WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
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GeoPlace; the ‘unsung hero’ of effective service provision |
For nearly two decades we have helped local government create and maintain the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and Unique Street Reference. Number (USRN). GeoPlace ensure that they are nationally unique, persistent & otherwise well-behaved. Each local authority in England, Scotland & Wales allocates a 12-digit number (known as the UPRN) to each new “addressable object” at the earliest possible stage of its lifecycle. This has never been particularly headline-grabbing work and doesn’t help you make friends at parties, but it has been incredibly effective at improving services and decision making in Great Britain. The UPRN now underpins many important aspects of government including the real-time transfer of incidents between emergency services, understanding citizens and delivering better services. It’s a helpful way to link people to places. The trend is spreading across the private sector too. So, it is strange, although not surprising, to find that identifiers are becoming a little bit trendy – they even have their own festival (yep, really). Eddie Copeland, Director of Government Innovation at NESTA recently began a series of ‘ideas on a page’ with a mention of the UPRN. |
Researched Links: |
GeoPlace: Persistent and well-behaved identifiers Post conference feedback from local authority Address & Street officers to the Geospatial Commission Drones, robots and automobiles – a data journey Working towards the ubiquity of UPRNs and USRNs ESRC: Addressing major societal challenges by harnessing government data MHCLG: £7.5m fund for councils' digital innovation opens GeoPlace: Linking health & care providers in Kent through the UPRN GeoPlace and JAG(UK) help councils cut driver disruption Unlocking of Government’s mapping & location data to boost economy by £130m a year How to identify gaps in the payment of non-domestic rates GeoPlace launches new service to help councils find and keep business rates Connecting data for better outcomes OS MasterMap Highways enhanced with local authority data 5 Surprising ways addresses are making a difference in Great Britain The future of public services depends on this – connecting data for better outcomes Socitm urges local government and public sector to embrace smart places & location intelligence Addressing highlighted in Local Digital Transformation event Minister hails next generation address system to support open data economy |
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Which treatment will prove ‘TB’ the best |
A new study by Public Health England, the University of Oxford and others reveals we can better predict a patient’s response to TB treatments. Public Health England (PHE) scientists have been part of a UK-wide collaboration which found that our understanding of tuberculosis (TB) genetic code is now detailed enough to predict a person’s response to TB treatments. With rapid DNA sequencing technologies available, it will be possible to give the correct drugs to more patients, improving cure rates and helping to stop the spread of drug-resistant strains. This study was led by the international CRyPTIC consortium based at the University of Oxford and facilitated by the UK government’s 100,000 Genomes Project in partnership with PHE. It is by far the largest of its kind, covering over 10,000 TB genomes from 16 equal partner countries around the globe. |
Researched Links: |
DHSC: New study shows positive impact of genetic code on TB treatment DIFD: UK leads the fight against increasing drug resistant TB Tuberculosis rates in England hit lowest recorded levels New Quarantine Unit measures to protect Low TB Area during show season Army officer helps Zambia set up health care education programme Tuberculosis (TB) cases fall by over a third in last 6 years Global issues from health to humanitarian crises to be tackled in ambitious research programme England world leaders in the use of whole genome sequencing to diagnose TB Teach children simple hygiene to help curb infections PHE launches new resource to tackle tuberculosis in under-served populations Meeting the health needs of refugee children |
Are you a flat leaseholder fed up with high service charges? |
If you’re setting up or running a flat management company, our interactive learning tool can guide you through everything you need to know. Companies House has launched the first of their online interactive learning tools: flat management companies. Flat management companies are commonly set up to own the freehold of a property such as a block of flats, and to manage the communal parts of the building. The directors & shareholders of the company are usually the residents of the property. If you’re a flat management company director or thinking about setting one up, you need to know about your responsibilities to Companies House. The learning tool is completely free, works on any device & can be completed in 25mins. |
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Companies House: New online learning tool for flat management companies LC: Home-ownership call for evidence – help make commonhold more common Crackdown on unfair leasehold practices Buying and owning leasehold flats: what do you need to know? Telegraph: Why a boom in leasehold flats - for young and old - is causing concern ... |
SME Supplier Locator update... | ||
UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. Against this ambitious backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. Recent arrivals to the SME Supplier Locator service include:
Click here to find out more. |
A weapon of mass destruction with indiscriminate after-effects |
