20 December 2010
Councils have called on the government to do more to reduce the burden of data submissions to Whitehall after ministers issued proposals for a newly pared-down reporting regime.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles published a draft five-pagelist for localgovernment data reporting on December 17.
The demand for all local authorities to report all spending over £500 appears in a section of requirements to ‘support local accountability’.
In that category, the obligation to report energy emissions to the Department for Energy and Climate Change is listed as being ‘under review’.
Also up for consideration is whether councils should report to the Department for Education on children missing from care or home.
The list reveals Pickles is also considering introducing new requirements for councils to report on: use of the Affordable Housing Grant; on ‘local decision-making’; new mutuals and co-operatives; public transport punctuality; and the new joined-up community budgets.
David Parsons, chair of the Local Government Association’s improvement board, said data reporting was a ‘pointless rigmarole that soaks up man-hours’, and hoped this signalled the ‘first step’ in a bigger cull of bureaucracy.
He praised the DCLG for publishing the list but called for ‘further action in paring back the burden of data reporting’.
Parsons said: ‘As a starting point we believe the government should introduce an assumption against Whitehall-imposed surveys and data collection.
‘Government departments should have to prove to councils that the information they want is necessary, explaining why it is needed and what it will be used for.’
Pickles will finalise the plans in April. He said: ‘For too long, central government has kept council staff hunched over desks crunching numbers… so they can send reams of pointless paperwork back to Whitehall bean-counters.
‘Those days are over. If the information is not on the agreed list, councils will not be obliged to provide it. We trust councils to get on with the job without big brother looming over their shoulder double-checking every detail.
