The Long Suffering Mrs S.

Today’s Government Connect Awards Ratification Committee was postponed – to 13th February – because of the volume of entries received - now over 180 - and time needed to prepare.


I met, at Direct House, with Andy Lees, of CommVault. Andy was previously one of Newham’s HP account team. The CommVault proposition seems attractive; we discussed possible partnership with Socitm to assist in promotion.

I also discussed the potential for Socitm business partnership with Mike Rollings and Manfred Hartel, of Burton Group.

On Tuesday, next week, Adrian, Stephen Jones, Elaine Davis and I are meeting to discuss business development, and how we take these potential partnerships forward. Elaine, who currently lives in Florida, and is flying-in for our meeting, has for some years worked with the Socitm Events Team, selling Conference Sponsorship and Exhibition space.


In the afternoon, the LGA hosted a meeting at its offices in Smith Square to discuss the further Government Connect support programme that it and the DWP are funding. The emphasis is on promotion of the Local Government Data Handling Guidelines and how GC will support fulfilment of their aims. A two-year programme is envisaged. I was concerned that this should enshrine the development of pan-Government security vision and strategy. The meeting, which included the LGA’s Tim Allen, Siobhan Coughlan from the IDeA, Philip Littleavon and Simon Norbury from Government Connect, and Paul Charkiw from the Welsh LGA, debated the objectives at length, but we eventually agreed an initial list that’s likely to develop as the programme proceeds. Mike Short, from the IDeA will be the Policy Lead for the programme, and Mark Brett, of Silverthorne Associates, the Technical Lead; both were also present. Those present will form an Advisory Board, which will meet soon to agree its Terms of Reference.

Afterwards, Philip, Simon and I met to discuss the recent letters to Local Authorities that hadn’t yet submitted “a sufficiently mature Code of Connection”. We had to agree to differ on some of the language and context, but I had to concede that, if Authorities don’t achieve the check-points they’ve committed to, and haven’t got in-touch with the GC Team to explain, request help or negotiate variation of their agreements, then it’s reasonable to write to Chief Executives and Section 151 Officers requesting explanation and updates. Philip agreed to keep me informed of progress, and I pledged to do anything I, and Socitm, can do to assist GC and Local Authorities achieve CoCo compliance.


I think the CMA’s response to the interim “Digital Britain” report is excellent.


Today was Chris’s birthday. Yesterday, I was chasing around trying to find an anniversary card that she’d like, eventually buying one at our local 24 hour Asda. It only dawned on me that it was, in fact, her birthday, when I was making our early morning cuppa. She took it quite well when I tried to explain, but gave me one of her “long suffering” looks!