Land Registry pushes more through portal
The Land Registry has activated the ability for more of its customers’ land registration application results to be returned through their portal accounts, even if the application was sent through the post.
This means that if a customer has a Land Registry portal account, nearly all of their application results will be returned online, with the exception of First Registration results and large, complex plans.
The results are available from the portal’s PDF downloads area and are available to view for 30 calendar days. Users can filter results by their own downloads, business unit downloads, postal application downloads and another user’s downloads. They can also search by title number or customer reference to find a specific application.
A spokesperson said the changes had been written into the system some time ago, but that the Land Registry wanted to speak to its customers about how they would like the delivery area of the portal to look. Then changes ensure that, while many of the processes around substantive applications will continue to be done manually, the despatch of most will be automated.
The maximum file size is 10Mb, although it is understood that this is much larger than the size needed for any existing documents.
Memset wins HMRC role
SME cloud provider Memset has been signed by Fujitsu to provide hosting services to HM Revenue & Customs from its Official/IL3 data centre. The infrastructure is built entirely on open source software, in line with the government’s policy of encouraging its use by Whitehall departments.
Tim Moody, chief technical officer of Fujitsu HMRC, said: “As HMRC rapidly moves to digital, it gives us a number of exciting opportunities and we feel working in partnership with smaller, agile suppliers like Memset helps us bring continuous innovation to HMRC projects, which will in turn drive down costs.”
Memset has recently secured Official over PSN accreditation from the Cabinet Office for a range of services, as well as direct PSN-Protected connectivity.
Milton Keynes deploys Globo
Milton Keynes Council has begun the roll out of its flexible working progamme, making use of Globo’s software for enterprise mobility management and app development.
It has so far deployed the company’s solution to about 300 devices and plans to extend it to about 1,100. It provides mobility management, a mobile app development platform and custom apps.
Milton Keynes Council’s head of IT strategic development, Paul Wheeler, said: “By enabling people to work in an agile way we’re looking at a seven to 10 desktop ratio – seven desks for every 10 staff which they share through hot-desking. That in turn means less office space overhead and the closure of one major office. It all adds up to quite a major saving.”
He added that it is possible to access legacy systems through the mobile apps.
The council is currently phasing out its legacy inventory of BlackBerry devices.
North Ayrshire adopts Yotta
North Ayrshire Council has become the first user in Scotland of Yotta’s Horizons visualised asset management platform. The cloud based solution will provide access to a wide range of highway asset inventory information.
The council plans to use the platform to for its long term financial forecasting of maintenance of its roads.
Joe Smith, senior manager within the Physical Environment (Roads and Transportation) department, said: “The Horizons platform will also be capable of taking into account multiple sources of information to produce a comprehensive programme of work and scheme selections for all available treatment types. It is hoped that the robust treatment selection process, based on the analysis of different budget scenarios built within the system, will assist our drive for continuous improvement and ensure value for money is achieved.”
The council has been working with Yotta since 2009, when it undertook an inventory data collection exercise.
Bluesky extends flood map availability
Aerial mapping company Bluesky has reached an agreement with hazard mapping specialist JBA Risk Management to make a high resolution flood map for all of the UK available through its online map shop. This makes a tool that is used by 70% of the UK insurance industry available for customers including local authority planners and emergency responders.
The Comprehensive Flood Map details six types of flooding – river, costal, surface water, groundwater, canal failure and dam break – at five metre resolution, and has been modelled in the JFlow flood modelling software.
techUK to run Digital Marketplace events
The Government Digital Service, the Crown Commercial Service and IT industry association techUK are to run a series of Digital Marketplace buyer and supplier events, aimed at raising awareness and educating both sides on how to use the procurement channel.
They will begin in London on 13 August and run in seven cities over two months.
