Infection Prevention and Control Audit

I requested a review of the NLPCT response and below is the result of that review.

19 October 2009

Case Reference Number FS50257218

Dear Dr Thorpe

I am writing in connection with your complaint about the North Lancashire PCT. As previously discussed, I have now received a further response from the public authority in relation to its searches for earlier emails relevant to your request.

As noted in my email to you dated 18 September 2009, the public authority has explained that emails of a routine nature are not retained and are typically deleted from users' mailboxes after a period of 2-3 months. Good records management practice does expect that documents which have no operational or other significance should be regularly deleted or destroyed to avoid systems becoming unmanageable. On that basis, as previously explained, the public authority's response that it does not hold emails prior to the infection control audit appears reasonable in the circumstances.

In my email of 18 September I indicated that I had requested further searches of the Trust's email archive system. I have now received a more detailed explanation of the email archiving system currently in place at the public authority and it is clear that any email archive which exists is only in place as part of a more general system backup. Consequently, it is not currently possible to search for emails in this archive without restoring the email system to a specific date and searching relevant email mailboxes. I have been advised that to search the IT backup server would require a third party to restore the mail box of each of the users on a day by day basis for the period in question and then carry out a search and retrieval and that this would cost "tens of thousands of pounds".

In circumstances where deleted information is held only as part of a backup system, and where there is no other operational need to restore from such a backup system, it is the Commissioner's view that, for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, such information is no longer held by the public authority. Given the estimate of the cost to search the backup systems for emails, and the explanation for those costs, it is my preliminary assessment that because the backup is held for the purposes of disaster recovery rather than as accessible storage, this information is therefore no longer held by the public authority.

The public authority has explained that it is in the process of implementing an email archiving system which will permit emails to be archived and quickly searched and retrieved, but that this system will not be fully operational until the end of March 2010.

Certain aspects of your complaint have raised matters of good practice, which have been referred to the Commissioner's Good Practice and Enforcement team. These matters relate to:

the public authority's inadequate assessment of, and response to, your initial request and the consequent piecemeal disclosure of emails;
the delays in conducting an internal review;
the lack of a clear and unambiguous policy and procedure relating to the retention, disposal and archiving of emails.

The Enforcement team will review the case and decide whether to take any action. This could range from writing to the authority to remind it of its obligations, asking for its policies and procedures regarding request handling to be reviewed, or the serving of a Practice Recommendation or Enforcement Notice. If the Enforcement team chooses not to take any action at this time, it will, at the very least, log the issues raised and monitor any future complaints made to the ICO about this particular public authority. You will not be contacted directly to be informed of what, if any, action the Enforcement team intends to take.

In the circumstances, as mentioned on 18 September, there does not appear to be any further action which I can take and no action which the Commissioner could require the public authority to take. Therefore, I now intend to close this complaint. I will, however, be writing to the public authority to direct it to the National Archives for further advice on records management.

I can assure you that your complaint has been taken seriously, and I thank you for bringing this matter to the attention of the Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

Steven Dickinson

Complaints Officer