You should promote awareness of FOIA internally to all staff for compliance and reputational reasons. This should include an awareness of when your organisation receives commercially sensitive information and how you receive this information. The scope of your searches should include information held physically by your organisation or held on its behalf by another organisation, such as a supplier or contractor. Read “the more information” section to give you a further understanding of each question.
Good
- You have a culture of openness and transparency, with excellent awareness of your obligations under FOIA across the organisation.
- You regularly review section 43 training requirements and keep staff up-to-date with changes to ICO guidance, relevant decision notices and Tribunal cases.
- You regularly monitor how section 43 is applied, to ensure evidence-based decisions.
- You usually identify and share lessons to be learned, assisting in the appropriate and objective use of section 43.
Adequate
- You try to have a culture of openness and transparency, with good awareness of your obligations under FOIA across the organisation.
- You sometimes review section 43 training requirements and keep staff kept up-to-date with changes to ICO guidance, relevant decision notices and Tribunal cases.
- You sometimes monitor how section 43 is applied.
- You sometimes identify and share lessons to be learned from section 43 responses.
Unsatisfactory
- You do not have a culture of openness and transparency, and awareness of your obligations under FOIA across the organisation is low.
- You rarely review section 43 training requirements or keep staff up-to-date with changes to ICO guidance, relevant decision notices and Tribunal cases.
- You rarely monitor how section 43 is applied.
- You rarely identify and share lessons to be learned around the use of section 43.