Issue - meetings

To consider a report updating the Committee on the work that is going on across the authority to encourage openness and transparency, and in particular in response to the Protection of Freedoms Act, which came into force in November 2012. The report also invites the Committee to give further consideration to a Notice of Motion on Confidentiality which it considered previously at its meeting on 26^th November 2012.

Members considered an update report on the work that was going on across the authority to encourage openness and transparency.

Members also gave further consideration to the following motion which had been moved by Councillor B Murphy and seconded by Councillor P Edwards at the Council meeting on 19^th July 2012 and referred to the Committee for consideration:

“In the light of the ever-growing demand for public accountability in public services and the need to sustain public trust and confidence in democratic governance, this Council calls for a review of its policies and protocols in relation to confidentiality.”

The Committee had first considered the motion at its meeting on 26^th November 2012 and had resolved ‘that the officers review the approach to confidentiality and the publication of information in this and other local authorities and consult all members of the Council and appropriate Council decision-making bodies before reporting back to the Committee’.

The Council’s Compliance Unit continued to champion transparency and openness within the Council and actively encouraged Services to provide accurate and timely information on request and to allow customers to access as much information as possible without having to resort to Freedom of Information requests. 

The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 had amended the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to require public authorities to release datasets in an electronic format in a way that allowed businesses, non-profit organisations and others to re-use them for social and commercial purposes. Much of the detail about the requirements to publish datasets would be provided in a new Code of Practice, but this remained in draft form only at this stage. The report outlined the current focus of activity within the Council.

The Committee was informed that the Council was increasingly receiving requests for data rather than Freedom of Information Requests. This was therefore the main focus at present.

Members made the following comments:

§  There should be an accurate and publicly-accessible register of Council land and buildings.

§  The Council should move from a position of responding to requests for information to one of actively releasing information, and in doing so should aim to provide more information than was strictly required under current guidance.

§  At present, the Council applied certain tests before releasing information; the situation should be reversed so that the default position would be to release information unless there were specific reasons not to do so.

§  Information should be released and presented to the public in a form that was helpful and meaningful.

In response, the officers advised that in general operational mangers were currently recommended to publish information. Where there were valid reasons for not doing so, these would be clearly articulated.

RESOLVED

That

(1)  the member working group appointed to review the scheme of delegation be asked to review the issue of transparency, openness and access to information, with the support of the Customer Service and Libraries Manager;

(2)  Members of the Committee be invited to forward any comments or suggestions for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4