Questions to ask yourself when approached by the Gover - PDF document

Questions to ask yourself when approached by the Governance Team for information for an FOI Is my team responsible for the information requested? Respond to Governance advising that you do not have this information and, if you know who does, advising on the appropriate contact. Is the terminology of the request clear and consistent with our processes? Respond to your Governance Team contact that the request needs further clarification and explain what information the requestor needs to provide in order for the request to be actioned. Do I have concerns that the information is commercially sensitive or may ha ve been provided in confidence? Respond to your Governance Team contact confirming that you are able to provide the information in the time stated . If it will take over 10 hours to provide the information it is worth making your contact aware. Information may be provided from different departments for one request and the time can be added together. Estimate how long it will take to gather the information. For example, look through 10 records and record the time taken. If it takes 30 minutes and there are 500 records then we can say it would exceed 18 hours. It is very important to remember that the time limit only applies to the work taken to gather the information requested, any other work alongside that cannot feature in the calculations and therefore it is important in the early stages to focus on the information requested. Respond to your Governa nce Team contact advising them of the time required and agree together how to proceed. Does it look like it may take more than 18 hours to gather the information the requestor is seeking? Exemptions may apply if disclosure is likely to prejudice commerc ial interests or disclosing information provided externally would be an actionable breach of confidence. Clear arguments will need constructing in applying the exemption in light of the information concerned and therefore the first step is to gather the in formation requested. Advise your Governance Team contact that you will gather and provide the information requested but you have initial concerns that the information may be exempt. This will prepare the Governance Team in advance to be particularly alert to sensitive information. You can also discuss whether it would be prudent to set up a meeting to look through the information once it is collated and prepare to advise external companies if appropriate. yes no yes no yes no no yes