Author Archives: actnowtraining

New Certificated FOISA Course: What the Tutor Saw

Posted on Tuesday 14th May 2013

Act Now runs a Practitioner Certificate in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 – the inaugural course has been completed, the second one is currently running, and two more are scheduled for October and December. The course is endorsed … Continue reading →

Posted in BCS, Freedom of Information, ISEB | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Disclosure of Staff Names in FOI Refusals

Posted on Monday 15th April 2013

This is an FOI decision from the Information Commissioner that I have planned to blog about for some time, but have now only just got round to blogging about it.  On 11 March 2013 the ICO issued decision notice FS50468600 … Continue reading →

Posted in Freedom of Information, ICO | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

ICO 2013 Conference Review

Posted on Tuesday 2nd April 2013

Roger Bescoby reviews the recent ICO conference… I was on my travels last week and on Tuesday (5th May 2013) found myself at the ICO Data Protection Officers’ Conference  in Manchester. Over 800 people present and about 300 ‘waiting outside … Continue reading →

Posted in Data Protection, ICO, Surveillance | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Doing BCS (ISEB) Courses? Top Tips from a Successful Candidate

Posted on Tuesday 26th March 2013

I have been asked to write a blog on what I had learned from recently taking – and thankfully passing – the ISEB/BCS courses in FOIA and DPA. Maybe I internalised the legislation too much, but for some reason I … Continue reading →

Posted in BCS, Data Protection, Freedom of Information, ISEB | Leave a comment

The £200 taxi and the 4 inch fish.

Posted on Tuesday 12th March 2013

It was December. I’d spent a day training in Edinburgh and the following day was doing a morning in Reading. Bad planning I know but all I had to do was take a train from Edinburgh to London then on … Continue reading →

Posted in Freedom of Information, Transparency | Tagged | 1 Comment

Trainer under Surveillance! – RIPA required or even obtainable?

Posted on Wednesday 6th March 2013

About 5pm I arrive at a small hotel ready to deliver training the next day. There is no car park at the hotel so I park on the large pay and display opposite. I check the charges, and buy the … Continue reading →

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Disclosure of Staff Names under FOI

Posted on Friday 1st March 2013

When considering request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000(FOI) public authorities often face a dilemma about disclosing names of staff. Names are generally considered to be personal data, being information relating to living identifiable individuals (as defined … Continue reading →

Posted in Freedom of Information, Privacy | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Proposed EU Data Protection Regulation and Research

Posted on Thursday 21st February 2013

David Erdos believes a bid to tighten European data protection will have a chilling impact on social science and humanities research.  He writes: Even with the advent of Web 2.0, data protection law is still often seen as technical and … Continue reading →

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Can Spiderman make a Freedom of Information request?

Posted on Thursday 7th February 2013

Has your public authority ever received an FOI request from Justin Case, Barb Dwyer or Stan Still? Would these even be valid requests? According to a survey of FOI officers published by the Constitution Unit, the average council receives 47 … Continue reading →

Posted in Freedom of Information | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Council Housing Information and FOI

Posted on Thursday 31st January 2013

Local authorities have, over the years, received many FOI requests for information about properties in their area. Requests have been made by, amongst others, squatters’ rights campaigners for lists of empty properties and by others for council property addresses where … Continue reading →

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