The Rt Hon Lord Baker of Dorking, CH

Richard Smith Departmental Data Protection Officer and Head of the FoI Advice Team Information Rights Branch Department for Communities & Local Government Eland House Bressenden Place London SW1E 5DU Mr Kevin Anderson by email to Web Site: www.communities.gov.uk request – 79192 – [email protected] Our Ref: F0004970

8 AUGUST 2011

Dear Kevin Anderson

Freedom of Information Request – Freedom of Information Advice Team

I am writing in response to your e-mailed FoI request of 6 th July 2011, which we received here on 8th July. Your request asked for snapshots of the following information for 1 January and 1 July for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011:

The particulars that I would like are the full job titles and grades of members of the team. If you are able to provide a brief job description (some of the team may be monitoring stats, some might be doing FOI requests, etc, although I know that these are fluid), then that would be helpful, but it is not necessary.

I am only interested in your centralised FOI team, not any FOI officials or contacts that you may have within policy teams.

I am also interested to know about the functions of the leader/senior official/head of your freedom of information team, in that I would like to know for the June months of the four years how many FOI cases have been undertaken by the FOI team leader, how may internal reviews and how many ICO cases.

I have considered your request in accordance with the provisions of Part I of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and I am able to provide you with the following information.

The FoI team in Department for Communities and Local Government has typically been made up of eight staff members: a Grade 7 (PB6.1) head of team, an SEO (PB5.0) deputy head of team, 2x HEO (PB4.3 and PB4.0), 3x EO (PB3) and an AO (PB2.0) over the past four to five years. The Grade 7 is not only the head of the FoI Advice Team, but also the Department’s Data Protection Officer; and the SEO works exclusively on FoI matters and provides day-to-day management of the team. One of the HEOs is dedicated to FoI Advice and, in particular responsible for chasing up requests that are approaching the 20 working day deadline and for preparing and checking the FoI monitoring statistics that are provided by departments quarterly to MoJ; and the other is the Deputy Data Protection Officer and is responsible for advising on straightforward enquiries about data protection issues and the renewal of the Department’s annual notification to the Information Commissioner. Of the EOs, one dealt with FoI advice and managed the FoI Tracking and Monitoring System until his retirement at March 2011, another manages the allocation and processing of internal reviews (ie complaints about the Department’s handling of requests) and the third works on data protection issues under the supervision of the Deputy Data Protection Officer and manages general complaints against administration in the Department. The AO provides general support to the team by eg recording requests for advice and outturn and timeliness of advice on a spreadsheet and ensuring FoI and EIRs cases are closed on the FoI Tracking and Monitoring System.

Since January 2011, besides the EO leaving on retirement a further two members of the team have left the Department on voluntary terms. These are the HEO Deputy Data Protection Officer and the AO support facility.

More recently, to compensate for these losses in staff resources and in preparation for restructuring in the Department, the FoI team has merged with the Library and Information Services team to give rise to a larger branch. At the present time, the FoI advice team within that wider branch remains at five staff members. It is the aim that by the end of the current Financial Year ending March 2012, more of the members who have joined the FoI Advice Team will have been trained to take on advice and data protection roles. The new Knowledge and Information Access Branch together with Records Management Branch make up Knowledge Management Division within Finance & Corporate Services.

As for the functions of the Head of the FoI Team, I advise the business as required on all aspects of the FoI Act, the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) and the Data Protection Act (DPA). It is my function to ensure that requests under FoI and the EIRs get responded to accurately and within the timelines set down by the legislation. I am responsible for liaising with the ICO on complaints that they are handling about the Department’s non-compliance with the legislation and providing them with explanations about the non-disclosure of information in respect of which we claim an exemption. I am responsible for ensuring the compliance of the Department and its Agencies with the eight data protection principles in the DPA in its personal data processing to minimise instances of personal data losses and breaches; plus I also supervise and check over the handling of subject access requests under section 7(1) of the Data Protection Act.

In order to carry out these requirements, I also have to ensure that I am up-to-date with recent Information Commissioner's Office Decision Notices and First- and Upper-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) Decisions. Together with that, I chair a Panel of Information Managers in Local Government which is attended by staff from the Information Commissioner's Office, Ministry of Justice and DEFRA which usually takes place twice-yearly to update those representatives on recent developments and contentious aspects of the legislation and to enable those local Government representatives to feed back any concerns that they have to the Centre.

Finally, I have virtually no responsibility for responding to FoI requests (the current letter is the exception), nor for carrying out internal reviews. Department for Communities and Local Government works with a panel of internal reviewers and reviewers are allocated internal reviews on a rota system. I am, however, responsible for training the internal reviewers up to the required standard, so that they are fully cognisant with their duties in that role.

I don't have information to hand about the number of Information Commissioner cases I have dealt with in June of each of the years 2009 -2011, but I can tell you that to date this year I have dealt with seven Information Commissioner cases, five relating to complaints about non-compliance with Freedom of Information or the Environmental Information Regulations and two about non-compliance with the subject access requirements of the DPA.

The Department for Communities and Local Government as an organisation aims to be as helpful as possible in the way it deals with requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. If, however, you are not satisfied with the way in which your request has been handled or the outcome, you may request an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this letter. Information about the Department's review procedures and how to apply for an internal review of your case is contained on the Department's website at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1384250.pdf

This also explains your right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision in the event that you remain dissatisfied following the Department’s review. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the Internal Review procedure provided by Communities and Local Government. The Information Commissioner‘s address is in the leaflet referred to above.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

Yours sincerely

Richard Smith