Information Authority

The information authority was set up in in October 2006 as an independent body, acting on behalf of organisations involved in further education (FE) and training in England, to set data standards and govern data collection. Our decision-making board regulates by consensus and represents the views of the sector to government. It is headed by an independent Chairman and has a wide range of members with an interest in FE and Skills data. The board is supported by a small publicly-funded secretariat, which is hosted in the Skills Funding Agency. We own and govern the data standards and set the specification of the individualised learner record (ILR). Any changes to the ILR specification, whether it's data collected or the collection arrangements, must be approved by our board. If you have any queries about submitting data in the ILR visit feconnect, our online network for people working with learner data in further education. feconnect provides an online meeting place where you can talk to colleagues about data issues and help each other to resolve problems, as well as a forum for consultation on data standards and quality developments. Find feconnect at: http://forums.theia.org.uk/