Closed consultation

Consultation on draft Oflog Corporate Plan 2024 to 2027

Published 15 February 2024

Applies to England

Scope of the consultation

Topic of this consultation:

This consultation seeks views on the draft Oflog Corporate Plan 2024 to 2027.

Scope of this consultation:

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) and Oflog are consulting on Oflog’s draft Corporate Plan 2024 to 2027. We value the contributions and insights of our stakeholders on Oflog’s development. Specifically, we are seeking views on Oflog’s values, the activities to deliver Oflog’s strategic objectives (2024 to 2027) and Business Plan (2024 to 2025), the current operating environment, and strategic risks.

The strategic remit and priorities, and governance and accountability arrangements overseeing Oflog have been set by the Secretary of State within his remit letter, and therefore are not within scope of this consultation.

The Secretary of State set out in his remit letter that, once he has agreed Oflog’s final Corporate Plan for 2024 to 2027, Oflog will be free to deliver that Plan as it sees fit. Ministers will need to approve the metrics published on the Data Explorer (following recommendations from Oflog) and should have sight of reports before publication, but ministers will not exercise influence over Oflog’s outputs, including any reports Oflog publishes on particular local areas.

Geographical scope:

Oflog’s activities, and therefore the Corporate Plan, relate to England only.

Basic information

Body/bodies responsible for the consultation:

The Office for Local Government (Oflog) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

Duration:

This consultation will run from 15 February 2024 and will close at 11:59pm on 14 March 2024.

Enquiries:

For any enquiries about the consultation please contact: Oflog@levellingup.gov.uk

How to respond:

You may respond by completing the online survey.

Alternatively you can email your response to the questions in this consultation to Oflog@levellingup.gov.uk

If you are responding in writing, please make it clear which questions you are responding to.

Written responses should be sent to:

Office for Local Government (Oflog)
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
i9 Building
Wolverhampton
WV1 1LH

When you reply it would be very useful if you confirm whether you are replying as an individual or submitting an official response on behalf of an organisation and include:

• your name
• your position (if applicable)
• the name of organisation (if applicable)
• an address (including postcode)
• an email address
• a contact telephone number

Consultation questions

About you section

(The questions in this section will help us understand who is responding to this consultation. Your email address will only be used by us to update you on the outcome of this consultation. You do not need to provide it.)

Q1. What is your name? (Optional)

Q2. What is your email address? (Optional)

Q3. In what capacity are you responding to this consultation?

• an individual with personal interest
• an individual as a member of an organisation
• a local authority
• central government department
• other

If you are responding as ‘an individual with personal interest’, please skip now to question 6.

Q4a. If you are responding on behalf of a local authority, please tell us: Type of local authority (free text box)

Q4b. organisation name, please specify (free text box)

Q4c. Your broad area of work (for example; senior leadership, council leader, elected member, finance, service delivery, policy)?

Q5. If you are answering as an individual and member of an organisation, please state the name of your organisation

Q6. From the list below, where are you or your organisation based?

• London
• South East
• North West
• East of England
• West Midlands
• South West
• Yorkshire and the Humber
• East Midlands
• North East
• National

Introduction

Q7. Do you agree with the contents of the introduction section (p.4-6)? Y/N

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response:

Our values

Q8. Do you agree Oflog’s values set out in paragraph 7 are the right ones? Y/N

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response:

Activities under Strategic Objectives 2024 to 2027 and Business Plan 2024 to 2025

Q9. Do you agree that Oflog should do the proposed activities under the strategic objective to ‘Inform’ at paragraphs 9-16 and 34-38? (Y/N)

Q10. Do you think anything is missing from these activities (going beyond what Oflog is already proposing)? (Y/N)

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response

Q11. Do you agree that Oflog should do the proposed activities under the strategic objective to ‘Warn’ at paragraphs 17-22 and 39? (Y/N)

Q12. Do you think anything is missing from these activities (going beyond what Oflog is already proposing)? (Y/N)

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response

Q13. Do you agree that Oflog should do the proposed activities under the strategic objective to ‘Support’ at paragraphs 23-26 and 40-44? (Y/N)

