Advice to local authorities facing financial restrictions

Ribia Nisa, Team Manager, Public Advice and Data Protection Complaints Services

Managing request volumes and issuing timely responses to requests for information are crucial to complying with your information access obligations.

We know that when resources are tight, this can become more difficult. The importance of information access is not always recognised and can easily fall off people’s radar when decisions are taken about what is considered a core service.

We’ve seen the biggest impact where local authorities have issued a section 114 notice – a declaration that expenditure is likely to exceed income – and which is usually followed by tough decisions on spending.

We’ve spoken to a number of local authorities that have issued a section 114 notice about the impact it had on their request volumes and ability to respond within the legal timeframes. What we found was that the notice usually brings publicity, which in turn leads to higher than usual request volumes.

We know that this can be a very stressful time for everyone working in a local authority, but it is important to recognise that providing access to information under data protection legislation (including Subject Access Requests, or SARs), the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and other associated legislation is a legal obligation and a core task that local authorities must continue to perform. While we consider a section 114 notice to be a mitigating factor, we can still take regulatory action if you don’t comply with your obligations.

It is vital to ensure you’re in the best position possible if you have issued or are likely to issue a section 114 notice. That said, these tips to help you meet your statutory obligations will also be useful to any local authority struggling to resource its information access team:

• Manage your records: Keep your filing system in order so less resource is required to comply with requests. Review your retention policy and securely dispose of any documents that are out of date. Auto retention periods for applications such as Outlook, Teams and casework management can be helpful but must be used responsibly and should not be used to reduce the information that might fall within the scope of a request.
• Anticipate request volumes: Your performance report to senior management on compliance should include an estimate of any anticipated increase in the volume of open requests as a result of the section 114 notice. Our FOI compliance data collection template and our data sharing and subject access checklist can help with this. Factor in the impact if your request handling services are going to be brought in-house from a third-party. This should help inform decisions on the reallocation of resources and prevent building a backlog of requests.
• Internal communication: This is key to get colleagues on board and define processes that work for all. Have an open conversation with departments to find the best way forward when dealing with large volumes of information requests that may relate to a particular area, for example litigation. It’s useful to establish ownership of the requests so that they are not missed.
• Litigation claims and third party requests: SAR requests relating to litigation claims are usually received from a third party such as solicitors acting on behalf of the customer and are usually included in the letter of claim. You must respond to these requests, however, we recommend liaising with the solicitors to determine whether a full response is required as in many cases the data will be disclosed as part of the litigation disclosure process. If data is still required, it might be useful to establish scope and timescale for the response. Consider working with the department to determine what data has already been disclosed, and speak with the third party or the customer to determine if further data is required.

• Be open and transparent: Let your customers know about the challenges you’re facing as soon as possible. Be clear and specific about the steps you’re taking to mitigate the impact on access to information. Set out a realistic timeline for when they can expect a response and offer practical alternative options wherever possible to reduce delays in providing a response.

• Consider sharing life stories with customers: Life stories are created by social workers for children in care to document their journey and can be provided to the child when they leave care. They are a good way to proactively share information and can prevent the need for a SAR or help to reduce the volume of information that the person needs to ask for.
• Understand customers’ information needs: Consider speaking to customers to understand their information needs. You could agree reasonable searches with them to narrow down their request and deploy your resources efficiently.

• Be proactive about publication: Proactively publish information about your business-as-usual activities – our model publication scheme is a good place to start. You could also publish information on emerging FOI hot topics and to help you get started we’ve pulled together some suggestions. Consider developing user-friendly platforms for users to ‘self-serve’ when accessing information you’ve published.

• Share the ICO’s open letter to senior leaders: Share the Information Commissioner’s open letter with your senior management on how leadership can drive transparency and FOI compliance. It includes some useful case studies and simple steps senior leaders can take to support FOI practice.

• Training: Use our Training videos to support wider training for your staff.

If you’re still struggling, please get in touch with us as soon as possible, and we may be able to help you further. We recommend having an action plan in place before contacting us. Communicating with us early is key and it’s also important you’re transparent with us about the extent of the challenge you’re facing. We’re here to help you.