The UK has launched a £2m competition alongside the US in a joint-mission to safely eliminate chemical & biological devices on the battlefield. The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA), part of the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory and UK MoD, has launched the ‘Don’t Blow It!’ competition, the first joint UK-US industry competition run by DASA and funded by the MOD and US Department of Defense. Competitors have been asked to identify innovative concepts or adapt current technologies to access, disable and destroy chemical & biological devices. This includes chemical & biological munitions, improvised explosive devices containing lethal agents or containers of bulk quantities of chemical or biological agents discovered on the battlefield or in other austere and resource-limited environments. Although it is over 100 years since the first large-scale use of chemical weapons, the threat from both chemical and biological weapons persists. This has been demonstrated by the recent rise in the use of such deadly weapons on the battlefield and in targeted attacks. The competition has an initial £500,000 to fund multiple proof-of-concept proposals at low Technology Readiness Levels. Based on the outcome of the initial funding phase, an additional £1.5m of funding could be released. |
Researched Links: |
MoD: Multi-£m competition to destroy battlefield chemical weapons launched by UK and US MoD: Streets ahead - British AI eyes scan future frontline in multinational urban experiment Dstl: 22nd International Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference FCO: US, UK, France statement on the chemical weapons attack in Syria Russian ‘hit list’; Litvinenko, Georgia, Crimea, East Ukraine, Montenegro, etc. Despite denials the Russians have previous ‘Form’ PM statement at UNSC counter-proliferation event: 26 September 2018 UK tests life-saving chemical detection robots and drones Evidence of Russia's Involvement in Salisbury Attack Foreign Secretary statement on the OPCW report into Amesbury US, UK, France statement on the chemical weapons attack in Syria Independent chemical weapons experts invited to the UK to continue assistance with Amesbury case 88th Executive Council session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Foreign Secretary calls for international action on chemical weapons Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference 2018 Royal Navy ship supports removal of potential chemical weapon materials from Libya Chemical Weapons | Chatham House Stopping the Use of Chemical Weapons in Modern ... - Chatham House |
Editorial commentary; When will the EU ‘play’ its Joker? |
If one is following the Brexit negotiations in the main media, one would be inclined to think that if we ‘solve the RoI / NI border conundrum’ the Brexit negotiations would then rapidly come to a successful conclusion. However, there is one other area of contention that the EU is likely to use at the last moment of the negotiation process to ‘squeeze out its last cherry-picking of UK assets’– the Spain / Gibraltar border issue. The EU’s position is that Spain has a veto on any application of a Brexit Agreement to Gibraltar. A previous article from Briefings for Brexit (BfB: Gibraltar & the EU – lessons from an unprincipled approach ) sums up the situation in a comprehensive manner and illustrates how these negotiations provide the best (and probably last for many years) opportunity for Spain to regain at least joint ‘control’ of Gibraltar, with regard to its taxation system, airport and territorial waters, leaving it as the equivalent of a sort of UK County Council.. It could also be a useful bargaining chip with regards to loss of fishing rights, although ‘Spain gets around the problem by having a Spanish-owned but British-flagged fleet, a legacy of the years before Spain joined the EU, when it invested in Britain to gain access to the bloc’s fishing quotas, the Spanish Confederation of Fisheries (Cepesca) said’. (Independent: UK fishermen expect a post-Brexit bonanza - but there's a catch ). That situation could potentially be transformed if Defra changes the way UK fishing quotas are assigned when they finally get control of UK waters and the fishing rights, especially if the EU denies UK fisherman access to EU markets. However, Spain may be expecting that the ‘Gibraltar card’ could be a useful aid in protecting those current ‘investments/rights’. One suspects the fact that the EU (& Spain in particular) has recently kept quiet on this issue is almost a guarantee that they will play their ‘joker’ at the last minute! |
Researched Links: |
Editorial Commentary; EU and Spain ‘two-faced’ on border issues? It is not just Northern Ireland where the Brexit borders issue gets more complicated |
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Still a ‘hot topic’, with widely spread views, for those who put fingers to keyboard in order to ‘share their views’: |
Researched Links: |
Brexit microsite (Information about the Article 50 process and our ‘partnership’ negotiations with the EU) DExEU: Secretary of State meeting with Chief Minister of Gibraltar: 26 September 2018 IEA Report: Plan A+: Creating a prosperous post-Brexit UK 10DS: PM meeting with Guy Verhofstadt MEP: 24 September 2018 DfT publishes no deal planning information WAG: New Brexit Portal to support business WAG: App to support Welsh food & drink businesses post-Brexit launched techUK response to the PM's Brexit negotiations statement techUK: No Deal Notices show that negotiating in good faith must continue EU News: Companies stepping up efforts to ensure medicine supply post Brexit BfB: Moral denigration and condemnation - Gina Miller’s new weapon in her war on Brexit by Ian Moody |
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