Consultation launched on reducing finance data collection

Ministers have launched a consultation on scrapping data collection in a number of areas relating to local government finance.
The move is part of a Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) initiative launched in 2010 which has already seen the amount of data required to be provided in returns from councils reduced by around a third.
However, the consultation launched this week marks the first time that local government finance data has come under the spotlight.
The consultation said: “We have already consulted with key government users and reviewed their requirements.
“This has helped inform our initial proposals. Before any final decisions are made and to ensure that the requirements of all users are taken into account, DCLG is seeking your views.”
Councils and others are being asked to give their views on whether a clutch of data could be safely removed from revenue account budget forms (RA), revenue account outturn forms (RO), the capital forecast return form, the capital outturn return form, the council tax base form and council tax requirement returns, including detailed parish level information.
The consultation asks for views on the potential impact of scrapping the data requirements on councils’ mandatory and other activities, as well as the cost implications.
In April, a letter from DCLG to council finance chiefs said that the RA and RO forms “provide essential data for a number of different purposes” including informing macroeconomic decision making.
“In addition, the returns are important sources of information for making evidence based policy decisions, answering parliamentary questions and other requests for information by ministers, local authorities and their associations, and the general public,” it said.
However, Peter Stuart, head of finance and ICT at Mid Sussex District Council and president of the Society of District Council Treasurers, welcomed the move.
He told Room151: “I think in principle the reduction in data collection has to be a good thing.
“Authorities can of course continue to collect the data if that would assist them in making policy decisions.
“Looking at the data sets that are due to be deleted I can’t see any obvious issues – the deletion of the parish information is intriguing though, given the issues over the passing-on of the notional Council Tax Reduction Scheme monies.”
In 2010 the DCLG set in place new arrangements for managing down the burden and cost of central data requirements.
The department established the Single Data List as a comprehensive catalogue of central government’s data requirements from local authorities.
If the data requirement is not on the list, local authorities are under no obligation to collect or send it to central departments.
The current consultation closes on 19 September 2014.