ONS Legal Services, Data Protection and Information Rights departments

FOI Reference: FOI/2022/4016

You asked

1. For the current financial year 2021/22 what is the budget for:

1a. Your organisation as a whole

1b. Your information rights functions i.e. FOIA, subject access requests (SAR), EIR

1c. Your press office or equivalent department?

2. For the last 5 calendar years (i.e. from January 2017 to December 2021) please provide an annual breakdown of the volume of the following in relation to your organisation:

2a. FOIA appeals to the ICO

2b. EIR appeals to the ICO

2c. Subject access requests received

2d. Subject access requests closed

2e. Subject access requests closed in time

2f. Complaints relating to subject access requests

2g. First-tier (information rights) Tribunals

2h. Upper Tribunals or higher

3. In relation to your current open casework please provide the number of open:

3a. FOIA requests

3b. FOIA requests overdue

3c. FOIA requests older than 6 months (measured from the received date)

3d. FOIA requests older than 1 year (measured from the received date)

3e. FOIA Internal reviews

3f. FOIA Internal reviews overdue

3g. FOIA Appeals

3h. EIR requests

3i. EIR requests overdue

3j. EIR Internal Reviews

3k. EIR internal reviews overdue

3l. Subject access requests

For the purposes of this question, any snapshot in time between the date you receive this request and the date of your response is acceptable. However, it would assist me if you could indicate the date upon which the snapshot was taken.

4. For your information rights functions relating to FOIA, SAR and EIR, please provide:

4a. An organisational chart for your information rights unit or department(s) responsible for responding to information rights requests

For each role within your information rights unit/department please provide:

4b. A current job description

4c. Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) staff performing the role

4d. Pay grade/banding including the salary range

4e. Number of direct reports i.e. number of individual staff managed

If not already answered please:

4f. indicate if these roles perform additional core functions or casework.

4g. include the role of your Data Protection Officer in relation to questions 4a-4e

4h. advise where your information rights function sits within the overall structure of your organisation (e.g. Legal, Information Governance, Communications etc.)

4i. Advise whether your organisation operates a centralised or devolved approach to answering FOIA, EIR and SAR requests

4j. Advise what role and banding has primary responsibility in your organisation for managing and drafting responses to casework relating to:

4j i. 1st stage FOIA/EIR requests

4j ii. FOIA/EIR internal reviews

4j iii. FOI and EIR Appeals to the ICO

4j iv. Tribunals (information rights)

4j v. Subject Access requests

4j vi. Complaints relating to subject access requests

5. For the roles with core responsibility for managing and updating your FOI publication scheme, please provide

5a. Job description(s)

5b. Pay grade/banding including the salary range

5c. Number of direct reports i.e. number of individual staff managed

5d. The name(s) of the unit(s)/department(s) the roles come under

6. What case management software and version do you currently use to manage FOIA, EIR and SAR casework?

7. What redaction software do you use to redact information for the purposes of FOIA, EIR and SAR case work?

8. What, if any, external FOIA, EIR or data protection training or certifications has your organisation funded since 2017 for staff with core responsibilities for FOIA, EIR or Data protection compliance?

We said

Thank you for your request.

1. For the current financial year 2021/22 what is the budget for:

1a. Your organisation as a whole

The Statistics Board's net spending is broken down into several different spending totals, for which Parliament's approval is sought.

The spending totals which Parliament votes are:

• Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit ("Resource DEL"): a net limit comprising day to day running costs, less income for statistical data research and property; and includes depreciation (ring fenced budget).
• Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit ("Capital DEL"): investment in capital equipment/projects.
• Annually Managed Expenditure ("AME"): Spending included in departmental budgets, but is difficult to predict, such as Legal or Early departure provisions.

The table below details the Statistics Board's budget that has been set for each spend category in 2021/22:

1b. This information is not held as Statistics Board budgets are not disaggregated at this level of activity when set. FOIA, SAR and EIR costs are primarily absorbed within staff costs associated with our Legal and Central Policy Secretariat teams.

1c. As per the previous question, this information is not held as Statistics Board budgets are not disaggregated at this level when set. The Statistics Board Press Office function forms part of the Communications and Digital Publishing directorate, which is the level that budget has been applied to.

