencing 67

2 ... and use stable building brick geographies Output Areas and Super Output Areas

Output Areas (OAs) designed for 2001 Census (E&W) output separated from collection synthetic blobs – around 150 population built automatically from unit postcodes approximately 175,000 OAs (E&W)

Super Output Areas Groups of Output Areas – blobs built from blobs A three layered hierarchy Each layer nests within the next layer up Size thresholds and targets A new geography for collecting, aggregating and reporting statistics

A group of Output Areas

Lower layer Super Output Area

Middle layer Super Output Area

Future of OAs/SOAs ? Districts ? Together with OAs will form the core ‘atomic’ units for statistics 10/20/30 years ?? Census 2011 Review – but stability Upper SOA Middle SOA Lower SOA Output Areas Grid reference

so what’s so great about Super Output Areas ??

small independent nationally consistent stable - comparability over time consistent in size - helps in data supply

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Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 2004 Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

Index of Deprivation 2004 Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Index of Deprivation 2004 Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

Index of Deprivation 2004 Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

Index of Deprivation 2004 Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

Index of Deprivation 2004 Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

Index of Deprivation 2004 Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

Index of Deprivation 1998 Wards 1998 19

Geographic Referencing Infrastructure 3 ... getting the data right Geographic Referencing Infrastructure

Spatial Data Repository (SDR) GRI infrastructure Spatial Data Repository (SDR) GRI Product Library GRI Explorer users SDR tools data Georeferencing Tool ONS Geography staff only ONS staff via intranet

Geography framework for statistics NS website Standard names & codes GI Strategy NS protocols Standards and protocols flexibility data linking Low level / Address level referencing Infrastructure Geographic referencing infrastructure (GRI) Output Area geographies UK approach Pan Government Agreement OS MasterMap & the DNF the base / framework

Place Matters: The Location Strategy for the United Kingdom Next steps Secure funding for cross-cutting core deliverables Gain wider Ministerial Agreement Publish Strategy Refine and deploy implementation plan Begin to exploit the Locational dimension in UK public sector information.

THANK YOU Questions? Phil Watts – Ordnance Survey Alistair Calder – Office for National Statistics Joint Working Party on Geography for Statistics Luxemburg – 3 March 2008