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Britdata

Finding data on the UK for journalists, researchers and campaigners

SA Mathieson

"Open government is a contradiction in terms. You can be open - or you can have government."

Sir Humphrey Appleby, fictional permanent secretary of the Department of Administrative Affairs, reflecting the opinions of many real people in government

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About

About

About the Book

A wealth of data is available on the UK, its people, economy, government and public services, hidden only by the fact you have to know where to look for it. The aim of this book is to point out good places to look, particularly for journalists but also for campaigners, researchers and others. While it doesn't aim to be comprehensive, it does aim to highlight a wide range of reliable sources.

The first section aims to provide a guide to the many sources of data on Britain and its public sector which will help you find stories or carry out research with them, broadly divided into open data about the UK; data on national government; data on locally-based government services including councils, police, NHS; data generated by the democratic process; Freedom of Information; other sources; and some tips on dealing with data. The second section provides specific data on local authority areas of the UK.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Author

About the Author

SA Mathieson

SA Mathieson is a freelance analyst, journalist and editor, specialising in healthcare, government and IT. He was launch editor of the Guardian’s Healthcare Professionals Network, and writes for publications including The Register and ComputerWeekly.com.

He has run data journalism training for the National Union of Journalists, the Press Association, the Office for National Statistics, City Lit in London and Birmingham City University. He also provides courses on working as a freelancer for the NUJ, as well as one-to-one training in person or online: more information here. New courses are publicised through his mailing list.

Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction: I spy

  1. About this book
  2. What is open data?
  3. What this book does and doesn’t cover
  4. Rounding
  5. Wikipedia
  6. Journalists’ Local Authority Directory
  7. July 2019 update, thanks and accuracy

Open data about Britain

  1. What do you mean by Britain?
  2. How many people?
  3. Dividing up Britain: nations and regions
  4. Dividing up nations and regions: top-tier local authorities
  5. How big and how dense?
  6. How healthy?
  7. The 2011 Census
  8. How big an economy?
  9. An independent Scotland and Brexit

National government

  1. Departments and organisations
  2. The government of England
  3. Financial data
  4. Detailed spending data
  5. Organisational reports, accounts and meeting records
  6. Data on companies, property, vehicles and artworks

Local government, NHS, police and other local services

  1. Structure of local government
  2. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
  3. English devolution
  4. English county councils
  5. Structure of the NHS
  6. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
  7. Clinical commissioning groups in England
  8. Trusts providing hospital, mental health and community care in England
  9. Ambulance services
  10. Structure of the police
  11. Structure of fire services
  12. Local and devolved government open data
  13. Health, policing and fire data

Debates, committees and auditors

  1. Hansard
  2. Other national assemblies
  3. Select committees
  4. Official auditors

Freedom of Information

  1. Other people’s FoI responses
  2. How to make an FoI request
  3. How to manage FoI requests
  4. What can happen if you appeal an FoI refusal
  5. Bulk FoI
  6. An example of bulk FoI
  7. The Data Protection Act: data on people
  8. GDPR

Other source of data

  1. International
  2. UN agencies
  3. Other international organisations
  4. European Union
  5. Open data from other countries
  6. Google
  7. Surveys
  8. Legal material
  9. Leaks

