In another first for transparency within the public sector, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has commissioned a Data Dashboard for London – an easy, multi-platform way for Londoners to view real-time or most recent data on the state of the capital on any given day.
Boosting his already successful and landmark Datastore, the Data Dashboard will publish up-to-date online data from the GLA Group and partners on a range of issues such as crime, transport, jobs, housing, health and environment, and demonstrates again how the Mayor is committed to enhancing public trust through improving transparency and accountability.
The Data Dashboard not only takes its lead from the already successful Datastore but also the Metropolitan Police Crime Mapping service, a 2008 Mayoral manifesto commitment, and launched in September 2008 by Boris Johnson, enabling Londoners for the first time to access crime figures online for their neighbourhood – a forerunner to a national crime map rolled out in 2011.
The Mayor’s Data Dashboard will not only revamp the already well used Datastore, but will also be found as a bank of screens accessible to visitors to City Hall, where members of the public can see what is happening, whether they are interested in the latest crime figures, or how many affordable homes the Mayor has built, among others indicators.
The screens, both in City Hall and represented graphically online as the new shop front to the Datastore, will each be dedicated to a priority area, such as transport, crime or air quality, showing trends and figures and linking through to more detailed analysis and information. The aim is to offer Londoners a true picture of the state of the city on any given day.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “I have always been committed to make City Hall as open and transparent as possible and I am clear that this level of transparency and accountability is essential. The Data Dashboard will serve as an important weathervane, identifying problems, driving performance and building trust and is the clear next stage for the London Datastore, providing Londoners with more readily understandable information on how the GLA Group is meeting its pledges.”
The London Datastore was created in January 2010 to liberate London’s data. It now contains over 500 unique data-sets and is well used. The Data Dashboard takes the Datastore much further in terms of strengthening public accountability through publishing, in one easy to view place, group performance data.
Notes to editors
1. A public data release schedule will be agreed upon involving City Hall’s Functional Bodies and partners.
2. Datastore can be found at http://data.london.gov.uk/
Metropolitan Police Crime Mapping can be found at http://maps.met.police.uk/
3. The Mayor of London's Data Dashboard takes inspiration from the American CompStat system pioneered by the New York City Police Department to measure accountability and also the City Dashboard model launched by the UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, using live feeds of information including weather, transport and local news for eight UK cities.