the central clearing house belinda crowe head of information rights division
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The Central Clearing House
Belinda Crowe
Head of Information Rights Division
Information Rights User Group
July 2006
Information Rights Division
What do we do?
• Data protection policy, UK and in Europe
• Data sharing
• FOI policy
• ICO sponsorship
• TNA sponsorship
• and the Clearing House ….
The myth
March 2005: The Independent
“A secret "spin department" has been set up inside Whitehall to deal with questions brought under the Freedom of Information Act that threaten to damage or embarrass the Government.”
The Reality
ensuring consistency on ‘round robin’ requests and precedent-setting cases
providing guidance on specific cases
promoting/ensuring compliance with the Act
(including advising disclosure of non- exempt information)
producing/updating guidance to practitioners
The CH team
• Four grade 7 posts
• Seven SEO and HEO caseworker posts
• Back office support
• Budget 06-07 = £540,000
Referrals in 2005
• Referrals in 2005 = 3417
• c 8% of total FOI requests to central Government
• High - January = 462
• Low - December = 180
• Average per week = 66
• Breakdown by month and by dept in 2005 annual
report
http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi/imprep/annrep05.pdf
Current referrals
16-22June
23-29June
30 June –6 July
7 – 13July
Firstrequests
28 24 45 25
Internalreviews
2 20 16 6
ICO 5 3 1 3
Tribunal 1 0 0 1
Total 36 47 62 35
Process
• Dept uses referral form in toolkit
• CH logs cases on CMS
• Allocation meeting
• Dept told case officer and asked to produce analysis
• previously formal advice
• now CH reviews s 17 draft
• If necessary advise on simultaneous release
FOI requests
• DCA has refused FOI requests for records relating
to cases
• individual cases - because Parliament created IC
to enforce the Act
• information which would inadvertently expose
national security and allow breach of NCND
Ensuring compliance
• Quarterly monitoring of
volumes,
timeliness and
disclosure rates
• Each dept has a dedicated relationship manager
• Regular meetings to review performance
• Training thro’ seminars and presentations
Evolution of the Clearing House
• First referrals: Depts acquired greater capacity
• gone from formal advice to quick tips and sharing
best practice
• Focus now: ICO and Tribunal cases
• ensuring depts prepared properly
• What next?
Commercial users
Information laws abused by firms competing for NHS
jobs
“Private companies competing for hospital contracts
are abusing FoI laws to obtain commercial details
from NHS trusts.”
The Times Aug 2005
Dealing with requestors
• Analyse requests and publish proactively
• reduce burden of requests
• destroy commercial benefits sought
• If info of commercial value
• specify charges in your Publication Scheme
• license it under PSI regulations
If information sensitive
• Protect it:
• s 43 - including commercial interests of the authority
• s 41 - actionable breach of confidence
- must have quality of confidence
• Mature dialogue with suppliers of information
explain FOI
protect if sound justification given
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