CRDC’s Agency Information Plan 

CRDC is an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act). The 2011 reforms to the FOI Act included the introduction of the Information Publication Scheme (IPS). This plan describes how CRDC intends to comply with the IPS, in accordance with s 8(1) of the FOI Act.

Purpose

The purpose of this plan is to:

  • identify information CRDC proposes to publish for the purposes of Part II of the FOI Act;
  • identify how and to whom CRDC proposes to publish information for the purposes of Part II of the FOI Act;
  • how CRDC will otherwise comply with Part II of the FOI Act.

Objectives

The CRDC's objectives are to outline appropriate procedures to:

  • manage its information holdings relevant to the IPS;
  • proactively identify and publish all information required to be published;
  • proactively identify and publish all operational information;
  • review information published under the IPS on a regular basis to ensure that is accurate, up-to-date and complete;
  • ensure that information published under the IPS is discoverable, understandable and re-useable;
  • ensure that the format of online content conforms with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0).

Establishing CRDC's Contribution to the IPS

The CRDC Executive Director has overall responsibility for leading CRDC’s work on implementing the FOI reforms, including the IPS. The Communications Manager is responsible for administration of Freedom of Information, communications and publishing.

Administering information published under the IPS from 1 May 2011

The CRDC Communications Manager has ongoing overview of the CRDC’s compliance with the FOI Act and the management of ongoing administration of the IPS information holdings.

The information published under the Information Publication Scheme must be ‘accurate, up-to-date and complete’ (s 8B). Information Publication Scheme documents will be reviewed periodically as part of the CRDC’s quality management systems review process.

The FOI page on the CRDC’s website includes information about charges associated with FOI requests. Any charges imposed by the CRDC will be consistent with charges in the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 1982 (which generally apply to access requests under Part III of the FOI Act).

Information Publication Scheme Information

In accordance with guidance issued by the OAIC, the IPS information holdings available on the CRDC’s website have been published under the following headings:

  • Agency Plan
  • Our contact details
  • Who we are
  • What we do
  • Statutory appointments
  • Our priorities
  • Reports and responses to Parliament 
  • Working with us
  • Routinely requested information
  • Arrangements for public consultation
  • Operational information
  • Our finances
  • Our publications
  • Our lists
  • Contact us

To ensure that the Information Publication Scheme information holdings (and individual Information Publication Scheme documents) are easily discoverable, understandable and machine-readable, CRDC has:

  • wherever possible, provided online content in a format that can be searched, copied and transformed
  • provided a search function for its website.

CRDC will make its Information Publication Scheme documents available and easy to find by providing links to the Information Publication Scheme documents published on the CRDC’s website from the Information Publication Scheme section of the website.

Information required to be published under the Information Publication Scheme

CRDC has a list of documents that are required to be published under the Information Publication Scheme section of the website.

Accessibility under the IPS

CRDC will ensure that all information published on its website under the Information Publication Scheme will comply with current web content accessibility requirements.

CRDC’s dedicated IPS section of its website will state that where a document is not yet available in an accessible format, it will be made available in an accessible format on request, by contacting the FOI Officer. CRDC will publish any new Information Publication Scheme documents as soon as they are available for publication.

CRDC will ensure that all information newly published on the website conforms with the WCAG 2.0 as soon as possible.

Information Publication Scheme Compliance Review

The agency plan is a living document, and will be reviewed periodically as part of the CRDC’s quality management systems review process to ensure it remains relevant and to incorporate feedback.

CRDC will review the operation of its Information Publication Scheme from time to time and at least every five years, in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner about Information Publication Scheme compliance review.