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Action Plan for the ICO's FOI Practice Recommendations
Issue: FOI Timescales
Action Plan
For the year March 2022 to March 2023, the council responded to 79.7% of FOIA requests within the statutory time limits. As of March 2023, the council was only operating at 81% compliance.
Information Commissioner's Office's (ICO) Target
The council should create an action plan, with appropriate processes put intoplace to ensure 90% timeliness is achieved by the end of 10 October 2023.
Actions
Information Governance Service creating Action Plan to detail and track required actions to achieve 90 percent timescales.
Action by
Head of Information Governance (IG) / Data Protection Office (DPO)
Deadline
10 October 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
Action Plan will be submitted as part of PR return. FOI timescales for new case between July-September 23 have been over 90% and "adequate" as per FOI toolkit with aims to meet "good" target of 95% where possible.
Issue: FOI Timescales - Service Engagement
Action Plan
For the year March 2022 to March 2023, the council responded to 79.7% of FOIA requests within the statutory time limits. As of March 2023, the council was only operating at 81% compliance.
ICO Target
The council should ensure that staff are sufficiently trained and aware of its procedures and practices in order to provide responses that fully comply with FOIA and the section 45 Code of Practice.
Actions
IG Service to create an enagement campaign for each directorate. Includes attending the next DLTs/SLTs to inform of the PR and sending regular emails with performance gaps to relevant directorate officers to ensure compliance.
Action by:
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
7 August 2023 (to initiate campaign)
Comments
Head of IG attended CLT/CMT and DLTs and presented ICO PR and updates across July, August and September.
Issue: FOI Timescales - Reports, Targets and Improvement Monitoring
Detail of issue
For the year March 2022 to March 2023, the council responded to 79.7% of FOIA requests within the statutory time limits. As of March 2023, the council was only operating at 81% compliance.
ICO target
"The council's request handling procedures should include provision for when a response is late, or is likely to be late at any stage of the internal processes, it is clear when and to who to escalate, who is responsible for taking action, the action they will need to take, and by when."
Actions
IG Service to create a weekly report with directorate timescales/targets and recommendations for urgent and longterm improvement to ensure ICO compliance.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023 (this date used for ongoing matters or where no specific deadline)
Status
Completed
Comments
The report is sent out successfully to all directorates on a weekly basis and has done so consistently over the 3 month PR period. This will continue to be sent out at the same weekly frequency on a permanent basis due to the additional oversight and accountability it provides.
Issue: Overdue FOI Cases - Action Plan
Detail of issue
The backlog of overdue requests has increased from 12 overdue cases in July 2022 to 79 overdue cases in May 2023. In mid-April 2023, this backlog dated back to September 2022.
ICO target
By 10 October 2023 the backlog should be eliminated.
Action
IG Service creating Action Plan to detail and track required actions to clear backlog - Action Plan will be updated to provide up to date progress of backlog.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023 for final action plan
Status
Completed
Comments
The backlog has been entirely cleared with 0 cases as of week ending 8 October 23.
Issue: Overdue FOI Cases - Service Engagement
Detail of issue
The backlog of overdue requests has increased from 12 overdue cases in July 2022 to 79 overdue cases in May 2023. In mid-April 2023, this backlog dated back to September 2022.
ICO target
By 10 October 2023 the backlog should be eliminated.
Actions
IG Service to create an enagement campaign for each directorate. This includes attending the next DLTs/SLTs to inform of the PR and sending regular emails to the officers with overdue cases along with management.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
7 August 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
Head of IG attended CLT/CMT and DLTs and presented ICO PR and updates across July, August and September.
Issue: Overdue FOI Cases - Reports, Targets and Improvement Monitoring
Detail of issue
The backlog of overdue requests has increased from 12 overdue cases in July 2022 to 79 overdue cases in May 2023. In mid-April 2023, this backlog dated back to September 2022.
ICO target
By 10 October 2023 the backlog should be eliminated.
Actions
IG Service to create a weekly report with directorate timescales/targets and recommendations for urgent and longterm improvement to ensure ICO compliance.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
7 August 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
The report is sent out successfully to all directorates on a weekly basis and has done so consistently over the 3 month PR period. This will continue to be sent out at the same weekly frequency on a permanent basis due to the additional oversight and accountability it provides.
Issue: Lessons Learned - Exercise
Detail of issue
This action plan should be supported by a ‘lessons learned’ exercise, which examines the root cause of delays from allocation through to clearance at different stages, with mitigations for any recurring problems addressed specifically in the plan. The Commissioner also recommends that this action plan is published on the council’s website for full transparency about the improvements it is making.
ICO target
By 10 October 2023 the lessons learned exercise should be completed and documented.
Actions
IG Service to create a lessons learned document through the journey of this Action Plan to document some of the key lessons learned through the 3 month journey fo the PR as well as detail the mitigations discovered and implemented.
