Agenda item

To receive a report from the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement.

The Committee had before it a *report from the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement.

The following was highlighted in the report:

·         The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act served to promote transparency and accountability in public authorities. It granted the public the opportunity to request access to information that a public authority may hold.

·         At the point the request was made, the Council considered how the request was to be treated.

·         Where there was concern about full disclosure or only partially disclosing because there may be commercial sensitivity, a data protection aspect, or another legal exemption applied including legal privilege, the requester would be informed of the decision not to disclose or to only partially disclose and the reasons for the decision.

·         The decision as to what information to release was reviewed at each check point of a case. As a case moved through a review or Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) case, the Council or ICO may change its position due to circumstances changing, e.g. commercial sensitivity no longer being relevant due to the passage of time.

·         The Information Management Team was made up of two full time officers who as well as processing FOI requests, managed data protection, ensured information management was compliant, maintained registers including FOI disclosure logs and assisted other services such as ICT and cyber security.

·         Requests under Freedom of Information were provided to officers for collation of information and were anonymised.

·         Reporting was recorded using the financial year, not the calendar year.

·         Key Performance Indicator response rates were reported to the Internal Corporate Performance Group which was made up of officers.

·         FOI Reporting on the Corporate Dashboard no longer appeared and the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement would speak to the Corporate Performance and Improvement Manager to get the information added back on.

·         On review, the disclosure log in the current format would be published monthly from January 2025.

·         Transparency and lessons learned from ICO rulings would be included in the Annual Report.

·         The Annual Report would include lessons learned from ICO rulings.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         Reporting would be reviewed within the team to establish how more detail could be provided to the Committee.

·         Regaining the trust of members of the public, who wanted greater openness and transparency.

·         Freedom of Information dashboards to be presented to Scrutiny Committee and oversight on a quarterly basis – the dashboard limited to top line information.

·         Members mentioned that there appeared to be three themes emerging – the number of judgments against the Council, not comparing like for like and not being open and transparent. – The Committee wanted the process to be as transparent as possible.

·         Lessons learned – what form and frequency? The officer explained that the intention was that the team would look at each of the findings and examine what they did not do well.

·         The information would be contained in the Annual Report.

·         The Information Management System turned non-working days such as bank holidays into negative data. The Senior Information Officer would review the disclosure log.

·         The review process would commence in January 2025 but may take time to implement due to cyber security activities that the team were committed to. Quarterly performance reports would come to the Scrutiny Committee.

·         Ongoing Appeals were operational matters that could not be brought to the Scrutiny Committee as it was a public forum and not a place to discuss individual cases. The Appeals were a legal process that had the potential to go through a tribunal system. Information Officers seek legal advice as necessary from the Legal Department.

·         The quarterly dashboard would show the numbers of requests, reviews and the number escalated to the ICO and how many had been upheld.

The Committee NOTED the report on the practice and performance of MDDC in the processing of FOI and EIR requests.

The Scrutiny Committee AGREED that the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement provide an Annual Performance Report to the Scrutiny Committee of the performance of Mid Devon District Council’s Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations processing.

RECOMMENDED to Cabinet that delegated authority be given to the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement to make minor legislative changes to the Complaints and Feedback Policy.

(Proposed by the Chair)

Note: *Report previously circulated.