1. 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

2. 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

3. 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)

4. 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

5. Steps towards The Location Strategy for the United Kingdom
June – December 2005 – Scoping study
November 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 Strategy submitted to Ministers

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

7. 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 >>>

8. 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

9. 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 …

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. The problem for UK Statistics?
The problem for UK Statistics

18. 17 16

19. 19

20. 19

21. 19

22. 19

23. 2002 19

24. 2003 19

25. 2004 19

26. Avon
1995 19

27. 19

28. Yorkshire and
Humberside 19

29. Yorkshire and
Humber 19

30. Yorkshire and
the Humber 19

31. Yorkshire and
The Humber 19

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

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

34. 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

35. Move to low level referencing1
Move to low level referencing

36. Postcode level referencing68

37. Address level referencing67

38. 2 ... and use stable building brick geographies
Output Areas and Super Output Areas

39. 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)

41. 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

42. A group of Output Areas

43. Lower layer Super Output Area

44. Middle layer Super Output Area

45. 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

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

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

48. 19

49. Wards 1998 19

50. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

51. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

52. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

53. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

54. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

55. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

56. Index of Deprivation 2004
Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

57. Index of Deprivation 2004
Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

58. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

59. Index of Deprivation 2004
Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

60. Index of Deprivation 2004
Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

61. Index of Deprivation 2004
Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

62. Index of Deprivation 2004
Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

63. Index of Deprivation 2004
Lower Layer SOAs 2004 19

64. Index of Deprivation 1998
Wards 1998 19

65. Geographic Referencing Infrastructure3
... getting the data right
Geographic Referencing Infrastructure

67. 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

71. 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

72. 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.

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