Issue - meetings

Purpose of Report

To seek approval of the Information Management Policies required in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Decision

That the policies appended to the report in respect of Information Management be approved.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

Data protection was critical to the Council to ensure that the data which was received, processed, retained and shared was protected in accordance with the legal framework, as set out by the Data Protection Act 2018 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

The Council needed to have policies in place to enable the Council to be compliant with the new legal framework and the Information Governance Team needed to rollout the policies in order to increase awareness of this legal framework to officers and elected members.

The following policies and documents had therefore been developed and were appended to the report for consideration:

·         the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Policy;

·         the General Data Protection and Data Protection Policy Summary Sheet;

·         Information Governance Policy;

·         Legal Responsibilities Policy;

·         Information Sharing Policy;

·         Data Quality Policy;

·         Data Protection Breach Management Policy;

·         Freedom of Information Policy and Environmental Information Regulations Policy;

·         Records Management Policy;

·         Retention and Disposal Policy.

These policies had been considered by the Council’s Audit Committee on 19 July 2018 where it was resolved that the policies be forwarded to the Executive for approval.

Councillor Ric Metcalfe emphasised the importance of these policies from the perspective of protecting people’s personal information as well as protecting the reputation of the authority. It was noted that the Council’s NetConsent system would be used to provide a summary of the various policy documents to all members of staff which would not only highlight the key points but also highlight the fact that the policies had been implemented.

Councillor Metcalfe put on record his thanks to Becky Scott, Legal and Democratic Services Manager, and Sally Brooks, Data Protection Officer, for the significant amount of work they had undertaken in developing these policies.