Q14. Do you think anything is missing from these activities (going beyond what Oflog is already proposing)? (Y/N)

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response

Operating environment

Q15. Is there anything in the operating environment section at paragraphs 28-32 that you disagree with? Y/N

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response:

Q16. Is anything missing from this section? Y/N

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response:

Strategic risks

Q17. Do you agree with the articulation of strategic risks and controls set out in paragraphs 52-54? Y/N

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response:

Q18. Are there any risks or controls that should be added? Y/N

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response:

Closing section

Q19. Do you think anything is missing from this Corporate Plan that would be helpful to include? Y/N

Please provide comments if you wish to explain your response:

About this consultation

This consultation document and consultation process have been planned to adhere to the consultation principles issued by the Cabinet Office.

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they represent, and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions when they respond.

Information provided in response to this consultation may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and UK data protection legislation.  In certain circumstances this may therefore include personal data when required by law.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, as a public authority, the department is bound by the information access regimes and may therefore be obliged to disclose all or some of the information you provide. In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the department.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will at all times process your personal data in accordance with UK data protection legislation and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties. A full privacy notice is included below.

Individual responses will not be acknowledged unless specifically requested.

Your opinions are valuable to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this document and respond.

Are you satisfied that this consultation has followed the consultation principles?  If not or you have any other observations about how we can improve the process please contact us via the complaints procedure.

Personal data

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are  entitled to under UK data protection legislation.

Note that this section only refers to personal data (your name, contact details and any other information that relates to you or another identified or identifiable individual personally) not the content otherwise of your response to the consultation.

1. The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer    

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk or by writing to the following address:

Data Protection Officer
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

2. Why we are collecting your personal data  

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the consultation process, so that we can contact you regarding your response and for statistical purposes. We may also use it to contact you about related matters.

We will collect your IP address if you complete a consultation online. We may use this to ensure that each person only completes a survey once. We will not use this data for any other purpose.

Sensitive types of personal data

Please do not share special category personal data or criminal offence data  if we have not asked for this unless absolutely necessary for the purposes of your consultation response. By ‘special category personal data’, we mean information about a living individual’s:

• race
• ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• genetics
• biometrics 
• health (including disability-related information)
• sex life; or
• sexual orientation.

By ‘criminal offence data’, we mean information relating to a living individual’s criminal convictions or offences or related security measures.

3. Our legal basis for processing your personal data

The collection of your personal data is lawful under article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation as it is necessary for the performance by DLUHC of a task in the public interest/in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller.  Section 8(d) of the Data Protection Act 2018 states that this will include processing of personal data that is necessary for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department i.e. in this case a consultation.

Where necessary for the purposes of this consultation, our lawful basis for the processing of any special category personal data or ‘criminal offence’ data (terms explained under ‘Sensitive Types of Data’) which you submit in response to this consultation is as follows. The relevant lawful basis for the processing of special category personal data is Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (‘substantial public interest’), and Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘statutory etc and government purposes’). The relevant lawful basis in relation to personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences data is likewise provided by Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

4. With whom we will be sharing your personal data

DLUHC may appoint a ‘data processor’, acting on behalf of the department and under our instruction, to help analyse the responses to this consultation.  Where we do we will ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of the data protection legislation.

5. For how long we will keep your personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period.

Your personal data will be held for 2 years from the closure of the consultation, unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point.

6. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, restriction, objection

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have considerable say over what happens to it. You have the right:

a. to see what data we have about you

b. to ask us to stop using your data, but keep it on record

c. to ask to have your data corrected if it is incorrect or incomplete

d. to object to our use of your personal data in certain circumstances

e. to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law.  You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/, or telephone 0303 123 1113.

Please contact us at the following address if you wish to exercise the rights listed above, except the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO: dataprotection@levellingup.gov.uk or

Knowledge and Information Access Team
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

7. Your personal data will not be sent overseas

8. Your personal data will not be used for any automated decision making

9. Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system

We use a third-party system, Citizen Space, to collect consultation responses. In the first instance your personal data will be stored on their secure UK-based server. Your personal data will be transferred to our secure government IT system as soon as possible, and it will be stored there for 2 years before it is deleted.