Contact: Kevin Gardner, Head of Legal Practice, ext. 7381 [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report summarises the preparations undertaken by the County Council for full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act from 1^st January 2005, and experience of the operation of the Act since that date.

2 Background

2.1 The Act has introduced a general right of access to information held by a wide range of public authorities. The principles embodied in the Act are consistent with other policies dealing with the modernisation of government, with the objective of ensuring that decision making by public bodies is more open and accountable. The Act enables people to access more information held by the County Council than before, and requires a change in the way information and records are managed and in the way that requests for information are handled.

2.2 The Act has been implemented in stages. In the case of local authorities, the duty to adopt and maintain a "publication scheme" came into force in February 2003. The right of individual access came into force on 1^st January 2005.

2.3 The general right of access to information applies to any person, which includes an individual or a legal entity such as a company. The right includes both a right to be told whether the information exists and the right to receive it. Normally, a request for access should be responded to within 20 working days.

2.4 The right of access to information is subject to a range of exemptions. Some of the exemptions are absolute eg: information accessible by other means; court records. Where an absolute exemption applies to information requested, the information does not have to be released under the Act, although discretionary release is still possible.

2.5 Where an absolute exemption does not apply, consideration needs to be given to whether any of the other exemptions provided for in the Act are relevant. Examples of these other exemptions are: information intended for future publication; information relating to law enforcement; information likely to endanger health and safety; information which, if disclosed, would prejudice commercial interests. Where any of these apply, it is then necessary to apply the "public interest" test. Unless the public interest in withholding the information is greater than that in disclosing it, the information must be released.

2.6 The publication scheme specifies the classes of information the County Council publishes or intends to publish, the manner of the publication and whether the information is available to the public free of charge or on payment. The duty upon the County Council in this respect is to adopt and maintain a scheme, to publish information in accordance with it and to review it from time to time.

2.7 On 12 December 2002, the Executive Member for Policy and Resources considered a report on the Act, and decided that the implementation of the Act should be welcomed as an opportunity to further enhance the County Council's arrangements for openness and accountability in relation to its affairs, and to encourage participation in local issues. The Chief Executive was authorised to finalise, adopt and maintain, the publication scheme, subject to the approval of the Information Commissioner, and to continue to take all steps necessary to ensure that the County Council complies with the Act and prepares for its implementation in full.

2.8 In the exercise of the authority given, the Council's publication scheme was finalised, approved by the Information Commissioner and adopted within the statutory timescale. It has been published since February 2003.

3 Preparations for Full Implementation of the Act

3.1 Following the approval and adoption of the publication scheme, the focus of preparations switched to the development of policy and procedures to deal with the implementation of the individual right of access from 1^st January 2005. These preparations have been co-ordinated by the Chief Executive in the exercise of the authority given on 12 December 2002. The key actions that have been taken are as follows:-

_ The designation of the Chief Executive as "Information Champion" demonstrating the whole hearted commitment to the principles of the Act at the most senior officer level within the County Council.

_ The establishment by the Corporate Management Team of a Freedom of Information Act Project Team. The role of the Project Team has been to co-ordinate preparations, so that the County Council fulfils its responsibilities under the Act smoothly, efficiently and cost effectively. All departments of the County Council are represented on the Project Team.

_ The development of a comprehensive Policy and Procedure Manual, which is available to officers and members of the County Council, principally via Hantsnet 2000. This sets out the steps that should be followed in dealing with an individual request for information with precedent forms for usage at each step of the process.

_ The designation of Corporate and Departmental Co-ordinators, with a particular responsibility to make sure that the agreed procedures are followed and with authority to take identified steps in the determination of requests.

_ The preparation of a comprehensive communication and training plan, setting out arrangements for communication with staff, members and stakeholders, and the provision of training to members and officers.

_ The preparation of case studies, frequently asked questions and e-learning, to guide those involved in dealing with requests for information.

_ A seminar for all members of the County Council.

_ The approval of the Executive Member (Policy and Resources) to a broad policy statement and charging policy on the 11 November, 2004.

_ The development of an electronic system for tracking progress of requests, to which all Co-ordinators have access.

_ Advice to the public on how to exercise the right of access, via Hantsweb, Hampshire Now, Factsheet 3: "Hampshire - an open County Council", and numerous press releases.

_ Direct mailing to around 800 contractors and stakeholders regarding the right of access.

_ Development of a strategy for handling media requests and a letter to all Hampshire media advising of these arrangements.

_ Winchester Information Centre being designated as the point of contact for further information, on the Freedom of Information pages on Hantsweb. This has worked effectively and has been a good use of the Centre Staff's experience and skills in handling customer queries.

4. Experience since Implementation

4.1 Table 1 below shows the number of requests under the Act received and handled by the County Council for the first three months of 2005.

Table 1:

4.2 The table in Appendix 1 shows the total number of requests broken down by Department handling the request, and the outcome.

