A supplementary edition of nations and regions news, which appears in Socitm’s annual magazine, In Our View, with recent stories from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and every region of England.
Scotland
Glasgow City Council has restored some of the online services it took down after a cyber incident on 19 June. It says there is no evidence of data being encrypted or stolen but will assume this may be the case until it has completed investigations.
Wales
Carmarthenshire County Council, along with local NHS and education providers, will gain improved connectivity through a £3.5 million contract awarded to ITS as part of Swansea Bay City Deal’s Digital Infrastructure Programme.
Northern Ireland
Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council has launched a physical and digital ‘Shop ABC’ gift card that can only be spent with businesses registered in its area with more than 150 accepting the card so far.
Republic of Ireland
Dublin City Council helped run the first Dublin Tech Week, aimed at innovators, technology leaders, creative people and educators, with more than 30 events held in the last week of May on topics including artificial intelligence (AI), smart cities and cybersecurity.
North-east England
Tees Valley Combined Authority and the area’s five local authorities are using refuse collection lorries to monitor the strength of mobile signals that will provide data for a new online tool, with UK government funding.
Yorkshire and the Humber
Hull City Council has launched an interactive learning game on the dangers of extremism and radicalisation focused on extreme right-wingers. It is aimed at 11-18 year olds, features local landmarks and institutions and is voiced in a local accent.
North-west England
Salford City Council is in the process of recruiting a head of AI and data to lead the design and delivery of the council’s strategy in these two areas, as well as supporting collaboration by publishing material that can be used by other organisations.
East Midlands
A project co-run by Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council, which allows care home staff to monitor the health of residents and reduce avoidable hospital admissions, has been shortlisted for an award.
West Midlands
Lichfield District Council in Staffordshire is introducing a new online AI-enabled search service provided by Jadu which it hopes will allow more people to self-serve so the council can spend more time supporting those who need extra help.
East of England
Ipswich Borough Council in Suffolk says it will be the first UK town to install augmented and virtual reality heritage binoculars, with six units provided by Zubr that will show users what they would see from local viewpoints in the 1890s.
South-east England
Winchester City Council in Hampshire is using a new digital tool co-developed by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and Advanced Infrastructure Technology to create its local area energy plan at a lower cost than using consultants.
South-west England
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council and Dorset Council are supporting local residential care providers in digitising social care records and implementing acoustic sleep monitoring, such as by providing training for staff.
London
The Royal Borough of Greenwich has set up a digital health and care technology service with NHS and commercial partners to help deliver technology to support local care services including monitoring at home.
For links to press release pages of local authorities in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Crown Dependencies, view Socitm’s local authority press release directory.