Websites visited by staff at Cheshire East Council

The request was refused by Cheshire East Council.

Dear Cheshire East Council,

Please provide records of all websites accessed by Cheshire East Council staff during the period from 1 January to 1 April 2016.

I am interested in all records of websites visited on Cheshire East Council networks by Council staff during this time period.

In addition to the listing of websites visited please also disclose:
a) Date and time of each website visit;
and
b) Duration of each such website visit

Note: Where the website visited did not return a domain name the IP
address of the website visited should be disclosed.

With your response please also disclose a copy of the Cheshire East Council
Staff ICT Acceptable Use Policy, as well as any documents pertaining to disciplinary policies for computer misuse if they are not lodged therewith.

Yours faithfully,
Arthur Russell

FOI East, Cheshire East Council

Dear Mr Russell

Thank you for your email.

It will be treated as a request for information within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act: this means that we will send you a full response within 20 working days, either supplying you with the information which you want, or explaining to you why we cannot supply it. The due date is 13th May 2016. If we need any further clarification or there is any problem we will be in touch.

In the meantime if you wish to discuss this further please contact the department. It would be helpful if you could quote the log number 812262.

Yours sincerely

Val Nelhams
Compliance & Customer Relations,
Cheshire East Council

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FOI East, Cheshire East Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Russell,

 

[FOI #328701 email]

 

I am responding to your request for information logged as case 812262 and
which has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)2000.
Your request is as follows:

 

1.      Please provide records of all websites accessed by Cheshire East
Council staff during the period from 1 January to 1 April 2016.

I am interested in all records of websites visited on Cheshire East
Council networks by Council staff during this time period.

In addition to the listing of websites visited please also disclose:

a) Date and time of each website visit; and

b) Duration of each such website visit

Note: Where the website visited did not return a domain name the IP
address of the website visited should be disclosed.

2.      With your response please also disclose a copy of the Cheshire
East Council Staff ICT Acceptable Use Policy, as well as any documents
pertaining to disciplinary policies for computer misuse if they are not
lodged therewith.

 

I am responding to your request point by point.

1.      Officers have advised that this will take in excess of 18 hours to
comply with the request in point one. Officers have already spent in
excess of 10 hours trying to retrieve the requested records. It only
become apparent that section 12 was engaged once some work in attempting
to comply with the request had been undertaken. This process have failed
due to the number of records involved. Even if the officers had been able
to retrieve the requested records, officers would have had to undertake a
manual check of all the extracted records in order to confirm that they
were within the scope of the request. Therefore officers would take over
the appropriate limit of 18 hours to be able to provide a response.

Section 12(1) of the FOIA is a provision which allows a public authority
to refuse to comply with a request for information where the cost of
compliance is estimated to exceed a set limit known as the appropriate
limit. Regulation 4(3) of the Fees Regulations states that a public
authority can only take into account the costs it reasonably expects to
incur in carrying out the following permitted activities in complying with
the request:

•         determining whether the information is held;

•         locating the information, or a document containing it;

•         retrieving the information, or a document containing it; and

•         extracting the information from a document containing it.

 

As per Section 16 FOIA, public authorities are obliged to offer requesters
advice and assistance in order to be able to provide a response to a
request. In  this case, officers did try running the report for a shorter
period of time - down to a duration of just one day. However, this still
failed.

1.      Please refer to the attached document – ICT Code of Practice.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request and wish to make a complaint or request a review under the Freedom
of Information Act you should write to the Compliance Unit, Cheshire East
Council, Westfields Floor 1, C/O Municipal Buildings, Earle Street ,
Crewe, Cheshire CW1 2BJ

           

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the
ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints
procedure provided by the Council. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Kind regards

 

 

Compliance & Customer Relations,

Cheshire East Council

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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