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
The Digital Office for Scottish Local Government has set up a central repository of local authority processes which already includes information on more than 1,000, with the aims of increasing efficiency and improving outcomes for citizens.
Wales
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council and the Welsh Government are setting up CymruSOC, a security operations centre for local authorities and fire and rescue services in Wales, managed by Cardiff-based security provider Socura.
Northern Ireland
Belfast City Council has signed an innovation twins roadmap with Sejong City, the administrative capital of South Korea, covering topics including satellite and cyber security, urban mobility and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Republic of Ireland
Laois County Council, Longford County Council, Offaly County Council and Westmeath County Council have won a national award from Irish domain registry .ie for a project which supports digital education programmes in the four councils’ schools.
North-east England
Northumberland County Council has agreed to the construction of a multi-billion pound data centre at Cambois near Blyth on land which was previously intended for startup Britishvolt’s electric car battery gigafactory.
Yorkshire and the Humber
City of Doncaster Council will build a digital tech hub on the City Gateway site next to its railway station. It expects to complete the offices in mid-2026 with local artificial intelligence business data company Automated Analytics as a founder member.
North-west England
Wigan Council has partnered with personal safety app provider Umay, which can pass on a user’s location to trusted contacts, by providing information on more than 60 safe place locations in the borough.
East Midlands
Nottinghamshire County Council has launched the Nottinghamshire Observatory, which provides information and data visualisations by district, ward and neighbourhood on topics including the economy, housing and digital connectivity.
West Midlands
Warwickshire County Council’s Serious Violence Needs Assessment tool, which combines datasets to support crime prevention work by partners including Warwickshire Police and the county’s district councils, was highly commended in May’s British Data Awards.
East of England
Norfolk County Council has complete implementation of a software defined wide area network (SD-Wan) through a £1.2 million project completed last December, which aims to improve security while reducing complexity and cost.
South-east England
West Sussex County Council has allocated funding of up to £26 million to implement an Oracle Fusion Cloud enterprise resource planning system, 10 times its original estimate in 2019, to replace a similar SAP system.
South-west England
Wiltshire Council has opened an online service for those who support friends or family members on a regular basis which includes real-time chat, videos, a benefits calculator and booked calls with carer coaches.
London
The London Office of Technology and Innovation (Loti) has launched a project to support use of in-home Internet of Things technologies, initially by distributing 200 temperature and humidity sensors designed to spot damp and mould in 18 boroughs.