In its report of last year on the Communities and Local Government's Departmental Annual Report 2007 (HC 170, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215037978) the Committee commented on the particular nature of the Department's work: on its unusual reliance for the achievement of the goals Government has set it on a plethora of other Departments, agencies, non-departmental bodies, local authorities and other stakeholders; on the long, devolved delivery chains by which those goals therefore have to be delivered; and on the skills of influence, brokering and negotiation which are required to achieve them. In this Report the Committee assesses the progress made since last. The most recent Cabinet Office Capability Review concludes that there has been a positive "direction of travel" for CLG in that period, but the Committee concludes that there is still some way to go before CLG can be said to be performing at the highest achievable level of effectiveness. The Department's overall performance against its Public Service Agreement targets is likewise moving in the right direction but still short of full effectiveness. Achievement of efficiency targets is applauded. Finally, the report considers examples of particular policies which highlight some of the Department's strengths and weaknesses, and follow up some issues in earlier inquiries. These issues include: eco-towns; the Decent Homes programme; Home Information Packs; Fire Service response times; Firebuy; the FiReControl programme. The report also considers the Department's response to the serious flooding of summer 2007, and to the reviews which followed; and the mismanagement of European Regional Development Fund monies.

The Ordnance Survey has existed for 216 years as a publicly funded and managed agency of government. It became a Trading Fund, then an Executive Agency in 1980s and 1990s, and is now overseen by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The Survey though ceased to be publicly funded in October 2006, and since that time is required to make a profit and so engage in commercial competition. This in turn raises the question of whether such a dominant organisation can operate fairly in the information market. A previous report (HCP 481, session 2001-02, ISBN 9780215003812), concluded that there needed to be defined boundaries between public service and national interest work. The Communities and Local Government Committee has set out 12 conclusions and recommendations, including: now that Ordnance Survey is self supporting, both funding its public task and commercial work entirely from its own revenues, the distinction between public duty and commercial interest is no longer clear; the Committee believes that the Surveys' annual report and accounts should distinguish between its public and private tasks; that the Survey needs to co-operate with the private sector in regard of licences that cover intellectual property rights, particularly if the licence is too stringent in its' requirements, such as requiring competitors not to compete with the Survey; greater clarity is needed on what use can be made of data bought from the Survey and that licensing conditions appear to be too complex and inflexible.

This book is a historical study of the survey and mapping system of Palestine under the British Mandate. It traces the background and the reasoning behind the establishment of the survey programme, examines the foundations upon which the system was based, and strives to understand the motivation of those who implemented it. This study shows that the roots of the modern survey system of Palestine are to be sought in the Balfour Declaration and its implications regarding land in Palestine. The land issue was at the core of the mapping of Mandatory Palestine, and it remains as a core issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Modern geographic information systems technology has transformed spatial data handling capabilities and made it necessary for governments to rethink their roles with respect to the supply and availability of geographic information.; The nature of the relationship between governments and geographic information is explored in this book from a number of different conceptual positions with reference to the experiences of Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and the United States and particularly with respect to the development of national geographic information strategies.; The book examines the role that can be played both directly through a variety of policy initiatives and also indirectly because of the extent to which they create the broader institutional context within which these are developed and implemented. The discussion is divided into three main parts. The first of these considers what is Special About Geographic Information And Evaluates The Notion Of geographic information from four different standpoints - as a resource, a commodity, an asset and an infrastructure.; The second part presents the findings from four case studies of national geographic information strategies, while the final section evaluates these experiences with a view to identifying what general lessons can be learnt from them.