imc oct minutes 2014 - Department of Finance and Personnel

NICS INFORMATION MANAGEMENT COUNCIL (IMC)
NOTE OF MEETING
Meeting Date:
29 October 2014
Version:
DRAFT
Venue:
Rosepark House
Attendees:
Wendy Johnston (Chair), John Morgan (JM), David Craig
(DCR), Karen McCready (KMcC), Paul Galway (PG),
Brenda Marson (BM), Imelda McConnell, (IMcC), Leo
Wallace (LW), Stephen Lemon (SL), David Crabbe (DC),
Michael McGivern (MMcG), Tom Clyde (TC), Damian
Martin (DM), Sandra Dorrian (SD), Dave Brittain (DB),
Charlene McQuillan (CMcQ), David Lammey
Apologies:
Gary McManus
Guests
Catherine Vint (PSNI) and Ivo Damkat (DOJ)
Note Prepared By:
Stephen Lemon
TRIM Ref:
DF1/14/585377
Container: DF1-12-1878
IMC Meeting commenced at 13.00
Welcome and Introductions
1 – Chair welcomed all those present, in particular Catherine Vint who has responsibility
for FOI within the PSNI and IVO Damkat who was observing the Board as part of a
mentoring exercise .
2. Chair noted apologies (as listed above).
IT Assist update
3 – Damian Martin updated the meeting on a number of issues, which included:
4 – TRIM 7.1 – IT Assist are still attempting to get HP Australia to log in and examine the
NICS TRIM issue. NICS are currently running an unsupported version of TRIM.
5 – HP Records Manager 8 – This will be on the agenda at the HP event on 6th
November. It’s important that IMC members and TRIM administrators form an opinion,
so NICS can make a decision as to whether to upgrade to 7.3.5 or 8.1. One advantage
of upgrading to HP 8 is that the product would be supported for a number of years past
the end of contract (2016). One disadvantage may be the necessity to train all staff, if
HP 8 is fundamentally different in look and feel.
6 – Accreditation – RecordsNI should be fully accreditated at the December
accreditation meeting.
7 – SFTP – IT Assist was surprised by the number of transfers of information into the
NICS and as such will look again at their charging mechanism and a decision on this,
should be made soon. It was stated that charging needs to be fair to all.
8 – AFBI – AFBI want to onboard onto RecordsNI and will use a sharepoint front end.
They will not have access to the NICS dataset but will have their own area.
9 – KMcC asked DM about advice that was being given by IT Assist in relation to SFTP
and advised the meeting of an example from NISRA, whereby NISRA staff wanted to
send some data and had a lengthy discussion with the DFP ITSO. A way forward was
agreed and IT Assist was asked to implement the action. However, IT Assist had
advised that SFTP had to be used and over-ruled advice given by the ITSO. DM has
advised that SFTP requests should go through the departmental account manager to
ensure the correct people within IT Assist receive the request. It was agreed that CIMT
would amend the SFTP process document and that IT Assist would amend the service
catalogue.
10 – DC asked DM when DIMs will receive the first quarterly report regarding SFTP
usage. DM advised that he will investigate further and report back to IMC in November.
11 – Chair advised that DETI had recently issued a survey to business areas to ascertain
what data transfers were currently being conducted and also as to how they are being
carried out, to determine if any transfers would be better served by using SFTP.
Damian left at 13.15
PSNI
12 – Catherine gave an overview of the current situation regarding releasing information
in the PSNI and the importance that departments liaise quickly with PSNI, if departments
think that the information they have, refers to PSNI investigations.
13 – There are a lot of nuances with PSNI information and it is often difficult to know;
understand how or where information can be linked to investigations.
14 – Occasionally if national or serious matters are raised advice is sought from the
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Referral Unit. This unit helps to develop
policy on national issues and would also liaise with other criminal justice agencies.
15 – PSNI has also had a reduction in budgets and their training budget has been
removed. Catherine has contacted the ICO to see if specific presentations for
experienced practitioners of FOI could be delivered locally. It is essential that
practitioners keep up to date on recent tribunal cases. Catherine is happy to extend the
invitation to NICS information managers should ICO agree to run a session.
