New campaign launched in response to Bucks Council's controversial planning portal change www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/politic... (England) ePetition: Allow Public Planning Comments to be viewed by all buckinghamshire.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionD... #localgov #opengov #dataprotection

Artificial Intelligence and legal work - a crucial case to read There was a routine court application which would usually go through on nod, but the judge suspected something was not right and asked questions, and this then came out. If you must use AI, be careful. www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...

Despite what the media is reporting on a UK #SocialMediaBan the evidence does not all point in one direction. Many in a wide range of expert organisations do not support an u16s ban but advocate for addressing the underlying causes of harm. jenpersson.com/social-media... #OnlineSafety #ChildRights

Canadian man who allegedly sold lethal chemical will not be tried in UK www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... + www.theguardian.com/technology/2... Re the trial of Kenneth Law in Canada. It looks like only the UK media is continuing to self-censor with coy references to "the substance"

Among other things, this tool is a stark illustration of how out of step the UK has become on public data infrastructure. The vast majority of Europe now has addresses as #opendata, but in the UK authoritative address data is only available on commercial terms #geospatial #openaddresses #techpolicy

Think I may have found a council using AI to assist with its FOI handling. Information withheld based on the exemption in section 43(2), but the response calls that "Confidentiality of Commercial Interests" and then sets out the four-stage test from the ICO's guidance on regulation 12(5)(e) of EIRs.

Latest #openaddresses from local government: Horsham District Council, in the South East region of England, has released its Council Tax address list as open data www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad... (no download) More councils next week #FOI #UKhousing #proptech #geospatial #opendata

UK Government spend data, transactions over £25,000: Cabinet Office, April 2010 - April 2026 drive.google.com/uc?export=do... (3.7 MB XLSX) Department for Education (DfE), April 2010 - March 2026 drive.google.com/uc?export=do... (55.3 MB zipped CSV) #publicspending #opengov #opendata

Disaggregating UK subnational gross disposable household income to lower levels of geography: 2010 to 2023 www.ons.gov.uk/releases/dis... ONS release with small area estimates for household income in the UK #householdincome #incomeinequality #livingstandards #opendata

Huge numbers of young people don't have a boss or student debt to keep them in line, this is the crisis A "lost generation" – but lost to who?

Latest #openaddresses from local government: Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, in the North West of England, has released its Council Tax address list as open data www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad... (no download) Another council tomorrow #FOI #UKhousing #proptech #geospatial #opendata

Australian teens impacted by the social media ban are getting less news: new research theconversation.com/australian-t... Yep, that's the idea. Coming soon to the UK I expect #socialmediaban #childrights #censorship #openweb #techpolicy

DSIT Main Estimate memorandum 2026 to 2027 www.gov.uk/government/p... "£36.8 million increase in Digital Centre core responsibilities, including Geospatial to fund new programmes to unlock the value of location data." "the value of" – not to be confused with actually unlocking location data

The ICO has issued a decision notice ordering Swansea Council to provide a substantive response to an #FOI request that I submitted in early December ico.org.uk/action-weve-... The request is part of my #openaddresses project The Council has now responded but it was … perfunctory

Electoral registrations, 1 December 2025: local authorities www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula... ad-hoc release of data with limitations Background www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/tran... Main release from April: Electoral registration statistics for the UK www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula... #opendata #dataquality

Latest anti-porn news: Ofcom has fined Youngtek £600,000 for not having age checks in place www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet... Youngtek Solutions Ltd runs imagefap​.com and other sites. Registered in Cyprus, so it's not clear if Ofcom will be able to collect #OnlineSafetyAct #openweb #techpolicy

A podcast interview I recorded, about FOI and journalism. The previous episodes in the Guardians of Data series have been very good, so I hope this one is too ... actnowtraining.blog/2026/05/27/n...

Is Tony Blair embarrassing himself (again), or an embarrassment to us (again)? Tough one. Both?

Latest #openaddresses from local government: Kirklees Council, in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, has released its Council Tax address list as open data www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad... (no download) Another council tomorrow #FOI #UKhousing #proptech #geospatial #opendata

Nobody wants to live next to a war criminal www.declassifieduk.org/nobody-wants... campaign with open letter, from @declassifieduk.org and @icjp.bsky.social #FOI #GazaGenocide #warcrimes #datagap

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) accuracy research www.gov.uk/government/p... technical report from DESNZ EPC bulk data (England and Wales) get-energy-performance-data.communities.gov.uk #UKhousing #proptech #energydata #opendata -adjacent

Tech expert points out privacy pitfall in under-16 social media ban www.thenational.scot/news/2613974... @heatherburnstech.bsky.social identifies "three main effects people could expect to see from a ban on young children using social media" #socialmediaban #censorship #openweb #techpolicy

'We need social media to survive' – teens oppose ban www.bbc.com/news/article... #socialmediaban #childrights #openweb #techpolicy Don't listen to these kids, their heads haven't grown together properly yet. We need to be brave by adopting the overwhelming consensus of politicians and media

UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spend data April 2010 - March 2026 drive.google.com/uc?export=do... (50.2 MB zipped XLSX) Transactions over £250, until September 2024 when UK Labour increased the publication threshold to £25,000 #publicspending #opengov #opendata

"While over 6 million companies appear on the Companies House register, a substantial fraction never trade, file dormant accounts, or dissolve before submitting their first annual return" www.ons.gov.uk/businessindu...

