Information governance

South Lanarkshire Council is committed to the highest possible levels of compliance with principles in relation to good information governance. For the purposes of the Council, the format in which it holds information is irrelevant and so includes all information either held in electronic, paper, manual or other format.

The Council has developed an Information Strategy to guide its activities concerning the management of information over the next few years.

What is Information Governance?

Information governance relates to the structures, policies, procedures, processes and controls implemented to manage information at an operational level, supporting the Council's immediate and future regulatory (such as carrying out Privacy Impact Assessments before starting to collect or changing or adding a purpose to personal information about people), legal (such as data protection when handling personal information about people), risk, environmental and operational requirements. Information governance encompasses more than traditional records management. It incorporates information security and protection, compliance (including compliance with the rights of other people in respect of the Council’s information), data governance, electronic discovery, risk management, privacy, data storage and archiving, knowledge management, business operations and management, audit, analytics, IT management, master data management, big data, open data, the re-use of Council information by others, research and finance.

Who is responsible for information governance?

Responsibility for ensuring that the Council meets its objectives in relation to information governance is split based on strategic and operational issues.

The Council's Information Governance Board (IGB) is responsible for the development of appropriate policies and strategies to achieve the overarching aim of the Council in consultation with the Council's Senior Information Risk Officer, currently the Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources.

Executive Directors are responsible for the operational implementation of such policies and other aspects of compliance with the principles of good information governance. In relation to information governance, this includes responsibility for:

• supporting the development of a proper culture in relation to information governance within their Resource based upon the policies developed by the Information Governance Board
• setting up the practical management of compliance
• ensuring that the appropriate measures/systems/procedures in relation to the recruitment, ongoing employment and training of employees
• the review of existing and new processes and
• technological measures underpinning those processes

This section of the intranet relates to this responsibility. It may be that your Executive Director has additional input in relation to operational handling of information.