In addition to the thousands of published metrics we source from government websites, LG Inform was built to provide the sector with its own free benchmarking tool.

Working with East Midlands Councils we developed this next phase of the LG Inform story, and are now collecting local data directly from councils for benchmarking. This is a strictly voluntary process and the ambition is to, where appropriate, start to reduce the sector’s reliance on nationally published data either through collecting new data items or providing more timely access to existing data on a provisional basis by collecting data in-year, for example on a quarterly basis.

The results of the Q4 2022/23 upload are now available in LG Inform – please see a summary report.

Alternatively, you can view a rolling four quarters report showing your authority against a comparison group of your choice.

Through this link, you can view the Street cleansing metrics report (sign in needed).

The LGA Workforce Benchmarking reports can be viewed here: LGA Workforce Benchmarking annual report and the LGA Workforce Benchmarking quarterly report.

Please note that you will need to be signed in to LG Inform to view this report, this facility is available to councillors and staff using a council email address. The data will be made publicly available in due course.

In terms of public access to data, some data items will be ‘provisional’ and some ‘local’. LG Inform may be the only collection place for some 'local' data, which may make it subject to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. For this reason, and in the interest of transparency, the LGA will make publicly available all 'local' data following a period of restricted access, which will be determined on an individual basis but will, in most cases, not exceed one year after the end of the financial year to which data relates. Only if the date falls within a pre-election period might publication be delayed by more than one year, in which case the data will be made public the day after the election. For example, public access to Quarter 1 data for 2019/20 (relating to April to June 2019) will be granted on 30 June 2020; while Quarter 4 data for 2019/20 (relating to January to March 2020) will be on the day after the May 2021 election (since the date which would be one year on, 31 March 2021, falls in a pre-election period), and so on.

'Provisional' data will not be published by the LGA because it will inevitably be published by the official data collector after a period of quality assurance.

Authorities are of course free to publish their own results publicly on their own site whenever they choose. However, LG Inform will only make the data publically available in accordance with the above schedule. Freedom of Information requests received by the LGA for pre-release of the data submitted as part of this exercise will be refused, applying the exemption set out in section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, namely: "information is intended for future publication".

For more information on benchmarking within LG Inform see the following

We are holding a list of key contacts for this project. If you would like to see who the key contact for your council or if you would like to be included as a key contact for your council, please send your details to lginform@local.gov.uk.