16 – Catherine raised the importance of identifying historical information which could
affect current policing and the importance of consulting also with PSNI on this. She has
worked with ACPO to raise requests with Whitehall departments that may hold
information regarding former R.U.C matters.
17 – Catherine agreed to share contact details for relevant PSNI staff to ensure
departments can quickly contact PSNI if they believe information that, they may issue in
response to FOI requests has any links to PSNI.
18 – Chair asked members how departments would know if a request could be relevant
to PSNI and if there was any guidance in departments already. Departments agreed to
draft a note to issue to their practitioners.
19 – DC advised that liaising with PSNI is now included in the FOI training that he
delivers.
20 – DL asked Catherine how PSNI escalate cases to ensure compliance with the
legislation; Catherine gave a quick overview and agreed to send through more detailed
information on each stage of the escalation process.
21 – Catherine explained that Cherith Morris from the PSNI FOI Unit may be in touch
with some of the Departmental Info Managers, as Cherith is undertaking a review of
PSNI internal mechanisms relating to FOI and may wish to incorporate good practice
and learning from other Departments. PSNI are specifically looking at their internal case
tracking process through the lifecycle of a request.
Catherine left at 1.45pm
FOI update
21 – DL had issued a written paper in advance and took the group through a number of
key points.
22 – DL advised that Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner would be
attending Permanent Secretaries Group (PSG) on 31st October 2014, DL was unable to
say what would be discussed beyond the points outlined in Ken Macdonald's email of 13
October, which was forwarded to IMC.
23 – DL advised that testing of the FOI tracking system would take place on 30th October
2014.
24 – DL informed the group that both OFMDFM and DFP had recently met with the ICO
and that the ICO had offered to speak with senior managers in OFMDFM.
25 – With reference to his written update, DL advised that it was difficult to keep on top of
FOI decisions, as it was a very time-consuming task sifting through a significant volume
of them to identify those most relevant for NICS purposes. DCR stated that he gets a
RSS feed directly from ICO into his inbox which he finds useful and suggested that
members may also find it worthwhile. It was recognised that there may be technical
issues in some departments as not all Departments allowed RSS feeds.
Previous minutes
26 – Chair asked if members were satisfied that the September minutes were an
accurate reflection of the meeting, members agreed.
Outstanding Actions
27 – Chair asked if everyone was content with the action responses issued in advance of
the meeting. DB asked why DOE staff in certain instances could not see the active audit
events of certain records. SL agreed to investigate with IT Assist and Steria. Members
were content with the remaining actions.
Legacy project
28 – Chair thanked everyone for completing the legacy project documents and IGIB were
advised of progress. DCR and BM advised that there was a lot of hard work required
during this project, but that it is achievable.
Sub-Group Reports
29 – Chair advised that the RecordsNI optimisation and the Records Management way
forward sub-group reports were issued in advance and invited comments from members.
30 - JM advised the group that the market sounding questionnaire would be issued by
CPD by 3.11.14 with a deadline of 21.11.14. A group of 4 people (John Morgan, Damian
Martin, Eimear Rooney and Tom Clyde) will represent the NICS in discussions with
suppliers.
30 – JM informed the meeting that work is ongoing to prepare an Information
Governance blueprint to cover IM issues in the Digital Age.
31 - The online survey tools group will meet on 3.11.14 and DC will report back at the
November meeting.
IGIB update
32 – Chair informed the meeting that IGIB met on 23.10.14 and that her report on behalf
of IMC covered all the issues that IMC had previously raised. The IMC report and the
highlighting of the concerns regarding resourcing IM/IA work was timely as Maggie Smith
from PRONI was also in attendance and had similarly highlighted the resourcing impact
on departments of reviewing Digital records.
