The Head of Insight, Communities and Governance briefly introduced the annual report, outlining the matters covered within the report and appendices.

The Senior Information Governance Officer stated that the Information Governance Team (the Team) continued to deliver against an increasing volume and complexity of work; there was no backlog of requests, with good progress made on the Data Protection Action Plan. There had been an increase in contact from the public relating to single issues, and work was ongoing with the Council’s departments to manage customer communications within each service area, with changes to internal processes to improve compliance.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman consultation had closed in December 2023, with the outcome awaited which would likely include changes on how complaints were managed by the Team and have cost implications. The Council’s finance teams had been informed in preparing for the likely changes, with a subsequent update to be presented to the Committee when appropriate.

In response to questions, the Head of Insight, Communities and Governance stated that:

·  Requests from Councillors were not specifically recorded, as it was expected that Members and Officers communicated regularly and it would be a significant task to record each interaction. The Team prioritised meeting the statutory requirements associated with Freedom of Information Requests, Environmental Information Regulations and Subject Access Requests; and

·  There had been no malicious contents in any of the data breaches across 2022-23 and no fines issued. The threshold for reporting data breaches was different to the threshold for issuing a fine; the latter would be expected if there was a consistent issue and/or a high impact data breach. The internal reporting procedures were outlined.

In response to questions, the Senior Information Governance Officer stated that working from Home was not impacting the number of data breaches. The increase in data breaches was likely due to the increase in work being conducted with departments to raise awareness of breaches and responding proactively. 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Note: Councillor Simon Webb left the meeting at 8.32 p.m.