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Welcome to our February 2010 newsletter; you will notice that we have returned to issuing one monthly communication to PLPs, specifically for Local Authorities so please continue to read them carefully and refer to the ELMS portal on a regular basis for up to date information.
BIS is currently prioritising its support on those Local Authorities that have already deployed or are in the process of actively deploying their formalities i.e. have now reached Tasks 17 & 18, before they connect to ELMS. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all such Local Authorities for your hard work so far and to encourage you to ensure that you have deployed all relevant formalities.
If your authority has not yet reached this stage, it is now critical that you continue to work your way through the Task List so that you are able to connect to ELMS and fulfil your legal obligations as soon as possible.
1. In order to manage the demands on the ELMS support team more effectively, each Local Authority who has not yet deployed formalities has now or shortly will be allocated a specific time slot when the support team will be available (if required).
Please note that this does NOT mean that you should stop progressing through the task list until then. The ELMS support team will contact you in the time slot allocated, check that you have no outstanding issues and that you are able to connect to ELMS. You can of course progress ahead of your allocated slot and link to ELMS.
2. In the January newsletter, we advised that Local Authorities consult the ELMS Solution Centre section of the ELMS portal first before contacting the ELMS team, as your query may be easily resolved and/or already known about and this will allow the support team to then focus on remaining individual technical issues.
You can find a regularly updated list of “Known Issues” on the ELMS Solution Centre, based on issues already raised by your peers.
3. If you would like to raise a new query that has not already been addressed in the ELMS Solution Centre, FAQs, existing guidance or peer support from the Community of Practice, we would ask that you please use the feedback form available on the ELMS portal which has been devised to help us to prioritise your queries, focus on the most urgent and deal with them in the most effective way.
We hope that this system will enable us to support you through the implementation process more effectively, this enabling you to fulfil your legal obligations under the EU Services Directive as quickly as possible.
4. BIS has now received returns from sponsoring departments on almost all legislation affected by the Services Directive and we now have a clearer picture on several areas that affect Local Authorities. This has affected some of the online services on ELMS and for authorities putting their own applications online, may affect priorities.
Please read the following pdf guidance as practical advice for Local Authorities:
5. Service sector licences/permits generally fall into one of the following four categories:
Please read the following pdf for detailed guidance on Local Authority tacit consent periods:
(123KB)6. Please note that under the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, Local Authorities are legally required to link into the Point of Single Contact, whether they are using the ELMS system and electronic forms or their own.
There is more information available on the ELMS portal in the website toolkit guidance: http://elmsportal.businesslink.gov.uk/media/show/67
Please read this guidance carefully to ensure that your authority is compliant and fulfilling its legal obligations under the Services Directive.
In addition, there are compliance checklists available on the ELMS live section of the ELMS portal. You will find these under “Related Documents” for both “Local Authorities Live – Mode 1” and “Local Authorities Live – Mode 3” respectively.
To note, mode 1 authorities are those who are using their own forms and system whilst mode 3 authorities are using the ELMS forms and system.
7. BIS is commissioning SOCITM, who conduct the annual Better Connected survey, to look at how Local Authorities and other Competent Authorities have adapted their websites for the Services Directive and how they have supplied online applications, whether their own or the ELMS forms service. A pilot survey of a wide sample of authorities is being conducted in the week commencing 1st February 2010, with a view to informing how a survey of all authorities can be conducted a little later and what advice can be given to ensure authorities meet their legal obligations.
BIS will make the results of the final survey available to all Local Authorities and is also exploring with SOCITM how this can be included in future surveys to ensure that authorities continue to fulfil their legal obligations.
8. A list of URLs for your formalities is now available on the ELMS Portal. You will be able to use these in order to link directly to formality PIP pages. The set of links can be found in the zip file ‘Formality List 19 January 2010’ which is in the related documents link on the ELMS live page of the ELMS portal.
9. Many thanks to all those who have so far registered and used the IMI system. The feedback received from authorities has been very positive and has allowed us to suggest areas of improvement for future versions of the system. All feedback is gratefully received at: sdimi@bis.gsi.gov.uk
Although the IMI system is now 'live' we have kept the facility for authorities to send 'test' requests. This facility will remain in place for at least the first quarter of 2010. We recommend to any authority who has not yet managed to send a test request to do so. This is a great opportunity to use the system without fear of making mistakes whilst also ensuring that your authority is prepared and ready to use the live system.
We currently have over 250 authorities registered and taking advantage of this opportunity. To register your authority and receive a simple registration form please contact sdimi@bis.gsi.gov.uk
Further guidance on the IMI system is available on the BIS IMI webpage, the European Commission IMI website and the ELMS portal.
If there are any problems or queries with regard to the IMI system please direct them to sdimi@bis.gsi.gov.uk where your request will be dealt with.
