Category: Freedom of Information

FOI and Datasets


 The Protection of Freedoms Bill, currently at the Report stage in the House of Lords, will amend the Freedom of Information Act 2000 so that in the future public authorities will have greater obligations in relation to the release and publication of datasets. However this may also bring an opportunity to raise some much needed revenue. The key points are:

There will be a new duty on public authorities, when releasing datasets, to adhere to any request to do so in electronic form which allows its re-use where reasonably practicable.

  • Any dataset containing copyright material (where the authority holds the copyright) must be made available for re-use under a specified licence.
  • Publication schemes will in future contain a requirement to publish datasets, which have been requested, as well as any updated versions.
  • Such datasets will also have to be published in an electronic form capable of re use and any copyright material must be available for re use in accordance with the terms of a specified licence.
  • Public authorities will be able to charge a fee for allowing re use of any datasets containing copyright material.

If you want to know more click here to read Ibrahim Hasan’s detailed article.

FOI Update Workshop  – This and other FOI developments and cases will be discussed in our forthcoming FOI Update workshops in London and Manchester: http://www.actnow.org.uk/courses/Freedom_of_Information

How to pass the ISEB certificate.

As we leave the exam season behind for a few months with over 50 Act Now candidates waiting on their results 2 months from now we think we’ve seen enough to offer a few words of advice.

Here are Ten Top tips and comments from candidates, certificate holders & former examiners that might help people thinking of attempting this.

  1. Take the big, expensive course. You knew we’d say that but there is the possibility of direct entry to the exam if you can satisfy ISEB that you have undertaken enough training but not many take the direct route. Those that do miss out on 5 or more days of networking, 5 or more days of practice questions, and many valuable tips from tutors, fellow candidates and previous candidates who have been through the process before. Some direct entry candidates have never seen an edpac sheet before, never written a practice essay, never experienced exam conditions and this takes 10% off their performance.

2. Attend every minute of every day of the course and do the Mock Exam. Experience shows that those who don’t pass often miss part of a day, don’t attend the mock exam, leave early because they have a train to catch  and miss out on valuable input.

3. Do all the work. If you’re given a homework then do it. If the tutor recommends to read a report or look up a web link do it.  We know and you know in your heart that “the dog ate my homework” is a lazy lie. If the question you should have done in detail turns up in the exam and you haven’t got the answer in your memory banks that’s 10% more.

4. Read the rubric. The exam paper asks you to answer section B questions with bullet points so don’t write an essay. It also asks you to answer section C questions with an essay so don’t use bullet points. It tells you which questions are compulsory and which are optional. Read the rubric. Some candidates don’t and this takes another 10% off.

5. Follow the instructions. There’s not enough room in this article to list every mistake here. Candidates are told to use the pencil to make horizontal marks in the grid to enter their candidate number. They use pens; they write the number in figures, they use diagonal lines, they also write in the date, the name of the exam (which they often get wrong), their own name etc.  They’re told to put a straight line through notes and include them with their answers – the use wiggly lines, strike them out, screw them up and put them in the bin. They are told to answer 4 out of 6 questions so they answer 3. (or 5 or in extreme cases 6). In a mock exam we found a candidate who used the pencil supplied for section A to write 20 pages of longhand.

6. Don’t annoy the markers. Make your script easy to read with spaces between points or paragraphs. The last thing a marker wants is a solid block of text 10 or 15 pages long.

7. Write legibly. Always avoid alliteration. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. Spell proper and don’t make grammar mistakes.

8. Use some common sense. We’ve heard of candidates arriving after the exam has started or leaving before the end. Candidates who’ve attended a DP revision session and chosen to sit a FOI exam.

9. Don’t think you can get through by just attending the course. You have to put the work in. Reading and revision pays dividends.

10. Finally tales of the unexpected. We know of candidates who have been doing the job for years and doing it very well who have failed to pass even after 2 attempts. We also know of candidates who confused the subject information provisions with the duty to confirm or deny yet manage to pass. It’s not a lottery but you can improve your chances of passing by learning from others who have been through it.

Enjoy your exams. Our ISEB courses are available throughout the UK every quarter. You know where we are. Our next courses are in Birmingham starting in late February.

DP & FOI. Coming to a school near you.

It may have sneaked under the radar in and around Xmas but an FOI request in Wales to schools produced some alarming stats.

There are at least 2,840 cameras in schools across Wales, one school in Cardiff has 40 cameras for around 190 pupils. Just over a third of all the schools in Wales responded to the Freedom of Information Act request asking about CCTV use on their premises. That means that two thirds don’t do CCTV or worse than that they didn‘t realise they had to reply to FOI requests.

Of the 602 that replied, 519 provided some or all of the information requested while 83 refused to answer any of the questions.

Of those surveyed, 54% admitted they had not given full information about the location of cameras and times they were filming to parents.

This is neither rocket science nor brain surgery. If you use CCTV cameras you tell people likely to be filmed that you are doing it. It’s called fair processing and is Principle 1 of the Act. The simple solution is putting up signs at every entrance to the school grounds saying that filming is taking place and why. Design them yourself if you feel like it or you can buy them cheaply from many office suppliers. What you don’t do is not tell parents & pupils that you’re filming. Failure to comply with a principle can lead to a criminal offence. Principle 1 says processing should be Fair and Lawful.

Furthermore if someone asks a question using Freedom of Information about a process (CCTV) that should be part of a fair processing notice and 83 schools refuse to answer some-one somewhere should ask to see their refusal notices (sounds like FOI request to me) as there are no real grounds for refusing as the information should already supplied to Parents & Pupils. Doesn’t the commissioner have the power to issue an enforcement notice without a complaint if he feels there is an issue that needs addressing? Is 83 schools a big issue?

See the report and the spreadsheets that support this at http://tinyurl.com/78bydsw

But before we all harrumph at the standard of compliance with Information Law in welsh schools let’s ask our local school some simple questions.

  • Can I see your Publication Scheme?
  • Please give me a copy of your Privacy policy.
  • Do you use CCTV in the school?
  • Can I see a copy of your Notification?

You should get 4 answers by return all reassuring you that your local school knows what it’s doing. One missing or a long delay and you know something just ain’t right.

If you want to be more sneaky you can see if your local school has notified their processing to the ICO by searching the register of Data Controllers. You may be surprised. At a course in the North East a few years ago we had over 30 schools in the audience. I suggested that at coffee break we could get online and check a few schools to see if they were on the ICO’s register. We tried 6 before we found one who had done it. (An offence – Section 17 followed by Section 21).

Act Now has a briefing for schools on DP & FOI. Half a day at venues throughout the UK. We also have online courses in this area. See http://www.actnow.org.uk/courses/Schools