UK Government releases a further £102.6 million for reform of NI public services www.gov.uk/government/n... Reminder: the postcode list for Northern Ireland *still* isn't #opendata, 16 years after equivalent data for GB was unlocked to maximise re-use #publicservices #digitalisation #datapolicy

Latest #openaddresses from local government: Luton Council, in the East of England, has released its Council Tax address list as open data www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad... (no download) Another council tomorrow #FOI #UKhousing #localgov #proptech #geospatial #opendata

Why cruise ships are sailing to a phantom destination that doesn't appear on any map edition.cnn.com/travel/visit... Null Island en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_Is... #geospatial #dataquality

Bedford Borough Council criticised over AI-generated restaurant campaign image www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/bedford-boro... #localgov #govcomms #genAI Fair point made by the council though

The houseplants are supposed to have crisp edges, it's part of my aesthetic

You should close your windows when the temperature outside starts to exceed the preferred temperature inside. I can't believe how many people in the UK don't know this Ignore this advice if you like it hot and muggy of course, you do you

Open addresses: my submission to the Seventh UK National Action Plan for Open Government call for evidence www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad... #OGP #opengov #geospatial #opendata #openaddresses

If you're at a loose end over the long weekend, why not dash off a submission to this call for evidence on the Seventh UK National Action Plan for Open Government? www.gov.uk/government/c... Deadline is 5pm 25 May Give Cabinet Office a poke about #openaddresses or whatevs #OGP #opendata #opengov

Alan Milburn warns of economic ruin as young are 'rewired by phones' www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar... (£) Guardian coverage (copying from The Times) re interim report on NEETS out next week www.theguardian.com/society/2026... #socialmedia #smartphones #techpanic OK boomer

Nearly 30 illegal waste 'super sites' revealed in new government watchlist www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Locations of high priority waste sites in England www.gov.uk/government/p... Don't get too excited, it's just an HTML table of vague locations with no georeferencing #wastecrime #opendata

Reply to Ordnance Survey lawyers about Council Tax address datasets published as open data www.owenboswarva.com/blog/post-ad... New blog post, ongoing drama with extra verbiage #FOI #IPlaw #localgov #opendata #openaddresses

Is it too early to say that Andy Burnham is a massive disappointment? I mean he's bound to get even more disappointing but we can always start using "humongous"

TIL there is no "g" in relinquish, I have been spelling this wrong for decades Spell-check is still for wussies

This might be one of those jobs where you only get the full brief after you've signed the contract

Don't get in my way, I have library books to be picked up and other important business

Valuation Office has resumed publication of small area estimates for housing stock in England and Wales: Council Tax stock of properties: number of properties by Council Tax band, property type, build period and administrative area at 31 March 2025 www.gov.uk/government/s... #UKhousing #opendata

We've published our strategic roadmap for 2026-27. We’ve made it public so you can see what we’re planning. We’d welcome comments and suggestions, and in particular love to hear of any opportunities you see to collaborate or complement your own work.

Iterating the Data catalogue on Explore education statistics design-histories.education.gov.uk/explore-educ... Catalogue explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue I don't use this much myself but it seems fine, at least it isn't another Esri-based abomination #govtech #opendata

Can you still eat a baked naan bread if you forgot about it and discovered it again when you went to use the oven the next day? Let's find out How does my brain come up with these crazy and unrealistic scenarios

Not to blame the victim but I feel like the RAF knew there would be Russians hanging about over the Black Sea

Words that did not make the final draft of my legal letter: "arrogant", "bamboozled", "Chomsky"

If you could know the exact date when your domain will expire, would you want to know – or would you rather live without that knowledge?

Why are you feeding money into that electricity meter when you should be saving for a pension

Why is the UK losing so many Prime Ministers? Are we just careless? What happens if we find one of the old PMs under the sofa cushions later on

UK-based open data resource 'behind £12bn productivity gain' www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-i... Report from Frontier Economics: EMBL-EBI's socio-economic impact www.ebi.ac.uk/about/our-im... @ebi.embl.org data www.ebi.ac.uk/services/dat... #lifesciences #openscience #opendata