Decision details

To consider the report of the Director of Legal and Governance detailing the statistical information for the financial year 2023-24 with regard to information governance. This report details statistical information on requests received under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Council’s activity under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).

(i)  To accept the update of the statistical information for the year 1st April 2023 – 31st March 2024 reporting on the Council’s performance relating to:

•  FOIA and associated legislation

•  GDPR

•  RIPA 2000

(ii)  To agree the updated Corporate Surveillance document (October 2023) attached at appendix 1;

(iii)  To agree the actions detailed at paragraph 21

To keep Members informed as to the impact of the legislation to the Council, the type and nature of information requests and resources deployed to respond to them and to detail the form and type of information requests received in 2023-24 to monitor and demonstrate continued performance improvement activity

The alternative to bringing this report before members is to not report the yearly analysis. This was rejected because it is considered to be good governance to report such matters to Members, provides an audit trail to demonstrate to the Information Commissioner that the Council has a robust structure in place to comply with the legislation, and to maintain the profile of information law requirements, track the matters that have generated public interest over the past year to inform service decisions and resource implication within the organisation.