4.3 Number of Requests

As anticipated, the number of requests received peaked in the first month of implementation. It is considered that this was due to the publicity both nationally and locally surrounding the introduction of the new right of access, combined with the fact that, under Regulations made by the Government in December 2004, there will normally be no charge for making a request for information. There were also a number of cases where individuals had been wishing to have access to information prior to 1 January 2005 and who submitted a request promptly after that date. The figures for the months of February and March suggest that level of interest in making requests has reduced somewhat. The expectation is that numbers of requests will settle down at a generally manageable level over the course of the next 6 - 12 months. The number of requests received by the Council is broadly comparable with that of other authorities in the region.

4.4 Type of requests

The vast majority of the requests received have been from local people seeking information relating to a specific local issue eg: highway works at a specific site; costs of a particular policy or campaign; internal minutes of a particular meeting; a copy of internal correspondence or strategy relating to a particular issue. In such cases, where the scope of the request is well defined, and there is nothing unduly sensitive in the information, it is normally handled in total within the one Department. Information can be located and communicated to the applicant with relative ease.

4.5 Cases of edited disclosure or refusal

The Act contains numerous exemptions from and limitations on the right of access. However, experience in the first three months of implementation shows that it is only in a small minority of cases that these are being relied upon to restrict disclosure. In total, there have been only 15 cases of complete refusal. The exemption most commonly cited is that relating to personal information, which will apply where a person seeks access to information that includes specific information relating to another named individual acting in a personal capacity. This has been relied upon on nine occasions. The next most commonly cited exemption is that where disclosure may harm the commercial interests of any person. It has been relied upon on five occasions. Examples are the non-disclosure of particular financial information submitted by tenderers for a contract, and the removal of credit card details from documentation in order to avoid the risk of fraud. The exemption relating to legal professional privilege has also been relied upon in two instances, to avoid disclosure of information that may compromise the Council's position in legal proceedings. In all cases where it is proposed to restrict disclosure, the advice of the Corporate Co-ordinator and, where necessary, legal advice is obtained. Where the exemption relied upon is a qualified exemption, the public interest test must be applied before a final decision is made. Reasons for editing out or refusal must be given, and if the applicant is dissatisfied, the decision is subject to a review under the Council's complaints procedure.

4.6 Dealing with the Media

4.6.1 An internal protocol is in place which provides for the involvement of the Press Office, in the Corporate Communications Team, in responses to requests from the media or where the information requested could be used to publicly damage the reputation of the County Council. This has been included in training given to all Co-ordinators and in the "key messages" leaflet issued to all staff with the December payslips.

4.6.2 In total, 14 requests have been received from recognised media sources. In three cases, information has been disclosed and one case is currently in progress. There have been four cases where information has been disclosed after editing out sensitive information, including: a BBC request for information about Members and Senior Officers; a request from the Portsmouth News for copies of internal emails and correspondence about a Social Services Study Trip to New Zealand; and a request from the Portsmouth News for copies of corporate credit card statements. In all three cases, personal information and credit card details were removed prior to disclosure. There has been one case of complete refusal, where the Portsmouth News requested access to minutes of an internal meeting involving a personal matter. There is some evidence of the media using the Act to submit requests generally to local authorities to obtain research material for a news feature or programme. Four broadly drawn requests relating to schools were submitted by the Observer and handled by the Education Department, although it was found that the specific information requested was not held by the Council. In another case, a BBC programme maker sought information from all Social Services authorities about their response to the Government's requirement for a review of child care cases following the Court of Appeal decision overturning the conviction of Angela Cannings. The information sought was disclosed. The final request submitted by the media was refused on the basis that to comply would cost more than the £450 limit in terms of officer time. This was submitted, again by the Portsmouth News, seeking access to internal correspondence regarding the South Hampshire Rapid Transit Project going back to 1991. Advice was given to consider refining and resubmitting a more focused request.

4.7 Implications for Officer time

4.7.1 Figures show that during the Jan-Mar period, 219 hours of officer time were spent in handling 144 FOI requests. This equates to an average of 1.5 hours per request, and an average of around 18 hours of officer time, per week, across the whole of the Council, spent dealing with requests. This is in addition to time spent dealing with routine requests for information of a type already being handled prior to 1 January. (eg: requests dealt with "on the spot" at Information Centres). The 219 hours represents time spent handling requests logged as formal FOI requests and subject to the procedural requirements of the Act.

