Environment Agency Freedom of Information Action Plan
Published 5 September 2023
Applies to England
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The Information Commissioner (ICO) issued us (the Environment Agency) with an enforcement notice . This is under section 52 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Commissioner included a terms in the enforcement notice to:
Devise and publish an action plan formalising the measures it will take to ensure that it complies with its legal duties under Part 1 of FOIA to respond to information requests in a timely fashion. This action plan should focus on how EA intends to ensure that its lowest performing regions (as referred to in paragraph 17 and paragraph 20) meet compliance, while also clearing its backlog of late requests as required by this notice.
Whilst this enforcement notice relates to EA as a whole, the Commissioner wishes to place on record his expectation that EA’s efforts must go into improving compliance in its lowest performing regions in order to bring its overall compliance up. The Commissioner expects this new action plan to detail how EA intends to improve compliance in its lowest performing regions, whilst not compromising compliance anywhere else.
This plan meets the terms of the enforcement notice and describes the actions we are taking over the next six months.
Context
We, the Environment Agency handle approximately 46,000 requests for information each year. In most cases, we have a statutory duty to respond to the customer within 20 working days. The Commissioner has asked us to consider the following areas for improvement:
1. Governance structure
We, the Environment Agency, are clarifying the accountabilities of our Chief Executive, Executive Directors, Executive Managers, Area Directors, and Area Leadership Teams. We are introducing Governance Structures with management support.
We will continue to
1.1 Remind senior managers of their accountabilities regarding compliance with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR)
1.2 Match resource to handle challenging requests requiring input from several parts of the business and supporting Request Owners to improve timeliness
1.3 Communicate resource requirements for meeting FOI/EIR requirements
We will also
1.4 Pilot a new FOI champion role, and identify appropriate people in the business to do it
2. Compliance and Assurance
We, the Environment Agency, will increase our measurement and reporting of timeliness and compliance information
We will continue to
2.1 Carry out national compliance assessment twice a year
2.2 Report monthly timeliness compliance
2.3 Report FOI compliance as a corporate Key Performance Indicator
2.4 Report on overdue cases
We will also
2.5 Publish compliance information
2.6 Set measurable compliance targets
2.7 Gather feedback from user of the information and improve what we provide
3. Handling requests
We, the Environment Agency, will analyse processes and recommend improvements. We will seek agreement with Area Directors to increase resourcing where required.
We will continue to
3.1 Review resources in Customer and Engagement teams
3.2 Improve or upgrade our tracking software
3.3 Report on cases over one month old
3.4 Ensure staff have the redaction skills and tools they need
We will also
3.5 Consider and coordinate audit recommendations following the ICO Audit
4. Identifying lessons and good practice
We, the Environment Agency, will resource improvement work and improve sharing of good practice.
We will continue to
4.1 Continuously improve our processes and procedures
4.2 Review recommendations and develop our FOI improvement programme
4.3 Document and disseminate lessons learned (from ICO appeals etc) to teams
4.4 Develop our intranet site for sharing ideas and good practice between teams
5. Training and Awareness
We, the Environment Agency, will seek support from Executive Directors for communicating messages to colleagues
We will continue to
5.1 Develop and deliver our communications plan
5.2 Design communications for senior management stressing importance of compliance and request for support
5.3 Review our in-person FOI training, and arrange more sessions
We will also
5.4 Check completion/uptake of intranet FOI Awareness training and promote more if necessary.
6. Contingencies
We, the Environment Agency, will explore, scope and recommend options for recruiting resource and improving support between Areas.
We will continue to
6.1 Recruit to help engagement and technical teams
6.2 Develop guidance for Areas to help each other
7. Proactive disclosure
We, the Environment Agency, will work with colleagues to improve sharing of Public Register information.
We will continue to
7.1 Bid for resource for making more information Open and available online
8. Policies and procedures / Identifying barriers and bottlenecks
We, the Environment Agency, will map processes to identify barriers
We will continue to
8.1 Help business areas which handle large numbers of requests to publish more data and information.
We will also
8.2 Prioritise work to make more public register documentation available online