Dealing with data

  1. Fermi estimates
  2. What to do when you get it wrong
  3. Costa Coffee Fermi estimate and answer

Data on local authority areas

  1. UNITED KINGDOM
  2. ENGLAND
  3. NORTH EAST
  4. County Durham
  5. Darlington
  6. Hartlepool
  7. Middlesbrough
  8. Northumberland
  9. Redcar and Cleveland
  10. Stockton-on-Tees
  11. Gateshead
  12. Newcastle upon Tyne
  13. North Tyneside
  14. South Tyneside
  15. Sunderland
  16. NORTH WEST
  17. Blackburn with Darwen
  18. Blackpool
  19. Cheshire East
  20. Cheshire West and Chester
  21. Halton
  22. Warrington
  23. Cumbria
  24. Bolton
  25. Bury
  26. Manchester
  27. Oldham
  28. Rochdale
  29. Salford
  30. Stockport
  31. Tameside
  32. Trafford
  33. Wigan
  34. Lancashire
  35. Knowsley
  36. Liverpool
  37. Sefton
  38. St. Helens
  39. Wirral
  40. YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER
  41. East Riding of Yorkshire
  42. Kingston upon Hull, City of
  43. North East Lincolnshire
  44. North Lincolnshire
  45. York
  46. North Yorkshire
  47. Barnsley
  48. Doncaster
  49. Rotherham
  50. Sheffield
  51. Bradford
  52. Calderdale
  53. Kirklees
  54. Leeds
  55. Wakefield
  56. EAST MIDLANDS
  57. Derby
  58. Leicester
  59. Nottingham
  60. Rutland
  61. Derbyshire
  62. Leicestershire
  63. Lincolnshire
  64. Northamptonshire
  65. Nottinghamshire
  66. WEST MIDLANDS
  67. Herefordshire, County of
  68. Shropshire
  69. Stoke-on-Trent
  70. Telford and Wrekin
  71. Staffordshire
  72. Warwickshire
  73. Birmingham
  74. Coventry
  75. Dudley
  76. Sandwell
  77. Solihull
  78. Walsall
  79. Wolverhampton
  80. Worcestershire
  81. EAST
  82. Bedford
  83. Central Bedfordshire
  84. Luton
  85. Peterborough
  86. Southend-on-Sea
  87. Thurrock
  88. Cambridgeshire
  89. Essex
  90. Hertfordshire
  91. Norfolk
  92. Suffolk
  93. LONDON
  94. Camden
  95. City of London
  96. Hackney
  97. Hammersmith and Fulham
  98. Haringey
  99. Islington
  100. Kensington and Chelsea
  101. Lambeth
  102. Lewisham
  103. Newham
  104. Southwark
  105. Tower Hamlets
  106. Wandsworth
  107. Westminster
  108. Barking and Dagenham
  109. Barnet
  110. Bexley
  111. Brent
  112. Bromley
  113. Croydon
  114. Ealing
  115. Enfield
  116. Greenwich
  117. Harrow
  118. Havering
  119. Hillingdon
  120. Hounslow
  121. Kingston upon Thames
  122. Merton
  123. Redbridge
  124. Richmond upon Thames
  125. Sutton
  126. Waltham Forest
  127. SOUTH EAST
  128. Bracknell Forest
  129. Brighton and Hove
  130. Isle of Wight
  131. Medway
  132. Milton Keynes
  133. Portsmouth
  134. Reading
  135. Slough
  136. Southampton
  137. West Berkshire
  138. Windsor and Maidenhead
  139. Wokingham
  140. Buckinghamshire
  141. East Sussex
  142. Hampshire
  143. Kent
  144. Oxfordshire
  145. Surrey
  146. West Sussex
  147. SOUTH WEST
  148. Bath and North East Somerset
  149. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
  150. Bristol, City of
  151. Cornwall
  152. Isles of Scilly
  153. North Somerset
  154. Plymouth
  155. South Gloucestershire
  156. Swindon
  157. Torbay
  158. Wiltshire
  159. Devon
  160. Dorset
  161. Gloucestershire
  162. Somerset
  163. WALES
  164. Isle of Anglesey
  165. Gwynedd
  166. Conwy
  167. Denbighshire
  168. Flintshire
  169. Wrexham
  170. Powys
  171. Ceredigion
  172. Pembrokeshire
  173. Carmarthenshire
  174. Swansea
  175. Neath Port Talbot
  176. Bridgend
  177. Vale of Glamorgan
  178. Cardiff
  179. Rhondda Cynon Taf
  180. Merthyr Tydfil
  181. Caerphilly
  182. Blaenau Gwent
  183. Torfaen
  184. Monmouthshire
  185. Newport
  186. SCOTLAND
  187. Aberdeen City
  188. Aberdeenshire
  189. Angus
  190. Argyll and Bute
  191. Clackmannanshire
  192. Dumfries and Galloway
  193. Dundee City
  194. East Ayrshire
  195. East Dunbartonshire
  196. East Lothian
  197. East Renfrewshire
  198. City of Edinburgh
  199. Na h-Eileanan Siar
  200. Falkirk
  201. Fife
  202. Glasgow City
  203. Highland
  204. Inverclyde
  205. Midlothian
  206. Moray
  207. North Ayrshire
  208. North Lanarkshire
  209. Orkney Islands
  210. Perth and Kinross
  211. Renfrewshire
  212. Scottish Borders
  213. Shetland Islands
  214. South Ayrshire
  215. South Lanarkshire
  216. Stirling
  217. West Dunbartonshire
  218. West Lothian
  219. NORTHERN IRELAND
  220. Antrim and Newtownabbey
  221. Ards and North Down
  222. Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon
  223. Belfast
  224. Causeway Coast and Glens
  225. Derry City and Strabane
  226. Fermanagh and Omagh
  227. Lisburn and Castlereagh
  228. Mid and East Antrim
  229. Mid Ulster
  230. Newry, Mourne and Down

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