Audit Commission

The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) published the Final Handbook of Definitions (external link) for the new National Indicator Set (NIS) in April 2008.

In addition, an update to the Final Handbook of Definitions was published by CLG on 13 February 2009. This new document, called 'National Indicators for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partnerships: Updated National Indicator Definitions (external link)', only includes those National Indicators that have been amended since April 2008, or indicators that were deferred until 2009/10 pending further development work and consultation. For all other indicators you should still refer to the Final Handbook published in April 2008 for the latest guidance.

The suite of Place Survey indicators has also been updated with changes made to the technical definitions. Please refer to the latest Place Survey Technical Manual for the latest set of technical definitions.

Since the publication of the Final Handbook in April 2008, the Government has decided to delete the following 10 National Indicators:

• NI 12 Refused and deferred Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) licence applications leading to immigration enforcement activity
• NI 24 Satisfaction with the way the police and local council dealt with anti-social behaviour
• NI 25 Satisfaction of different groups with the way the police and local council dealt with anti-social behaviour
• NI 74 The proportion of pupils achieving level 5+ in both English and maths
• NI 77 Achievement at level 5 or above in both English and Maths at KS3 (Floor)
• NI 83 The proportion of pupils achieving level 5+ in science
• NI 95 The proportion of pupils making 2 levels progress in English Key Stage 2-3
• NI 96 The proportion of pupils making 2 levels progress in maths Key Stage 2-3
• NI 97 The proportion of pupils making 2 levels progress in English Key Stage 3-4
• NI 98 The proportion of pupils making 2 levels progress in maths Key Stage 3-4

Please note that the Government has decided to defer NI 26 until 2010/11 in order to develop the indicator further.

Additional guidance resources

The links below are to resources provided by several government departments, and related organisations, to support local public bodies in the collection and reporting of their relevant National Indicators. This guidance is supplemental to CLG's Handbook of Definitions:

• The NHS Information Centre (external link) has published some additional guidance resources for local councils on NIs 125, 130 and 136.
• APACS Technical Guidance 2009/10 (external link) was published by the Home Office in April 2009. It contains the latest guidance templates for those national indicators that are part of the APACS Framework. The APACS indicator set remains unchanged from 2008/09 except for the addition of two new national indicators: NI 38 (Drug-related (Class A) offending) and NI 32 (Repeat incidents of domestic violence). The technical guidance for the existing indicators remains similar to that in 2008/09, with only small changes or clarifications to the definitions.
• NI 35 - Building resilience to violent extremism
  A guide for local partners to self-assess their local performance against the NI 35 criteria is now available electronically from the Home Office's website.
• NI 39 - Rate of hospital admissions per 100,000 for alcohol related harm (external link)
  The North West Public Health Observatory has published further guidance and resources related to this indicator.
• NI 54 - Services for disabled children (external link)
  Further information on this 2009/10 national indicator can now be found on DCSF's website. The page includes a link to a briefing note that details the current position.
• NI 71 - Missing from home and care (external link)
  Further information on the process for collecting and submitting data for this indicator has been made available by DCSF on their website.
• NI 188 - Planning to adapt to climate change (external link)
  Further guidance has been developed by the Local and Regional Adaptation Partnership Board (LRAP) board and is published on the LGA's website.
• National Indicator Set reporting - spatial levels (external link)
  CLG has published a spreadsheet that summarises the reporting arrangements for the NIS (external site). It provides detail of spatial levels at which the indicators are reported and also the organisations responsible for reporting the data for each indicator.
• Further guidance from DEFRA on National Indicators 185-197 (external link)
  DEFRA has published extensive supplementary information, guidance and FAQs (external site) for their 13 waste, environment and sustainability National Indicators.
• Further guidance on NI 14 - Reducing avoidable contact: Minimising the proportion of customer contact that is of low or no value to the customer (external link)
  The additional guidance referred to in the Handbook of Technical Definitions for NI 14 was published on 7th July 2008. It is a joint publication between the Cabinet Office, IDeA and CLG. It is available from IDeA's website.
• Further guidance from the Home Office on data collection for NI 13 - Migrants’ English language skills and knowledge
  The document available below was sent to local areas by the Home Office. It provides further guidance on the data collection requirements for reporting on NI 13.
• NI 170 - Previously developed land that has been vacant or derelict for more than 5 years (external link)
  The Urban Areas document referred to in the guidance template for NI 170 has been published on the CLG website. You will need to look in the Winzip file "Local Authority level statistics" for LA developed areas and consult the 2001 column (for example, the figure for Hambleton is 2067.123 hectares of developed land).