MOJ/ICO Liaison Meeting Thursday 20February 2008

11.30am-2pm at Selborne House, Victoria Street

Attendees

Ministry of Justice (MOJ)

Belinda Crowe – chair (BC)
Nicola Westmore (NW)
Mark Farrow (MF)
Lawrence Fiddler (LF) /

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Richard Thomas (RJT)
Simon Entwisle (SE)
David Smith (DAS)
Graham Smith (GS)
David Reynolds (DR)
  1. Introduction and apologies

1.1.There were no apologies. Lawrence Fiddler was introduced and welcomed to the meeting.

  1. Minutes and action points from the meeting of the 8 November 2007
  2. The minutes of the last meeting were agreed.
  3. Action points 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10 are complete.
  4. In respect of action point 3: NW to do further work on the MoJ/ICO communications grid and circulate. Still some work outstanding but should be circulated soon.
  5. For action point 5: ICO to see draft Cabinet papers, MF to liaise with Graham Smith. Progressing, meeting took place with cabinet committee in November.
  6. For action point 8: MF to liaise with PB, SE providing detailed feedback on ICO/MOJ framework agreement. – Feedback will be sent in the near future.
  7. For action point 9: Framework agreement to be signed off by next liaison meeting – This item is still outstanding and should be brought to the next liaison meeting.
  8. For action point 11: MoJ will provide to ICO on whether the requirement for the ICO to be a party to all appeals is in primary legislation – This action point is still outstanding but work with the Information Tribunal is progressing.
  1. Third quarter ICO performance figures
  2. Simon Entwisle provided feedback on ICO performance covering the period from October to December 2007.
  3. Handoff procedures between CAD and the Customer Service team (CST) are being reviewed; the aim being to get early resolution to certain types of cases and allow a more thorough investigation of others. Also in cases needing enforcement action, CAD teams are taking their action further before involving the remedies team in the Regulatory Action Division (RAD). This partly explained the reduction in the referral of data protection cases from CAD to RAD.
  4. There has been a significant increase in the volume of calls taken by CST due to the increased profile for the ICO following recent security breaches of the data protection. The ICO web page was updated to include developments regarding reported breaches.
  5. FoI complaints remain above predictions for the year as a whole, but decreased during the last quarter of 2007.
  6. Simon Entwisle went in to detail as to how the volume of FoI complaints were managed but there is also concern that the more complex FoI complaints can take two years or over to complete.
  7. Increased resourcing will allow for FoI enforcement to reach its full staffing complement. There will then be more scope for enforcement action to be taken.
  8. Mark Farrow informed the ICO of changes being introduced to the clearing house which will hopefully clear up some of the less demanding FoI complaints.

Action point 1: Mark Farrow to contact Steve Wood to share thoughts on clearing FoI complaints.

3.8.MoJ were informed that the recruitment of Assistant Commissioner’s for the Wilmslow office and for the Northern Ireland office was unresolved.

3.9.Notification fee income is on target.

  1. Third quarter expenditure report
  2. Simon gave feedback that there would be no need to request an increase in end of year flexibility to carry forward expenditure.
  3. The staff pay deal has been agreed and should be ready to pay in March.
  4. The special payments covered in the report relate to payments made to legal advisors.
  1. Issues arising from ICO growth
  2. The immediate issue facing the ICO is spot checking on government departments.
  3. New statutory powers and penalties are not likely to be implemented soon but the ICO is looking at changes and a consultation exercise is being carried out.
  4. Management Board in January identified that to meet the expectations of proposed legislation the ICO is likely to require an increase in staff. To cater for this the ICO needs to have strategies in place for identifying future IS requirements, the recruitment and retention of staff and a suitable strategy to accommodate extra staff.
  5. Belinda Crowe felt it would be helpful to have a timeline of events for implementing the ICO’s new powers.

Action point 2: Upon completion of the Data Protection new powers and penalties consultation paper, the ICO will provide a planning timeline for implementing the new powers and penalties.

5.5.A strategy is being drawn up for FoI issues. The plan will include an expansion of work currently done in promoting good practice and enforcement.

  1. Human Resources Issues
  2. The ICO have introduced a new competency based performance and development system which is being implemented for the current appraisal year.
  3. Nobody was recruited for Assistant Commissioner’s vacancies. The possibility of using staff on secondment from other government departments to fill senior complaints officer posts was discussed.
  1. Risk Register
  2. New risks have been added to the risk register as interim measures to cover adequacy of resources for expanding DP and FoI work. The risk register will need to reflect progress and cover risks with implementing the requirements of new legislation.

Action point 3: Secretariatto provide MoJ with a full copy of the risk register once the quarterly review is complete.

  1. FoI and DP updates
  2. The number of FoI cases going to tribunal appeared to have steadied but there is no certainty whether this will be the trend for the future. The costs of representation at tribunals will be kept under review during the course of the year and could depend on any changes made to the Information Tribunal rules.
  3. For Data Protection, new legislation could include an obligation to report significant breaches of the Data Protection Act to the ICO. It was noted that breach management guidance is being prepared on how to stop breaches occurring, and on what individuals can do to protect them if and when a breach does occur.
  4. This year will see the publication of the Thomas / Walport Data Sharing Review and the Gus O’Donnell report into Governmental Data Handling.
  5. The Privacy Impact Assessment tool was launched in December last year. The MoJ will be recommending the use of this tool to other government departments.
  1. Communications and external relations update
  2. MoJ were provided with a report updating summarising current issues facing the Communications and external relations team over the period from October to December.
  1. Date of next liaison meeting and any other business
  2. The next liaison meeting will be held on the 24 July at 1pm in Selbourne House.

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