8. Citizens and businesses can access information about themselves

8. Citizens and businesses can access information about themselves

Citizens and businesses should be able to access information about themselves, including an explanation of how it is used. The information should be considered as belonging to the citizen and only entrusted to the care of a public body. This goes beyond the minimum requirements imposed by legislation and should be about a proactive approach to sharing information with the individual the information about, through a secure online portal for instance.  

Providing citizens and businesses with information held about them, combined with the public information published under principle 6, completes the picture for citizens to inform their choices and interactions with the public sector.

Putting it into practice

In accordance with GDPR and the Freedom of Information Act, GCC has an Information Request team to coordinate and respond to requests for information, including personal information. Any requests received by staff should be forwarded to the request team to process. If staff are asked for information by the Request team they should provide this as soon as possible and at least within the specified timescales as there are strict response times set out within the legislation. Guidance on complying with information requests is provided to staff through the following documents:

• Responding to requests
• Exemptions and exceptions