This report outlines the actions in progress to improve the Council’s policies, systems and processes for better Information Governance.

Michael Graham, Assistant Director of Legal & Democratic Services, submitted a report outlining the actions work underway to improve the Council’s policies, systems and processes for Information Governance following several limited assurance reports in this area. 

The report detailed the work of the Information Governance (IG) Board, which was responsible for implementing and overseeing an Information Management Strategy. The Strategy would be informed by the technical review which had been undertaken by Leicester City Council and was in the process of being finalised.  The Strategy was expected to be presented to Policy Committee this Autumn.  The Committee noted that take-up of the Cyber Security training, which was currently available for all staff and councillors through a Learning Pool e-learning package, had improved since the last meeting, especially among Council staff, but that it needed to improve further. 

The report had appended theCustomer Relations Team’s Data on Complaints, Freedom of Information (FoI) requests and Subject Access Requests (SARs) & MP Enquiries for 2020/21 for information and review.  The Committee welcomed the new information and requested that future reporting should provide more explanation of the data and include trends to enable members to understand the context of the statistics.

Resolved:     That the progress being made to improve the Council’s Information Governance be noted and the Committee requested that in future the Data on Complaints, Freedom of Information (FoI) requests and Subject Access Requests (SARs) & MP Enquiries for 2020/21 include more explanation and context to enable the Committee to use the information as a practical tool for improvement and identify examples of good practice.