Tellmescotland is Scotland's national portal for accessing Public Information Notices issued by Local Authorities across Scotland. Launched in December 2010 it is a national initiative endorsed and supported by the Scottish Government.
The site allows visitors to click on a virtual map of Scotland to see listings of public notices in any area, satellite imagery of their location, and information on the issues involved. The aim is to provide an integrated national picture of statutory and public service developments, with enhanced information across Scotland, improving accessibility and helping Scotland's 32 councils save money on advertising public notices. The portal is scalable and is being use by the wider public sector and is part of a major national shared services collaboration. Its development follows the successful roll-out of myjobscotland, the national shared recruitment portal for Scotland.
What are Public Information Notices?
Public Information Notices (PIN) are announcements that local authorities are legally required to publish. There are two types: Statutory Notices give required notice of an intended action, such as road closures, construction, licensing and planning/property developments, and Public Notices inform people of changes to services, such as refuse collection.
Why change?
With all the channels available to councils (newspapers, digital TV, mobile phones, the internet, online social networks, libraries as well as street notices) and organising information around the users needs, Public Notices have the potential to reach the largest audience they have ever reached. More people will be better informed. The Public Information Notices Portal is accessible in local authority buildings, including local libraries.
Greater interactivity between service users and suppliers locally and nationally, including consumers, businesses, councils and other public service providers, efficiency and return on investment in public notice advertising.
Cost savings through streamlining current business processes e.g. standard advertising templates, reducing advert size, placing notices in PINs and through cost avoidance through sign-posting e.g. non- statutory adverts on the portal.
Reduction in administration against citizen enquiries where all notices (planning, licensing, roads) are located in a central portal. Supports managing customer expectations about dealing with councils as seamlessly as internet banking etc.
Through the National Infrastructure / Citizen Account provides a one-stop registration to access a range of public services including PINs.
Why not change legislation?
Changes would be required to legislation to enable electronic publication as an acceptable alternative to the duty to publish public information notices in newspapers. In December 2009 we launched a consultation on the proposed legislative changes; this consultation lasted for 8 weeks. Following analysis of consultation responses it was decided not to proceed with the Local Authority Public Information Notices (Electronic Publication) (Scotland) Order 2010 at this time.
As part of the Local Government Spending Review negotiations COSLA asked that the government reconsider changing legislation to remove the requirement for Local Authorities to publish Public Information Notices (PIN) in printed media. The Improvement Service (IS) are currently finalising the detail of the business case which they are planning to submit to the Scottish Government in Spring 2012.