Local Government INSPIRE Survey 2011

The Local Government Association (LGA) carried out a survey of local authorities in England about the readiness for INSPIRE and the future implications for meeting INSPIRE compliance. The survey forms part of a wider impact assessment of INSPIRE on local authorities carried out by the LGA on behalf of the department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra). The survey has been published on http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=1254606 alongside updates about the local government requirements to meet INSPIRE compliance.

 Key findings of the survey were:

• almost all local authorities have some understanding of INSPIRE and the majority see a benefit in INSPIRE by knowing what data exist and reduce duplication and a greater potential for use of data in cross sector partnership working
• while most authorities recognise the importance of metadata the implementation lacks behind data policy of publishing metadata to given standards on data.gov.uk
• most authorities have some form of online publishing capabilities but the majority meet INSPIRE compliance by publishing through national portals.
• Local authorities create and use a range of datasets across most INSPIRE data themes. The themes for which most datasets are held are area management/restriction reporting zones/reporting units, and land use. The most commonly used external data sources are geology, elevation, and orthoimagery.
• Just over half of all organisations do not have a licensing regime in place whereas only 8.8% use the open government license for their geographic data.
• Local authorities identified a need for further local government specific, less technical guidance and information, lack of resources to implement INSPIRE and hence a preference for publishing through national portals.

The Local Government Association is working with the UK Location Programme, local authorities and AGI suppliers to further develop cost effective solutions and support local authorities in meeting their requirements. We would be grateful for any signposting below this post of information (clear guidance, case studies, simple solutions) that has been published elsewhere to meet local INSPIRE needs.