Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director of Resources and Housing which presents the Annual Information Governance Report. The report informs Members of the steps being taken to maintain and improve Leeds City Council’s information governance and seeks to provide assurance that the necessary monitoring practices and procedures are in place.

(Report attached)

The Director of Resources and Housing submitted a report which presented the Annual Information Governance Report. The report sets out the steps being taken to improve Leeds City Council’s information governance in order to provide assurance for the annual governance statement.

  Members were informed that considerable progress had been made this year to resolve security issues. The Council regained its PSN certificate in June 2018. Work was currently on-going to ensure compliance, working towards  re-submission for 2019 certification

It was noted that the Council continued to handle and process requests for information compliant with appropriate legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation / Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Act. A central requests team was now in place responsible for handling all requests for information.

Members noted that the Freedom of Information response times fell below the Council’s Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of 96% in the third quarter of 2018-2019. The Council’s KPI was higher than the regulatory requirement of 90%, therefore no enforcement action would be taken against the Council.

Reference was made to Security Incident Management, paragraph 3.3.4 of the submitted report. Members queried the timescale if a breach was considered to be not a risk.

Members were informed that an immediate response was provided on each occasion the team were made aware of an incident.

Referring to Freedom of Information requests, one Member said he found it frustrating that he had to resort to making requests under Freedom of Information provisions. The Head of Governance and Scrutiny Support clarified that Members should not need to make requests under these provisions as Members had a specific need to know within the Access to Information Procedure Rules.

The Chair undertook to raise the concerns by way of correspondence with the Director of Resources and Housing.

The Head of Information Management & Governance, added that all directorates were encouraged to publish more public information in an attempt to reduce the number of FOI requests.

Referring to records management, Members noted that within the HR Department alone there were over 200 boxes, containing 12,500 personal files.

Members were informed that HR records had different retention periods but in the main they were retained for 6 years after the pension period and could only be accessed by the Business Support Unit and the appropriate Line Manager.

Members requested if they could be provided with a breakdown as to how long in personal files were retained.

The Head of Information Management & Governance confirmed the requested information would be circulated to all Members of the Committee.

Members referred to the Caldicott Guardian Role (Paragraph 3.1.3 of the submitted report) and sought further assurances about how the role had been carried out during the year; (including commentary on any incidents that had needed to be escalated and how these have been dealt with). 

It was requested that the Director Adults and Health prepares a report for the next meeting of this Committee which addresses the points raised above.

Members requested if further details could be provided on the communication and dissemination of the Mandatory E-Learning training referred to in Paragraph 3.3.9 and Paragraph 3.3.8  including how the uptake of training would be monitored and reported.

The Head of Information Management & Governance said the training was released via the PAL system on 4^th February 2019, however, to date Members had not received the necessary information to logon to the system.

It was suggested that the Head of Information Management & Governance in consultation with the Head of Civic and Member Support supply to Members the necessary information to allow access to the PAL system

RESOLVED

(i)  That the contents of the report by noted.

(ii)  To note the assurances provided as to the Council’s overall approach to information governance.

(iii)  That the Chair, on behalf of the Committee writes to the Director of Resources and Housing to raise the concerns about the receipt of Freedom of Information requests from Members

(iv)  That the Head of Information Management and Governance  provide Members with the retention schedule for employee records

(v)  That the Director Adults and Health be requested to prepare a report for the next meeting of this Committee on the Caldicott Guardian Role and assurance as to how the arrangements are operating

(vi)  That all Members be provided with the the necessary information to allow access to the PAL system in order to undertake the Mandatory E-Learning training