Single Data List

The Single Data list is a list of all the datasets that local government must submit to central government. If a data requirement is not on the list, councils won’t have to collect and provide it without receiving extra funding.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government set up a ‘gateway group’ on July 2012, responsible for ensuring that any new proposed data requirement is necessary, places a minimal burden on local authorities, is fully funded as outlined in new burdens procedures and meets at least 1 of the 6 data principles before it can be added to the single data list.

Principles for assessing new data requirements from local government

Each data request must comply with at least one of these principles.

Central government may reasonably require data from local councils:

• to fulfil international obligations
• to support the effective administration of funding - clarity is important here in highlighting where data are being used as proxies (for example, data on free school meals being used as a proxy for need)
• to support accountability to Parliament for national public funds and national policy decisions
• to hold public services to account, for example holding government to account for national delivery
• to support the evaluation of economic, social and environmental trends
• to provide comparable local performance data, by exception, where it doesn’t already exist, to enable local people to hold local services to account