Service Level Agreements 2023/24
Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC is the capital’s environmental records centre, and was incorporated as a community interest company (CIC) in January 2013. The CIC model was developed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good.
GiGL’s main sources of income are via business from commercial organisations who require access to our partners’ data via our data search service, and through service level agreements with organisations that need regular access to our partners’ data and related services. The combined income is intended to cover GiGL’s running costs, with any profits reinvested in GiGL resources to benefit partners, clients and the general public as per the CIC company model.
1. Types of service level agreement
GiGL will be implementing 2 different types of service level agreement available for the 2020/21 year:
Standard GiGL Service Level Agreement
The following table sets out the updated SLA fees that are relevant to all public bodies, private companies and large charities working in London. Each SLA now includes unlimited staff time to cover service provision, under conditions of reasonable use. Advanced warning will be provided if requests exceed staff time available.
| Geographic coverage of partner’s data remit | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| One London borough | £3000+VAT |
| More than one London borough, less than half the London region | £6000+VAT |
| More than half the London boroughs, less than the London region | £9000+VAT |
| London region | £12,000+VAT |
The decision on whether to increase SLA fees in line with inflation will be renewed annually. Organisations that are able to commit to a 3-year agreement with GiGL will be charged the 2020/21 rate for the duration of the agreement.
Small NGO SLA
The aim of this service level agreement is to facilitate data exchange between local staffed-projects and GiGL, and to ensure a lack of funding does not result in a detrimental impact on our collective knowledge of London’s environment. This SLA is intended as a short-term solution for organisations that employ staff and external contractors who need access to GiGL services in preparation for a funding bid, and will only be offered to organisations with a lower turnover than GiGL.
Any organisation entering into this agreement must agree that they will factor the cost of a standard GiGL service level agreement into subsequent funding bids. The agreement will be entered into, assessed and renewed annually at the discretion of the GiGL Board.
2. Services covered
The main emphasis of our service level agreements is to provide access to the key datasets and associated services that we manage and keep up to date, which are only available to SLA holders. GiGL services are divided into ‘core’ and ‘partner-specific’.
Core services delivered to all funding partners under their service level agreement:
The following services provide access to GiGL partnership datasets under a current service level agreement and valid data use licence:
- Best practice: ongoing representation of London’s data requirements via various regional and national fora including the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres, National Biodiversity Network, and other relevant initiatives.
- Best value: ongoing partnership and client-base development to ensure GiGL running costs are met annually.
- Best value: ongoing partnership development to ensure best available data are centralised at GiGL for delivery via its services
- Legislation and best practice: compliance with NPPF and NERC Act environmental evidence base and reporting requirements such as INSPIRE where relevant
- Services: delivery reports Q1, Q2 and Q3
- Services: Q4 report to include summary of data available to the partner, including gap analysis and an overview of data ownership. Report also to include an indication of the partner’s contribution to GiGL’s data holdings and running costs for the financial year.
- Services: secure and approved access to London data via GiGL to inform local, national and international research and other relevant projects
- Services: secure back-up for partner data
- Services: system maintenance and development to improve efficiency and usefulness of services
Partner-Specific Delivery
- Advice on use of data or services
- Creation or enhancement of partner-owned evidence base, e.g:
- Mobilisation of historic data from partner-commissioned surveys
- Mobilisation of new data from development control planning process
- Online species survey forms
- Data analysis
- Site, habitat and species gap analysis
- Data search reports
- Data visualisation – to provide information to a non-technical audience
- GIS datasets outlined in the GiGL Data Guide. Exclusive access updated quarterly for the duration of a valid service level agreement. All data not owned by the partner must be deleted on termination of the agreement
- Map-based outputs
- Project management: supervision of data and service related elements of partner projects.
- Project management: supervision of external consultants work on partner-specific functionality of existing and new GiGL services e.g. Discover-London.
- Training in the use of GiGL datasets and services
- Services: response to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations requests on partners’ behalf
- Working with partner contractors on project delivery
- Working with partner organisations’ volunteers on project delivery such as neighbourhood plans, management plans, informing new survey work
Please note: GiGL’s SLA fee doesn’t cover the cost of third parties’ work on the provision of training or bespoke data products and services. The consultants who provide them charge for these services separately.
3. Service level agreement period
Service level agreements run from April to March, in line with the financial year. If a new partner sets up a SLA during the year, they will be charged for a full SLA.
4. Renewal and cancellation of service level agreements
GiGL sends out supporting information, a data use agreement and renewal form in the final quarter of the service level agreement period. An invoice for the agreed SLA fee is sent out in March or April depending on funding availability.
If a partner wishes to terminate its SLA it must do so by completing our SLA cancellation form. Upon receipt of the form, GiGL will supply a final file of data owned by the partner (this includes data we have inputted for you during your time as a partner and any survey data you have supplied to us). Continued use of all other GiGL-supplied data is not permitted and will result in being charged the full cost of a current service level agreement. Any contractor licences in place at the end of the renewal period become invalid if the SLA is not renewed.