The
Freedom of Information Act (FOI) came into force in 2005 and demands that
individuals have the right to information, the right to confidentiality and the
right to effective administration.
As
such the act means that members of the public can demand information at any
given time and it must be readily accessible. Considering today’s government is
planning to consult on extending the FOI still further, this should give those Housing
Associations with limited grip on their documents serious cause for concern.
A
housing association typically holds vast amounts of information about each
resident – past and present – and each property, making management of the sheer
number of documents a trial in itself. It is therefore critical that a system and
a set of robust processes are in place to manage such information, allowing
administrators easy access to relevant material as requests are made.
Many
housing associations are not however sufficiently equipped to easily produce
information as requested, and are falling short when it is being demanded. Not
being able to produce such information sends out the clear message that Housing
Associations are not forward looking, not up to date and are simply inefficient
when it comes to the management of documents. Above this, the simple time cost
of manually trawling through documents in order to satisfy an FOI request can
be enormous.
Housing
Associations must realise that it isn’t difficult, costly or disruptive to
manage information in such a way that enables ready compliance with the Act –
even if the legislation is extended. Culturally it doesn’t have to be difficult
either – in a society when information is readily available (the Google
Corporation is after all now a verb), it will be nothing short of an anachronism
that any organisation cannot access the right information immediately.
Housing
Associations must therefore evaluate their processes ahead of more stringent
requirements coming into force. The question is not just whether or not the FOI
is appropriate to Housing Associations. In a way this doesn’t matter – from an
operational and forward-looking perspective, the ability to comply should be a given.
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