4.7.2 There are some variations in the amount of time taken to handle particular requests. In general, the picture presented by the figures is one where the vast majority of requests are from local citizens seeking specific pieces of information on local issues which contain no sensitive material. In these cases, the information can be located and disclosed with relative ease. However, some requests, particularly those submitted by recognised media sources, take much longer to handle. In one such case, 37 hours has been recorded as the time taken to handle the request. This reflects the fact that media requests tend to be wide-ranging, often of a "fishing expedition" type nature, involving a considerable body of information that contains sensitive material. A process must therefore be followed of checking whether exemptions apply and, if so, editing the information accordingly prior to release. Further time is then taken to consider the need for supporting contextual information where the information could be used to damage the reputation of the Council. Although the Council is not obliged to comply with requests where the assessed costs of compliance exceed £450, this is of limited assistance in such cases. This is because the costs of compliance must be assessed in accordance with Government Regulations, which stipulate that only certain aspects of dealing with the request can be taken into account for the purposes of cost assessment, limited to the time taken in locating and extracting the information, calculated at a rate of £25 per hour. Time taken considering whether exemptions apply, applying the public interest test, editing out exempt information, and considering how to manage any reputational risk, cannot be taken into account for these purposes.

4.7.3 Overall, media requests have formed a small proportion of the total number of requests received. Where a wide-ranging request is received, officers should consider discussing this with the applicant with a view to making it as focused as possible, in the interests of efficient use of public resources. Further consideration should also be given to proactively making more information publicly available via the publication scheme. Where information is made available in this way, there is then no need to process an individual request, as all that is required is to refer the applicant to where they can find the information. Also, there is greater flexibility as to charging for information proactively made available. The Corporate Management Team has asked each Department to review the types of information that people have sought access to in the first three months since implementation and, having regard to this, decide what further information it is holding could be made available via the publication scheme. This could be subject to a reasonable charge where appropriate, and would assist in reducing time spent on the future handling of individual requests.

4.8 Environmental Information Regulations

4.8.1 The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 came into force on 1 January 2005, to coincide with the full implementation of the Act. The Regulations replace earlier regulations governing access to environmental information held by public authorities. Requests for environmental information must therefore be handled in accordance with the Regulations rather than the Act. There are similarities, but also some key differences, between the two access regimes.

4.8.2 Preparations for handling requests under the Regulations have been made alongside those for FOI requests. For example, corporate procedures and templates for handling environmental information requests are available on Hantsnet, and relevant training has been provided for Co-ordinators. However, the number of requests received under the Regulations has been much smaller, with only nine received in the January - March period.

4.8.3 The Regulations introduce a duty for public authorities to progressively make environmental information they hold available to the public by electronic means which are easily accessible (eg: via Hantsweb), and to take reasonable steps to organise such information with a view to "active and systematic dissemination to the public". The Corporate Management Team has asked each Department, when reviewing what further information could be made proactively available (as referred to in paragraph 4.7.3 above), to have particular regard to this specific duty in relation to information concerning the environment.

4.9 Evaluation of Implementation Plan

The FOI Project Team has met and reviewed the preparations made for implementation. It was noted that all actions on the Team's Implementation Plan had been completed. The general view was that the Plan had been successful in ensuring smooth implementation, as evidenced by the fact that a wide range of staff across all departments were handling requests in accordance with the Act and corporate policies and procedures, within defined timescales.

5. Matters for Future Action or Consideration

5.1 The Corporate Management Team has agreed to disband the FOI Project Team, its task having been achieved. It has been replaced by the "FOI Co-ordinators Forum" chaired by the Corporate Co-ordinator, with a representative lead Co-ordinator from each Department, meeting quarterly. One or two of these meetings a year would be open to attendance by all FOI Co-ordinators.

5.2 While considerable efforts were made in the lead-up to 1 January to brief staff and Members as to the requirements of FOI, there is a risk that new staff/Members joining the Council since that date may not be so aware. Advice has already been given in training that all induction checklists for new staff should include provision on FOI, and it is suggested that Chief Officers reinforce this message in their Departments. Briefing for new Members will include advice on FOI.

5.3 The electronic tracking system for monitoring progress with requests has worked well since implementation. However, the introduction of the Corporate Customer Contact Centre IT System will provide an opportunity for this to be integrated with mainstream corporate processes, overseen and maintained by IT Services, for managing contact with customers.

6. Conclusion

A comprehensive Implementation Plan has been completed with the result that the Council is now handling requests received in accordance with the Act's requirements. In doing so, the Council is furthering its policy aim of encouraging and facilitating the public's participation in local issues. This supports Aim 4 of the Corporate Strategy, "Building Strong and Safe Communities", by helping to keep local people informed and empowered. The culture of openness central to the Act has firm roots across the Council and will develop and grow further with time. Departments have been asked to review what further information could proactively be made available to the public, having regard to experience to date of the types of information that are sought via individual requests. This will further enhance the Council's openness with information, and ease the administrative burden of dealing with individual requests.

7. Recommendations

7.1 That the successful implementation of the Freedom of Information Act within the County Council be noted.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

TITLE FILE

Project Team Implementation Plan Chief Executive's Department

Project Team Meeting Notes

Appendix 1 :

FOI Requests received by Hampshire County Council Jan - Mar 2005, showing Department handling the request and outcome.

NB: Figure in bracket denotes the number of the requests referred to that have been received from recognised media sources

"inc EIR" refers to some early requests for environment information logged as FOI requests. Such requests are now logged as EIR requests, under the Environmental Information Regulations.