A public sector user group has produced guidance for complying with the Freedom of Information Act.
The Society of Information Technology Management guide includes a 15-point checklist to help senior managers cope with the demands of the Act, which came into full force at the beginning of the year.
Among the points on the list are:
Carry out an awareness programme on FoI responsibilities
Initiate a programme to implement records management, including a policy for retention and archive of each information class
Identify stakeholders with an interest in contributing to a strategy
Survey people to assess time wasted currently in finding essential information.
The briefing document also says a strategy should contain some common elements. People in an organisation should be made aware of their roles in information management, and there should be codes of practice for dealing with data. Security should also be taken seriously.
Other sections of the document deal with issues such as data protection, websites and the value of information.