2. For the last 5 calendar years (i.e., from January 2017 to December 2021) please provide an annual breakdown of the volume of the following in relation to your organisation:

2a. FOIA appeals to the ICO:

2017: 1

2018: 1

2019: 1

2020: 1

2021: 1

2b. EIR appeals to the ICO

We have had no EIR appeals to the ICO in the last 5 years.

2c, d, e, f, g, h:

2017: Received 10, answered within statutory deadline: 4 (40%)

2018: Received 22, answered within statutory deadline: 17 (77%)

2019: Received 28, answered within statutory deadline: 22 (79%)

2020: Received 23, answered within statutory deadline: 18 (78%)

2021: Received 127, answered within statutory deadline: 112 (88%)

For those requests which had responses sent outside of the statutory timeframe, these requests were typically complex cases requiring greater than usual consultation surrounding the disclosure of information. In nearly all of these cases, a response was sent within 1-2 weeks of the official disclosure date. Respondents were kept fully informed during this time as to progress.

All requests that are not withdrawn are responded to.

We are aware of four individuals having contacted the ICO during this time period in relation to Subject Access Requests and in each case any issues were resolved to the satisfaction of all parties

We have had no First-tier information rights Tribunals and no Upper Tribunals.

3. In relation to your current open casework please provide the number of open:

For FOI statistics, you may find the following link to Government FOI statistics useful.

3a. FOIA requests:

On 11 April 2022, we have 52 open requests.

3b. FOIA requests overdue:

On 11 April 2022, we have 2 overdue requests.

3c. FOIA requests older than 6 months (measured from the received date):

We do not have any requests older than 6 months open.

3d. FOIA requests older than 1 year (measured from the received date):

We do not have any requests older than 1 year open.

3e. FOIA Internal reviews:

On 11 April 2022, we have 7 live FOI internal review cases.

3f. FOIA Internal reviews overdue

Internal reviews do not have a statutory deadline. However, the ICO advises that these should be completed in 20 working days. On 11 April, we have 5 FOI internal review cases more than 20 working days old, owing to the complexity of the cases.

3g. FOIA Appeals.

We have no live FOIA Appeals.

3h. EIR requests:

On 11 April 2022, we have 1 open EIR request.

3i. EIR requests overdue:

On 11 April 2022, we do not have any EIR requests overdue.

3j. EIR Internal Reviews:

On 11 April 2022, we do not have any EIR internal reviews.

3k. EIR internal reviews overdue:

On 11 April 2022, we do not have any EIR internal reviews overdue.

3l. Subject access requests

On 11 April, we have 4 SARs open.

4. Our information rights functions sits under the Legal Services team. Legal Services is made up of 7 team members: one Grade 7; two Senior Executive Officers (SEO), three Higher Executive Officers (HEO), and two Executive Officers (EO). This team falls under the Central Policy Secretariat (CPS).

Pay-band information per grade is available in the associated download named 'Pay 2021 Pay Rates and Ranges – UK Statistics Authority (UKSA)'.

The Legal Team do perform additional core functions and casework.

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) reports to the National Statistician and Permanent Secretary, and the Second Permanent Secretary, on the exercise of their DPO functions. The information rights team provide regular updates to the DPO and seek advice from them as and when needed.

Dependent on the available and necessity, our information rights responses are drafting and managed by our team and involve a number of colleagues at differing grade levels to input.

Executive officers in the Legal team are responsible for the administrative processes for FOI, EIR, and SAR. The legal team engage with the business area subject matter experts to obtain information to answer requests. Internal reviews, SAR complaints, and FOI and EIR appeals are managed at Higher Executive Officer level and above.

5. The legal team are also responsible for the FOI publication scheme, details of which can be found in answer to Q4.

6. We use Microsoft SharePoint to manage FOIA, EIR and SAR casework.

7. We use Adobe Acrobat XI Pro to redact documents.

8. Since 2017, the following external FOIA, EIR, and data protection training have been funded for staff working in information rights:

• Practitioner Certificate in Freedom of Information: Standard Programme
• Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection (Standard Programme)