Action Plan for Ministry of Justice Following the National Archives Information Assessment
Action plan for Ministry of Justice following The National Archives Information Assessment in accordance with Section 46 (Lord Chancellor’s Code on Records Management) of the Freedom of Information Act.
Recommendations
/ Action required / Action officer / Timescalefor completion / Progress
1 / We recommend that a sufficiently senior member of staff is responsible for leading an overall Information and Knowledge Management Strategy for the organisation. / Appointment of senior champion responsible for Information and Knowledge Management at the Ministry of Justice. / Director General of Constitution, Law and Democracy Group / 1 July 08 / In May 07 the Ministry of Justice was created. Since then, considerable planning has gone into the organisational structure of the new ministry. One outcome of this will be the creation of a new Information Directorate 1 July 08 that will comprise the departmental operational records/information/library services as well as information rights policy (including Freedom of Information and Data Protection) and will have responsibility for information policy, assurance and delivery across government. The Director General of Constitution, Democracy and Law Group will be the senior information risk officer (SIRO) in regard to information assurance and delivery.
2 / We recommend that DCA (MoJ) provide read-only access to shared drives and limit the size of email archives. / Closure of G drives at the Ministry of Justice.
Appropriate disposal of content in the email archive through methodical action / CIO / Commenced Sept 07; ongoing / After a successful pilot in Sept 07 the dept has embarked on a programme to make all shared folder structures in the former DCA HQ estate ‘read only’.
Following the successful transition of IT Infrastructure services to Atos Origin, the MoJ is re-assessing the former DCA estate infrastructure in light of the proximity to adopting VISTA. Specific email archive requirements will then be considered as part of the upgrade business case.
3 / We recommend that the issues raised by the merger of DCA and part of the Home Office into the Ministry of Justice are addressed through a formal project structure. / Introduction of a formal project plan to manage the merger of parts of the Home Office and their information systems into the new Ministry of Justice. / CIO and SIRO / Records staff transferred 1 April 08; new Information Directorate to be formed / The transfer of relevant records staff and functions from Home Office to MOJ was completed 1 April 08 as part of an e-Delivery Group project. A separate project is now underway moving data from HO systems onto the new headquarters IT networks. Much of this IT work is closely tied in with the London Accommodation Project (LAP) which from June 08 is migrating 2,400 staff to the new headquarters at 102 Petty France and other buildings in central London.
4 / We recommend that DCA (MoJ) integrate training on information management into its current training packages. / Information management training to be introduced as a core- competency for all Ministry of Justice staff. / Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) and
Director of HR / Ongoing / Since the assessment there have been a number of new initiatives designed to improve information management training; a) the CIO launched the government IT profession for permanent civil servants in e-Delivery group; b) Information points of contact called Knowledge and Information Local Officers (KILOs) have been appointed across the former-DCA estate to provide initial advice on FOI/DPA best practice and escalate problems; c) this augments the existing Information Manager network for headquarters which has a key role supporting EDRM; e) as part of the Information Assurance programme there is a work-stream looking into embedding information awareness into staff training and changing culture and f) though information management per se is not currently one of the core competencies on standard MOJ job descriptions staff at Bands A to D are encouraged to have at least one objective relating to information management relevant to their role on their annual performance records.
5 / We recommend that DCA (MoJ) introduce robust quality assurance into sensitivity review and introduce a formal process whereby advice on the correct application of Data Protection and Freedom of Information exemptions is sought from the Information Rights Division. / Procedures to be introduced for the appropriate application of Freedom of Information exemptions and Data Protection principles to be aligned to current guidance and advice issued by the Ministry’s Information Rights Division. All sensitivity review of information to be quality assured by middle management to ensure it complies with the most recent guidance. / SIRO / 1 July 08 / The creation of the new directorate will mean that records staff who apply FOI exemptions on transferred historical files to TNA will be in the same management structure as those case-workers who apply exemptions to FOI requests received by the MOJ. This should lead to greater consistency at an operational level and increased knowledge transfer. Another advantage will be that staff setting information rights policy and dealing with complex request from across central government depts will also be in the same directorate.
6 / We recommend that DCA’s (MoJ’s) divisional business continuity plans consider the continued availability of vital records in order for staff to identify and prioritise their recovery in the event of an incident. / Introduction of a program of identification and safekeeping of vital records in the Ministry of Justice. / Dept Security Officer; CIO and SIRO / Ongoing / Since the assessment a number of initiatives have led to more vital information/records being captured: a) a new business continuity planning template has been introduced across HQ divisions incorporating a business impact analysis to assist identification of essential activities; the template requires planners to identify essential resources including information and consider contingency solutions; b) the metadata on all registered legacy HQ paper files (which includes a sub-set of vital records relating to policy) has been moved to EDRM which can be accessed in many buildings; c) process and contracts in place for dealing with document recovery in event of disaster; d) In line with Cabinet Office instructions the MOJ is compiling a detailed information asset register (as part of an Information assurance programme; e) at headquarters documents on the EDRM are automatically finalised so as to prevent inadvertent loss of vital records.