New Local Digital Coalition goes live

The new Local Digital Coalition is now up and running following the closure of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Local Digital Programme at the end of March.

According to a statement released by the new set-up, the coalition’s five key projects for the next 12 months are:

• Developing a Blue Badge Eligibility Checker
• Building DVLA APIs for local government to enable councils to verify registered owners of vehicles for taxi licensing and parking permit services
• Extending the GOV.UK Verify to local authorities
• Rolling out integrated care record standards
• Creating common data standards for local waste

Partners in the new coalition include LocalGovDigital, Socitm, the Local CIO Council (LCIOC), SOLACE, iNetwork and iStand.

The coalition has also revealed that a starter secretariat for the coalition will be provided by the London Borough of Camden for one year.

The coalition has published an action plan, which can be viewed here, while Socitm, SOLACE, LGA and LCIOC are preparing a ‘Digital Leadership Manifesto’ in time for the Better Connected Live event in May 2016.