Briefings and responses

Whilst we welcome the Government’s recognition that it needs to work with councils to achieve nationally for local people and communities, the list of outcomes and outputs within the framework is ultimately a top-down approach. In future, in the spirit of partnership, we would like to see government working with the sector to identify and unblock barriers to the achievement of the outcomes; to resource councils to deliver those; and to review and refresh the outcomes in due course.

Local government is vital for the UK's AI strategy success, but faces challenges in digital transformation and AI adoption.

The UK government is right to champion digital transformation. It has the power to revolutionise public services, making them more efficient, user-friendly, and ultimately, more effective in improving lives. The move towards working across the public sector is a significant opportunity.

The Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan includes 50 recommendations. The LGA is committed to collaborating with the government to implement these recommendations.

The bill was re-introduced by the new Labour Government with the aim to "harness the power of data for economic growth, support modern digital government, and improve people's lives". This bill is similar to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDIB) introduced under successive Conservative Governments.

We call for opportunities for local government to help shape the work of Oflog. We are concerned that Oflog’s Data Explorer provides poor value for money. There is a need to ensure that Oflog’s ‘early warning conversations’ and peer reviews do not duplicate the LGA’s work. Oflog is not an independent body: this has implications for public trust in its work.

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data sharing exercise has been supported by local authorities for several decades now. It has an important place in counter fraud activities, as well as work to recover and reduce error and debt.

We welcome the opportunity to work alongside Oflog to achieve the two principal aims set out in the accompanying letter. However, one overarching, general observation would be that it is difficult to see how this new draft set of metrics supports these two aims.