Issue - meetings

The committee is requested to consider the information provided in this report and to make any appropriate recommendations as to future monitoring arrangements to identify business improvement where appropriate.

The committee considered the report circulated with the agenda.

Mrs Delahunty presented the report.

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

·             Freedom of Information (FOI) requests would no longer be chargeable. Frequently answered questions were put on the website for enquirers to self-serve.

·             General Data Protection Regulations – This would come into force in May 2018. It was EU law and had been adopted by the Government. 

·             Data Protection Requests – There would no longer be a fee (was £10) and the response time had been reduced from 40 days to 20 days. The current fee was a good filter which had reduced the number of requests taken forward in the past. These requests for information included any information on a person held by the council including recorded telephone calls, emails, information on systems, etc.). Requests would be monitored through the Customer Services system as well as time spent on processing those requests. If it became too burdensome it would be reported to the Local Government Association (LGA). Online training would be provided to officers and members. Concerns had been shared with the pan West Sussex officers’ group. The Housing Department currently received the most data protection requests.

·             Is a policy on GDPR being developed? Mrs Belenger advised that individual systems software suppliers were working on solutions to this to allow searchable electronic data which could be redacted if required. The GDPR corporate project group was concentrating on the paper records held. A pragmatic view of what is reasonable in the circumstances needed to be taken.

·             Public health funerals – These are commercial companies investigating inheritances.

·             Compliments – This is a positive means of collecting information from customers. Written compliments were being recorded on social media but not those customers who compliment officers by phone. It was suggested that in business terms a simple click process was required for customers to say they are happy with the service. Mrs Delahunty undertook to investigate whether there was a survey tool to do this, as there was no text service in the council at present.

The committee was concerned at possible future demand for resourcing data protection requests should the volume be high. Mrs Belenger stated that the corporate project group would report to the January 2018 meeting of this committee on their proposals for implementation of these new regulations from May 2018. Mrs Belenger undertook to add this matter to the Corporate Risk Register.

RESOLVED

1)          That the report be noted.

2)          That a report be brought to the committee in November 2018 (six months on from the GDPR implementation date) with details on the volume and resourcing of data protection information requests received.