The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)will come into force in 3 weeks time. 25thMay though is not a cliff edge; nor is it doomsday when the Information Commissioner will start wielding her 20million Euro (fine) stick!
In December, the Commissioner addressed some of the myths being peddled about GDPR:
“I‘ve even heard comparisons between the GDPR and the preparations for the Y2K Millennium Bug…
In the run up to 25 May 2018 there have been anxieties too, albeit on a less apocalyptic level. Things like we’ll be making early examples of organisations for minor breaches or reaching for large fines straight-away and that the new legislation is an unnecessary burden on organisations.
I want to reassure those that have GDPR preparations in train that there’s no need for a Y2K level of fear…”
There are a number of steps that you should be doing to prepare for GDPR. Remember, failure to have completed these tasks by 25th May will not lead to a 20 million Euro fine. However, to quote the commissioner at the ICO Conference this year, “It’s important that we all understand there is no deadline. 25th May is not the end. It is the beginning.”
Raising awareness about GDPR at all levels. Our GDPR e learning course is ideal for frontline staff.
Please get in touchif Act Now can help with your GDPR preparations. We provide audits, health checks and can offer a gap analysis, all followed by a step by step action plan!
Public awareness of FOISA remained at its highest ever level, at 85%.
The Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner (OSIC) met or exceeded most of its investigation performance targets (10 out of 12).
It issued its first ever Enforcement Notices.
It carried out 15 level 4 interventions with authorities to address practice concerns.
It launched an online appeal service, making it possible for requestors to make appeals online, and receive real-time help and advice, at any time of day.
It responded to its 20,000th enquiry since 2005.
Act Now has a full programme of FOISA workshops in Scotland. If you are new to FOI in Scotland or want to boost your career through gaining a qualification, our FOISA Practitioner Certificate is ideal. The four day course is endorsed by the Centre for FOI ,based at Dundee University.
540 appeals were made to the Commissioner in 2015/16. This is a 14% increase on last year, but is down from 578 appeals two years ago.
The number of “failure to respond” appeals fell significantly in 2015/16. The Commissioner accepted 61 “failure to respond” cases for investigation. This was 16% of her investigation caseload – a significant reduction on the 25% three years ago.
Appeals volumes fell for some sectors. Most notably for the Scottish Government and its agencies, where appeals fell from 23% of the Commissioner’s caseload in 2014/15 to 15% this year (from 111 appeals to 84).
Appeal volumes increased for others. Appeals in relation to non-departmental public bodies increased, from 6% of the Commissioner’s caseload in 2014/15 to 10% this year. This was largely due to an increase in Scottish Fire and Rescue Service appeals, from 1 in 2014/15 to 12 this year.There was also a significant increase in appeals about requests made to Police Scotland. They rose from 9% of appeals last year to 15% in 2015/16 (from 45 to 81 appeals). 3% of Police Scotland’s information requests resulted in an appeal, compared to a national average of 0.8%.
61% of appeals came from members of the public. The media accounted for 20% of appeals, and prisoners 7%.
60% of the Commissioner’s decisions found wholly or partially in the requester’s favour. If an authority has incorrectly withheld information, the Commissioner’s decision will require it to be released.
73% of cases were resolved by the Commissioner within 4 months.
Public authorities reported receiving 68,156 information requests in 2015/16. This is a 2% increase on 2014/15. Figures are reported in a publicly available database set up by the Commissioner. The portal data also shows that 75% of requests resulted in some or all of the requested information being provided, and that public authorities themselves are reporting 35% fewer ‘failures to respond’ to information requests since 2014/15.
Public awareness of FOI is at its highest ever level, at 85%. This is up from 84% last year, and 78% in September 2013.
FOI awareness is lower amongst 16-24 year olds. Ipsos MORI polling also revealed lower awareness amongst young people. The Commissioner is working in partnership with Young Scot to address this lower awareness.
Speaking at the launch of the report Rosemary Agnew said:
“These signs of improvement in FOI performance are welcome. As my report demonstrates, the majority of information requests result in some or all of the information being disclosed. It is encouraging that only a very small proportion of requests are appealed. I’m also pleased that the number of appeals made about a failure to respond has fallen significantly following our work to tackle this issue.”
“Unfortunately, our experience is that these improvements are not universal. There is still a clear gap between the best performing authorities and those who lag behind. As you will see from my report, my focus still lies in promoting good practice and intervening when I find poor practice.”
In an excellent example of Open Data, the Commissioner has also published detailed information on the appeals received since 2005, broken down by public authority, region and sector, in Excel spreadsheets on her website.
Following a consultation last year, 1st September 2016 saw FOISA being extended to cover more organisations.
Act Now has a full programme of FOISA workshops in Scotland. If you are new to FOI in Scotland or want to boost your career through gaining a qualification, our FOISA Practitioner Certificate is ideal. The four day course is endorsed by the Centre for FOI, based at Dundee University.
The next FOISA Practitioner Certificate course in Edinburgh is starting in February 2017.
2014/15 saw the 10th anniversary of FOI in Scotland. In September the Scottish Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew, published her annual report for 2014/15. Ms Agnew enforces the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).
Highlights of the report include:
Public awareness of FOI is at its highest ever level, at 84%
474 FOIA appeals were received across the year, 59% of which were from members of the public
The Commissioner found wholly or partially in favour of requesters in 64% of her decisions
The proportion of appeals received under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 rose to its highest ever level
Public bodies reported receiving 66,804 information requests in 2014/15
94% of the public think that FOI is important in holding public bodies to account
In an excellent example of Open Data, the Commissioner has also published detailed information on the appeals received since 2005, broken down by public authority, region and sector, in Excel spreadsheets on her website.
Act Now has a full programme of FOISA workshops in Scotland.