Learning Lessons: July to September 2023 is published on the website.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023
Status
Completed
Issue: Lessons Learned - Publication of annual stats
Detail of issue
In accordance with part 8.5 of the Code, the council should publish details of its performance on handling requests for information under FOIA and make these easily accessible on its website.
ICO target
The informationshould include:
- The number of requests received during the period
- The number of the received requests that have not yet been processed
- The number of the received requests that wereprocessed in full (including numbers for those that were met within the statutory deadline, those where the deadline was extended and those where the processing took longer than the statutory deadline)
- The number of requests where the information was granted in full
- The number of requests where the information was refused in full
- The number of requests where the information was granted in part and refused in part
- The number of requests received that have been referred for internal review (this needs only reporting annually).
Actions
IG Service to ensure publication of annual stats on website - at the moment the plan is to update them on a monthly basis if this is not significantly more onerous than annual.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
7 August 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
FOI Stats 2023
Issue: Lessons Learned - Guidance of when response is late or likely to be late
Detail of issue
In accordance with part 8.5 of the Code, the council should publish details of its performance on handling requests for information under FOIA and make these easily accessible on its website.
ICO target
The council’s request handling procedures should include provision for when a response is late, or is likely to be late at any stage of the internal processes, it is clear when and to who to escalate, who is responsible for taking action, the action they will need to take, and by when.
Actions
The weekly reports address this from a notification perspective and the IG service will draft specific guidance/procedures for these types of cases to avoid and mitigate late responses.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
A message with instructions has been added to all live cases on icasework to ensure all casework staff are aware of the procedure of who to escalate to for any cases that are likely to be late/late and what actions they need to take.
Issue: Lessons Learned - Staff Training And Strategic Support
Detail of issue
In accordance with part 8.5 of the Code, the council should publish details of its performance on handling requests for information under FOIA and make these easily accessible on its website.
ICO target
The council should ensure that staff are sufficiently trained and aware of its procedures and practices in order to provide responses that fully comply with FOIA and the section 45 Code of Practice.
Actions
Overall training compliance high across the council with IG service to provide specific guidance and training to casework officers/services
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
The LA has general mandatory FOI etraining which has been completed by vast majority of council staff as of October 23. This training details the procedures/practices and in addition to this the IG has been providing direct service to service guidance and training.
Following the submission of the PR, the IG service will continue to offer specific FOI training to casework staff as per the ICO toolkit recommendation. Ad-hoc updates are delivered via team meetings and the Strategic Information Governance Board.
Issue: Additional Recommendations - Procedures In Place To Record And Access To Official Records
Detail of issue
ICO PR recommendaiton of steps to be taken
ICO target
In relation to part 4 of the code, the council shouldensure it has appropriate procedures in place to bothrecord and have access to official records. This is necessary to meet its obligations and respond fully, accurately and appropriately to information requests.
Actions
N/A
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
N/A
Status
Completed
Comments
Appropriate procedures already in place - hence approx 80 percent timeline performance before ICO PR consistently. The main issues found in learning exercise were adherence and oversight of ensuring the implementation of casework protocols.
Issue: Additional Recommendations - Requests Are Responsed To In A Timely Manner Including Casework From ICO
Detail of issue
ICO PR recommendaiton of steps to be taken
ICO target
The council should ensure that requests for information are responded to in a timely manner. When chased to issue responses by the Commissioner’s case officers, the council should respond in a timely and appropriate manner.
Actions
Ensure timely responses across casework and ICO casework generally.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
The FOI timelines exercise and improvement have worked to ensure timely responses and the DPO and IG team were asked to collate previous ICO decision notices re timelinesss to ensure awareness and to generally respond in a timely manner to ICO casework
Issue: Additional Recommendations - Request Handling Does Not Fall If Depature Of Key Staff
Detail of issue
ICO PR recommendaiton of steps to be taken.
ICO target
The council should ensure that its information rights training is sufficient to ensure that it has adequate coverage in place. In particular, it should ensure that request handling times do not fall below a compliant level in the event of the departure of key staff. members.
Actions
Mitigation protocols should be in place. Icasework system does not show when an individual is away from work or has left organisation. Protocol to be developed to show monitoring of key staff outside of system.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023
Status
Completed
Comments
Weekly reports are sent externally to the system which shows individuals outlook statuses and sends back out of office responses directly back to IG officer staff so that they are aware of individuals who are not available. This creates a safety net that was not previously present and addresses this issue.
Issue: Additional Recommendations - Use Self-assessment Toolkit
Detail of issue
ICO PR recommendation of steps to be taken.
ICO target
The council should use the Commissioner’s FOI selfassessment toolkit to improve its timeliness compliance.
Actions
Refer and to use toolkit throughout exercise.
Action by
Head of IG/DPO
Deadline
10 October 2023
Status
Completed