The Central Clearing House

1

• The Central Clearing House
• Belinda Crowe
• Head of Information Rights Division
• Information Rights User Group
• July 2006

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Information Rights Division

• What do we do?
• Data protection policy, UK and in Europe
• Data sharing
• FOI policy
• ICO sponsorship
• TNA sponsorship
• and the Clearing House .

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The myth

• March 2005 The Independent

A secret "spin department" has been set up
inside Whitehall to deal with questions brought
under the Freedom of Information Act that
threaten to damage or embarrass the Government.
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The Reality

• ensuring consistency on round robin requests
  and precedent-setting cases
• providing guidance on specific cases
• promoting/ensuring compliance with the Act
• (including advising disclosure of non- exempt
  information)
• producing/updating guidance to practitioners

5
The CH team

• Four grade 7 posts
• Seven SEO and HEO caseworker posts
• Back office support
• Budget 06-07 540,000

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Referrals in 2005

• Referrals in 2005 3417
• c 8 of total FOI requests to central Government
  
• High - January 462
• Low - December 180
• Average per week 66
• Breakdown by month and by dept in 2005 annual
  report
• http//www.dca.gov.uk/foi/imprep/annrep05.pdf

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Current referrals
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Process

• Dept uses referral form in toolkit
• CH logs cases on CMS
• Allocation meeting
• Dept told case officer and asked to produce
  analysis
• previously formal advice
• now CH reviews s 17 draft
• If necessary advise on simultaneous release

9
FOI requests

• DCA has refused FOI requests for records relating
  to cases
• individual cases - because Parliament created IC
  to enforce the Act
• information which would inadvertently expose
  national security and allow breach of NCND

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Ensuring compliance

• Quarterly monitoring of
• volumes,
• timeliness and
• disclosure rates
• Each dept has a dedicated relationship manager
• Regular meetings to review performance
• Training thro seminars and presentations

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Evolution of the Clearing House

• First referrals Depts acquired greater capacity
• gone from formal advice to quick tips and
  sharing best practice
• Focus now ICO and Tribunal cases
• ensuring depts prepared properly
• What next?

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Commercial users

• Information laws abused by firms competing for
  NHS jobs
• Private companies competing for hospital
  contracts are abusing FoI laws to obtain
  commercial details from NHS trusts.
• The Times Aug 2005

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Dealing with requestors

• Analyse requests and publish proactively
• reduce burden of requests
• destroy commercial benefits sought
• If info of commercial value
• specify charges in your Publication Scheme
• license it under PSI regulations

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If information sensitive

• Protect it
• s 43 - including commercial interests of the
  authority
• s 41 - actionable breach of confidence
• - must have quality of confidence
• Mature dialogue with suppliers of information
• explain FOI
• protect if sound justification given