If you are new to FOI in Scotland or want to boost your career through gaining a qualification, our FOISA Practitioner Certificate is ideal. The four day course is endorsed by the Centre for FOI , based at Dundee University.
The next course in Edinburgh, starting next week, is fully booked but we have places in Aberdeen.
Erin Ferguson examines the Scottish Information Commissioner’s special report…
Freedom of information (FOI) legislation has recently celebrated its tenth anniversary in the United Kingdom. Overall, the UK FOI regime has been deemed successful. 400,000 requests for information have been made in the past ten years, leading to some notable disclosures and helping to establish a greater culture of transparency in public services.
Nevertheless, the Scottish Information Commissioner Rosemary Agnew recently warned that the scope of FOI in Scotland (under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002) has reduced and that people now have less access to information than they did a decade ago.
On 19 January Agnew published a special report entitled “FOI 10 Years On: Are the Right Organisations Covered?” The report is limited to the Scottish experience, but addresses a challenge faced throughout the UK. That is, how can FOI obligations be extended to cover the wide range of organisations that now have responsibility for public service delivery?
Agnew called the introduction and implementation of the FOI Act one of Scotland’s “major success stories,” but warned that changes in public service delivery are eroding information access rights. As functions are outsourced or transferred to arm’s-length organisations, they no longer fall within the scope of the FOI Act. The transfer of social housing, for example, from local authorities to housing associations means that 15,000 households in Scotland have now lost information access rights. This affects not only access to information, but also access to justice. The loss of appeal rights to the Scottish Information Commissioner means that the public are faced with the more costly option of appealing through the courts. It is clear that FOI plays an important role in encouraging transparency and promoting civic engagement, so how can this be preserved?
The report noted that the FOI Act was introduced with the intention of extending coverage to additional bodies. A Section 5 Order allows Ministers to designate additional organisations as public bodies, but Agnew reported that this mechanism has been ‘woefully underused.’ Ministers have only exercised these powers on a handful of occasions (e.g. on 1st April 2014), and whilst it is difficult to say why they have not made greater use of this mechanism, the report speculated that lack of political will and misunderstandings over what constitute a public function might be among the reasons. Therefore, Ministers will need support in order to make greater use of the Section 5 Order.
Whereas previous debates on whether to extend FOI coverage have focused too narrowly on the structure of institutions and how they are funded, greater consideration should be given to the nature of the functions performed. As it is ultimately up to the Ministers to decide what constitutes a function of a public nature, a factor based approach can help to determine whether an organisation should be designated a public body for FOI purposes. Factors would include whether the organisation is taking the place of a public authority in carrying out a particular function and whether the functions are derived from or underpinned by statute. (A full list of factors can be found on p.18 of the report.)
The factor based approach would make the designation of additional bodies more open and transparent, and might also help to alleviate some of the challenges that have arisen from extending FOI coverage. Academies and Free Schools, for example, were brought in under the UK FOI Act in 2010. Since then, there have been some notable releases of information, but also some well-known instances in which information has been withheld, leading to lengthy appeals. The Department for Education (DfE) has withheld information on free school applications, relying on exemptions under Section 35 (information related to formulation of government policy) and Section 43 (information likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any party) to withhold information. Although this is merely one example and should not be understood of evidence of a widespread phenomenon, it does demonstrate that a tension remains when balancing the public interest in disclosure against the public interest in withholding information. Will extending FOI coverage to additional bodies simply lead to greater use of exemptions? Or will the factor based approach help to clarify which functions should be covered and why?
There is no straightforward answer to these questions, but the report suggested that support for newly designated bodies can help to ensure smoother implementation. Likewise, the public will need support as the gaps and inconsistencies created by changing models of service delivery has led to some confusion over which rights they hold. After all, as page 9 of the report says, ‘the existence of a right is one thing; making it straightforward to use is something else entirely.’
Act Now Training is pleased to report that it has completed a very successful first year of delivering the Practitioner Certificate in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Four courses were delivered in 2013 with very strong candidates from a variety of backgrounds:
The overall pass rate was 94% with over a third of delegates obtaining a distinction (over 80%). 72% of delegates scored above 65% in the final assessment. The delegate feedback has been extremely positive. All said they enjoyed the course and felt that they would be able to apply the skills learnt on the course in the workplace to improve their efficiency in dealing with FOISA requests. (Read a successful candidate’s observations here.)
Commenting on the first year of delivering the course, Tim Turner said:
“I’ve enjoyed writing and delivering this course. The results have been encouraging and also demonstrate clearly the high level of expertise in Scottish Public bodies. I am also pleased that the course project element has enabled individuals to achieve very high marks and well deserved distinctions. I think that this style of qualification is better suited to the way of working within Scottish Public Bodies managing Freedom of Information.”
More of Tim’s views on the course can be read here.
The course is endorsed by the Centre for FOI based at Dundee University. The Chair of the independent Exam Board , Professor Kevin Dunion (formerly the Scottish Information Commissioner and now the Executive Director of the Centre for FOI) says in the course review report:
“I’m pleased to be able to participate in the review of the first year of this groundbreaking new course designed for Scottish FOI practitioners. Having reviewed the syllabus, the examination process and the first year’s results I am happy to continue to endorse Act Now’s Practitioner Certificate in FOISA for another year. The quality of the delegates, as evidenced by the high grades, augurs well for FOI in Scotland. In particular, I am pleased at Act Now’s initiative to include practical elements in the course. This clearly provides direct benefits for public authorities, by improving the ability of practitioners to deal with complex information requests.”
With more bodies being made subject to FOISA on 1st April 2014, we are confident that the Act Now Practitioner Certificate in FOISA will soon become the qualification of choice for FOISA professionals in Scotland.
Our next course is in May in Edinburgh. Interested? Have a go at the FOISA test.
