Issue - meetings

To receive the Information Governance Annual Report.

The Data Protection Officer gave a summary of the report, which provided assurance with regards to Data Protection and Information Governance matters that existed within the Council as of May 2020. He said that positive steps had been taken by the Council following the introduction of the new Data Protection Act 2018 and the Guide to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to improve the management of Information Governance issues throughout the Council and to promote better awareness of data protection issues to staff. He indicated that the annual report provided evidence as to the progress made each year as well as identifying specific areas for improvements. The report that had been approved by Corporate Management Team (CMT) in May 2020 had included 12 recommendations, some of which had already been implemented.

Councillor Khan asked how service heads were being held accountable.

The Data Protection Officer said that the CMT approved recommendations included Service managers taking ownership of FOI’s requests within their areas, the nominations of FOI liaison officers to work alongside the FOI team as well as training being provided by the Data Protection Officer.

In response to various questions from Members, the Data Protection Officer summarised the processes in place to monitor Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and that this information was recorded in a register. He explained that recording and sending out FOI requests was time consuming but that there were very few malicious and vexatious requests.

Councillor Bagnall asked to see all 12 recommendations that had originally been made to CMT.

The Data Protection Officer agreed to circulate this information to Members.

Councillor Driscoll asked for further information in respect of the Table in Paragraph 6.4 of the Appendix that detailed 70% of responses being made within 20 days, 10% in more than 20 days and 20% with no response.

The Data Protection Officer said there were no general patterns but that some service areas were very busy. He would be looking in more detail to see if there were patterns when the results for the next quarter were published.

The Director – Finance and Corporate Services said that as part of the FOI process the public had been warned that responses to requests might take longer due to the Covid- 19 pandemic.  

The Chair noted the report.