Update 21 September 2023:

This blog post is deprecated, as the LGA has provided revised copies of the disclosures following an internal review. Please see my more recent post for information on the revised disclosures.

Background

The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) is a company limited by guarantee, controlled by the Local Government Association, that provides improvement support to local authorities in England.

Among other things, IDeA is joint owner (with Ordnance Survey) of GeoPlace, the entity responsible for central management of address and street data in the UK.

For many years, IDeA had its own website at idea.gov.uk. However, that site was closed in 2012. In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to find public information about IDeA's activities.

IDeA is governed by a Company Board that meets several times a year. Papers of Company Board meetings were published on the LGA website up until January 2020. Those papers were removed the day after I tweeted some information from draft minutes about a funding deal to "open up" address and street identifiers.

Currently, the LGA website publishes dates of IDeA Company Board meetings, but no minutes or papers.

FOI request and ICO decision notice

In February this year, I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the LGA for agendas and minutes of any meeting of the IDeA Company Board held or scheduled to be held from July 2020 to date. My request included any papers, action logs, presentations, or attachments circulated to attendees with the minutes or for the purposes of their participation in the meetings.

In March, the LGA notified me that it was extending the period for response to my request, as it needed more time to consider application of the public interest test to exemptions that it considered might apply to some of the information within scope of my request.

I chased the LGA a couple of times and then, in May, submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office. The ICO sent the LGA a letter. When that did not produce a substantive response, the ICO served the LGA with a decision notice, finding that the LGA has failed to complete its deliberations on the balance of the public interest within a reasonable time and had therefore breached section 17(3) of the FOI Act.

I received a substantive response from the LGA earlier this week, more than four months after I submitted my request.

The LGA's response

The LGA response consists of a cover letter and an information disclosure in the form of nine PDFs, each containing papers for a meeting of the IDeA Company Board.

I've summarised the contents of each of the PDFs below, with links. You can also download all of the documents in a single zip file:

2023 FOI request for IDeA Board papers.zip (114 MB)

The PDFs total 848 pages. However, many of the papers and agenda items have been redacted in their entirety.

The LGA has included several papers that have subsequently been published elsewhere, including a copy of the Redmond Review report and the LGA's annual financial statements for 2020/21 and 2021/22. (The LGA has, nevertheless, applied redactions to those papers.)

The LGA's redactions are based on various FOI exemptions related to health and safety, personal information, predudice to effective conduct of public affairs, information provided in confidence, legal professional privilege, and commercial interests.

The LGA has not provided any detail on which exemptions it has relied on for particular redactions.

The LGA also maintains that some of the information is environmental, and seems to think I should request that separately under the Environmental Information Regulations.

I will be seeking an internal view of the LGA's response, raising in particular the broad nature of many of the redactions, the failure to apply the EIRs, and the failure to disclose minutes for the January 2023 meeting.

Papers for meeting of 9 September 2020 (including minutes of meeting on 3 June 2020)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 9 September 2020.pdf (3 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • PSAA Update
  • Financial Report
  • Update on MoU activity in 2020/21 and forward look to 2021/24
  • Care & Health Improvement Programme

Notable redactions:

  • The Financial Report has been entirely redacted.
  • An item on GeoPlace and Open Addressing - Heads of Terms has been entirely redacted from the 3 June 2020 minutes.

Papers for meeting of 20 January 2021 (including minutes of meeting on 9 September 2020)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 20 January 2021.pdf (3.6 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • Appointment of Independent Directors
  • GeoPlace Update & Market Assessment
  • PSAA Update
  • Update on MoU Activity
  • Finance Report

Notable redactions:

  • The GeoPlace Update & Market Assessment and Finance Report have been entirely redacted.
  • The PSAA Update and Finance Report items have been entirely redacted from the 9 September 2020 minutes.

