UKBA INFORMATION MANAGEMENT BOARD PAPER
Title: Information Management Assessment (IMA) of the UK Border Agency by
The National Archives: further interim report
Paper Number: IM 11/
To be presented By: <REDACTED >
Decisions required:
The Board are asked to:-
note that we have received a draft of the IMA Report from The National Archives
(TNA) and have been asked to check it for factual accuracy; we have until end
March to respond.
note that, in this draft Report, the UK Border Agency scores “good” or
“satisfactory” in 16 of the 20 areas assessed; there are no areas graded as
“Priority Attention Area” – the lowest marking.
approve the factually corrected version of the draft report so that it can be
returned to TNA and
note the work underway to draw up the draft UK Border Agency Action Plan
which will address TNA’s recommendations.
Overview
1. The outcome of TNA’s IMA is that the UK Border Agency scores “good” or
“satisfactory” in 16 of the 20 areas assessed. There are 4 areas graded as
“Development Needed” – the second lowest marking but there are no areas
graded as “Priority Attention Area” – the lowest marking.
2. Areas where the Agency is seen as performing well (though with potential to
develop further) are Governance and Leadership, Access to Information and
Compliance.
3. Weaknesses are in the areas of Information and Records Management (which
count as one subject area) and Culture. Specific areas to address are the familiar
ones of the volume of information created and why, how long it is retained and its
disposal (a standard TNA theme – though justified in the case of the Agency),
digital continuity and Knowledge Management (also standard TNA themes).
4. Some of the recommendations will be carried out as a matter of standard IM
practice and, if they figure in the final Report, UKBA can accept them. For
example, UKBA will:
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continue to develop retention and disposal schedules and promulgate their
use by Agency business units,
refine the Information Asset Registers to capture smaller records sets and
systems, and use the Registers to determine the continuing relevance of the
those records and systems to the Agency’s core work, end the Agency’s use
of sacks (for transporting files in bulk) by switching to crates once the new
Records Services Contract comes fully into effect.
5. A few of the recommendations e.g. on the follow up to the Dacre Report (which
reduces the “Thirty Year Rule” to a “Twenty Year Rule”) will need to be
addressed as a corporate Home Office activity, as will the overarching strategy
on digital continuity (although work may be needed with HOIT/BD3 to ensure the
continuing availability of our core critical data e.g. WI, CID and FTS records).
6. UKBA will also ensure the ICW Programme and Communications Directorate are
aware of the recommendations which fall within their purview.
7. Some of the recommendations, though, are new. We were certainly not aware of
the lack of a common understanding of the meaning and use of the protective
marking system; this will have to be addressed as a matter of urgency (although
this seems to be a matter for most government departments and EAs). Neither
were we aware of the concerns over Official Notebooks.
8. There are also some misconceptions in the Report e.g. TNA have not taken on
board that the Agency does not use a Corporate File Plan (unlike the core Home
Office); these misconceptions are covered in our contributions on factual
accuracy.
9. A full list of TNA’s recommendations is provided in the attached Annex.
Next Steps
10. Over the coming weeks UKBA will:
progress the preparation of the Action Plan;
work with IMS on briefing for the new PUS and the Agency’s CEO and
update the IM Strategy (which was put “on hold” pending the outcome of the
IMA).
11. Once completed TNA will wish to present the final Report to the PUS and the UK
Border Agency CEO; at that point we will prepare or contribute to briefing (as
appropriate) and submit the draft Action Plan.
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ANNEX
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT (IMA): RECOMMENDATIONS
Note: The National Archives produced their recommendations under the 5 headings
of the IMA i.e. Governance and Leadership, Information and Records Management,
Access to Information, Compliance and Culture: this means that there can be some
repetition as some recommendations fall under different headings. An attempt has
been made here to structure them into 3 broad categories.
Recommendations
a)
IM Actions and Activities
IMCU to more widely communicate and promote their role across UKBA.
IMCU to provide clarity of roles and responsibilities for the information advisers and
introduce a network to communicate and share good practice.
UKBA should review and revise the Information Management Strategy to set out the
strategic approach to managing its information
UKBA senior management should monitor progress on the objectives set out in the
revised strategy
UKBA to undertake a strategic review of information required for its core business
functions and manage this through its Information Asset Registers.
UKBA to assess the viability of creating a “restricted” information asset register.
UKBA to record smaller local databases and systems.
UKBA to identify, record and mitigate wider information management risks across the
Agency, including third-party risk and over-retention.
UKBA to continue to assess whether it is meeting its obligations and countering risks
to ensure that it is safeguarding personal information.
UKBA to review and reinforce guidance to ensure staff manage and minimise
miscellaneous paper and electronic documents.
UKBA should consider what practical arrangements are necessary to process and
review the increased number of records due to the 20 year rule.
UKBA should work closely with The National Archives and implement the “What to
Keep” guidance and approach.
UKBA to implement a programme of regular checks on the understanding and
effectiveness of the e-learning package.
IMCU to refresh Horizon pages to ensure that it is correctly cross referenced with the
e-learning package
Information managers to take on responsibility for structuring information stored on
shared drives, reporting into IMCU.
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UKBA to develop and implement a systematic method for assessing the level of
compliance to corporate retention schedules
UKBA to develop information networks to share good practice and communication
across the organisation and build a professional community of shared interest in KIM.
UKBA to assess how the Cabinet Office’s guidance on the Government Marking
scheme can be tailored to make it more applicable to staff.
UKBA to introduce standard guidance to ensure consistent use of FTS.
UKBA should develop a corporate data sharing policy with appropriate guidance,
incorporating the Data Sharing Tool Kit.
UKBA to clarify and communicate the responsibilities of KIM roles to relevant
managers and staff.
UKBA to develop and implement a formal process to enable knowledge transfer.
UKBA should explore alternative means (other than sacks) of transporting paper files
to minimise the wear and tear.
UKBA to introduce and implement specific policy and guidance to cover the legal
requirements for the management and disposal of official notebooks.
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b)
IT
UK Border Agency to review IT service management roles, with particular emphasis
on IT service level management (including external supplier management), IT
change management, and IT storage management.
UKBA should review its Data Model and map this to current Information Asset
Registers. These should then be periodically reviewed and used to assess the impact
of any changes on the ability of UKBA to use its digital information.
UKBA to monitor and report on the usage of and access to shared drives in order to
inform how well these systems are being used, business planning and capacity
management.
UKBA should work with The National Archives to identify what electronic information
it holds.
UKBA to review the process for notifying and uploading changes in applications
requirements so that is structured and well managed.
UKBA to ensure that information remains useable over time.
UKBA to ensure that ICW reflects users’ real business need to access and manage
their information and to ensure continuity of processes before, during and after rollout
of ICW.
UKBA to ensure that the requirements for ICW reflect the need to import legacy
information in to the system in a way that retains its usability by the business
UKBA to enforce and communicate the email policy to users.
UKBA to review the corporate file plan to ensure it continues to meet business
requirements.
UKBA to ensure that guidance on exceptions to using the CFP plan are considered
and communicated.
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c)
Other
UKBA continue to work to simplify and update information on Horizon.
UKBA to consider how it can make it easier for staff to make effective use of the
Intranet search function.
UKBA to make better use of the staff directory to improve knowledge management
UKBA to review how structure and titling of the global email can be simplified.
UKBA should communicate the importance of full, accurate and timely audit trails.
UKBA to rationalise the staff directory and then communicate to staff that updating
the directory is a key responsibility
UKBA to review what depersonalised information can be made available via
data.gov.uk
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