Blaenau Gwent’s Freedom of Information Requests Increase by 13% in 2022/2023

THE number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests being dealt with by Blaenau Gwent went up by 13 per cent in 2022/2023 compared to the previous year.
Last year the council received 978 FOI requests, compared to 862 in 2021/2022.
The information was contained in a new report on Information Governance, which was presented to Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Governance and Audit Committee om Wednesday, October 19.
The report shows that the council responded to 88 per cent of the FOI requests within the 20 day time limit.
This is below the 90 per cent threshold deemed “acceptable” by the Information Commissioners Officer (ICO).
But the report adds that on “average” the council deals with FOI requests in 12.67 working days.
Data protection and governance officer Steve Berry said: “We’ve not done this in previous years but thought it appropriate to bring it to committee.”
He wanted the committee to be reassured that the council is handling the “matter of information governance” in the correct manner.
Mr Berry said: “Broadly speaking where there have been any shortcomings identified we have put in measures to address them and elevate the levels to what would be acceptable to the legislation guidance.”
The FOI figures have been skewed by 62 requests that the council have been slow to deal with and 55 that have not received a response as of June 9, when the report was written.
Lay member and committee chairwoman Joanne Absolom asked for an update on the 55 outstanding FOI requests.
Mr Berry said: “It is ongoing work – we have almost halved that number and expect to address it in full going forward.”
Ms Absolom thanked him, and the committee voted to accept the report.
The report says that the council received 60 Subject Access Requests (SAR) last year – an increase from 54 in 2021/2022.
SAR allows people to have a copy of all documents that relate to them and are held by an organisation.
Only 29 were processed as people need to provide valid identification to proceed with the SAR.
Once identification is provided the council has 30 days to provide the information – which they achieved 83 per cent of the time
The report said: “The checking work can take a significant amount of time and impact departments greatly.
“Most requests are across the Social Services and Corporate Services areas due to requesters wanting access to Social Services files or employment records.”
The report also covers data breaches by the council.
In total, there were 45 recorded during 2022/2023 which is an increase from 37 in 2021/2022.
The report said: “Of the 45 data breaches it was decided that one exceeded the threshold to the report to the ICO for assessment.
“It was later decided by the ICO that no enforcement action was required regarding this particular breach although some recommendations were made which have since been implemented corporately.” ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​