Papers for meeting of 9 June 2021 (including minutes of meeting on 20 January 2021)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 9 June 2021.pdf (29.5 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • 2020/21 Financial Statements
  • PSAA Update
  • Joint Inspection Team
  • Children's Improvement Programme Funding
  • Care & Health Improvement Programme
  • Sector Led Improvement End of Year Report
  • MHCLG Grant Determination Letter
  • MHCLG Improvement Grant 2022/22 Onwards

Notable redactions:

  • A 43-page appendix to the Joint Inspection Team paper, containing a draft revised indemnity and funding agreement in which HM Treasury agreed to extend "the indemnity provided to the LGA and IDeA so that it protects the LGA and IDeA from claims arising from the JIT's work on residential buildings with dangerous non-ACM cladding."
  • Four items – Appointment of Independent Directors, GeoPlace Update & Market Assessment, PSAA Update, and Finance Report – have been entirely redacted from the 20 January minutes.

Papers for meeting of 8 September 2021 (including minutes of meeting on 9 June 2021)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 8 September 2021.pdf (8.5 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • Care & Health Improvement Programme Update
  • July 2021 Financial Report
  • Planning Advisory Service Update
  • MHCLG Improvement Grant
  • PSAA Update

Notable redactions:

  • July 2021 Financial Report entirely redacted.
  • PSAA Update and MHCLG Improvement Grant 2022/22 Onwards items redacted almost entirely from the 9 June minutes.

Papers for meeting of 26 January 2022 (including minutes of meeting on 8 September 2021)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 26 January 2022.pdf (5.3 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • Grenfell
  • IDeA 2022/23 Budget Assumptions
  • Finance Update
  • DLUHC Improvement Grant performance Report Quarter 3 (October-December 2021)
  • IDeA Grants and Ringfenced Funding Update (January 2022)
  • PSAA Ltd - Update

Notable redactions:

  • IDeA 2022/23 Budget Assumptions redacted almost entirely.
  • July 2021 Financial Report entirely redacted and PSAA Update redacted almost entirely from the 8 September minutes.

Papers for meeting of 8 June 2022 (including minutes of meeting on 26 January 2022)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 8 June 2022.pdf (63.8 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • Audited Financial Statements for the year 2021/22
  • DLUHC Grant Determination Letter 2022/23
  • IDeA Grants and Ringfended Funding Update
  • Care and Health Improvement Programme - Competitive Tendering Arrangements
  • PSAA Ltd Update

Notable redactions:

  • Care and Health Improvement Programme - Competitive Arrangements item mostly redacted.
  • Three items – IDeA 2022/23 Budget Assumptions, Finance Update, and PSAA Ltd - Update ("informal note") – redacted entirely from the 26 January minutes.

Papers for meeting of 14 September 2022

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 14 September 2022.pdf (1.1 MB)

This was a special meeting to discuss the Care and Health Improvement Programme - Competitive Tendering Status Report. The paper is redacted in its entirety.

Papers for meeting of 19 October 2022 (including minutes of meetings on 8 June 2022 and 14 September 2022)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 19 October 2022.pdf (4.4 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • DLUHC Improvement Grant Performance Report, Quarter 2 (July - September 2022)
  • August 2022 Financial Report
  • Care & Health Improvement Programme: Interim update
  • IDeA grants and ringfenced funding update
  • LGA Children's Services Improvement Programme
  • PSAA: procurement outcome and backlog issues

Notable redactions:

  • August 2022 Financial Report is redacted entirely.
  • The Care and Health Improvement Programme - Competitive Arrangements item is entirely redacted from the 8 June minutes.
  • The Care and Health Improvement Programme - Competitive Tendering Status Report item is entirely redacted from the 14 September minutes.

Papers for meeting of 25 January 2023 (including minutes of meeting on 19 October 2022)

Download: IDeA Board papers from meeting 25 January 2023.pdf (2 MB)

Non-standing items:

  • 2022/23 Finance Update
  • IDeA 2023/24 Budget Assumptions
  • DLUHC Improvement Grant Performance Report, Quarter 3 (October - December 2022)
  • IDeA grants and ringfenced funding update
  • Partners in Care & Health update
  • Local Audit

Notable redactions:

  • The IDeA 2023/24 Budget Assumptions paper and Partners in Care & Health update are entirely redacted.
  • The DLUHC Improvement Grant Performance Report item is entirely redacted and the PSAA: procurement outcome and backlog issues item is mostly redacted from the 19 October minutes.