33 – Maggie Smith had confirmed that the PRONI Digital Repository will be ready to
receive records in March 2015 and transferring records will be resource intensive and
time bound to meet retention and disposal schedules
34 – The Chair of IGIB has asked IMC to provide a resources paper to IGIB which will be
presented to PSG. This will need to be clear about the nature of the work to be carried
out, timescales and resourcing implications for departments
35 – IGIB agreed the revised mobile service security policies.
36 – IGIB has agreed a charging mechanism for the new intranet and internet sites and
the work required to create and maintain them.
37 – DCR advised that the web consolidation project will be resource intensive and that
he had asked the Web editorial team about the plans for departmental websites and he
will update IMC.
Data incident in Account NI
38 – A paper had been circulated in advance outlining the background to this incident.
Chair advised all members to speak with their departmental Account NI reps in Retained
finance to ensure the correct data protection procedures are being followed.
ESS BAIM attendance at IMC
39 – Chair advised that Paul Wickens had written to her asking that the ESS Business
Area Information Manager (BAIM) Sharon Nesbitt attend IMC meetings. Chair agreed
that Sharon should attend the bi-monthly meeting chaired by John Morgan but believed
that the formal IMC meetings should be restricted to departmental DIMs.
AOB
43 – SL advised that ICO/Ombudsman will be holding an event on Records
Management on 26th November 2014 and that any departments that had yet to nominate
any representatives, should do so quickly.
44 – SL advised that HP will be holding a user group event on 6th November 2014, in the
Hilton hotel and invitations should have issued to those people who registered.
45 – SL and JM met Steria and the retention and disposal in TRIM workshop, will take
place in the afternoon of 27th November, in Castle Buildings and an invitation issued.
46 – Chair asked that IMC members remind staff in their Departments to send TRIM
links wherever possible, not word, excel or pdf documents. This should help to prevent
the ongoing proliferation of multiple copies of the same document.
47 – Chair advised that the IMC Terms of Reference are being updated and will be
circulated to members for comment before submission to IGIB. The intention is to have a
single document containing all the TORs for the related Boards/Groups supporting IGIB.
48 – Chair asked if any departments had policies/procedures in place for when their staff
vacated a floor or an entire building and clarifying whose responsibility it was to ensure
cabinet’s were empty etc. She was conscious that there had been two serious personal
data breaches in NI and was keen to ensure that departments had clear and consistent
guidelines for Business Areas. Members who had such guidance were asked to forward
it to CIMT.
49 – DB asked if members knew what the process/procedures were for the removal of
pcs and other electronic equipment. SL agreed to find out from IT Assist.
50 – Chair finished the meeting by thanking Imelda McConnell for her hard work and
dedication over the last 7 years and wished her a very happy retirement.
The meeting concluded at 14:20
SIGNED: Stephen Lemon – CIMT – 10 November 2014
ANNEXE 1
Papers for October IMC meeting
FOI UPDATE FOR
FOI UPDATE FOR
RecordsNI
RecordsNI
Data incident in
IMC – 29 OCTOBER 2014.DOCX
IMC – 29 OCTOBER 2014.tr5
optimisation sub-groupoptimisation
update report
sub-group
- October
Account
update
IMC.DOCX
NI
report
- October
- October
2014IMC.tr5
IMC meeting.DOCX
Information
Minutes for
Minutes for
Paper 5a - Records Paper 5a - Records
Management Council (IMC)
Information
meeting
Management
actions Information
- 24th
Committee
September
Management
(IMC)
2014.DOCX
Management
- 24th
Committee
September
Sub-group
(IMC)
2014.tr5
Management
- 24th
report
September
to IMC
Sub-group
–2014.DOCX
October
report
2014.tr5
to IMC – O
NICS Legacy
NICS Legacy
Information
Information
Information
Departments Project Progress
Departments
Template
Project
- October
Progress
Management
2014
Template
IMC.tr5
Council
- October
(IMC)
Management
Agenda
2014 IMC.DOCX
Council
- October
(IMC)
Management
2014.tr5
AgendaCouncil
- October
(IMC)
2014.DOC
meeting action
Data incident in
Account NI - October 2014 IMC meeting.tr