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