FOI Internal process and procedure

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.039948

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. Under the FOI-Act can you please provide the information on the internal procedure that you i.e. the MPS Data + FOI-Team follow when you receive an FOI-request?
   Is there any guidance or any induction or training material for new staff on either team?
   I assume you first log the request, then you read + try to understand it, then you try to retrieve the information, etc.
   While I am interested in the whole process from receipt of request to disclosure of information, I am most interested in the retrieval part, + would appreciate if you would provide full details on: what charts or methods you consult or use to identify where what is stored + how it is stored, + how you retrieve information, + how you identify the most appropriate method of retrieval.
2. Could you please advise how many FTE (full-time-equivalent) staff currently work for the MPS Data + FOI-Team?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - Under the FOI-Act can you please provide the information on the internal procedure that you i.e. the MPS Data + FOI-Team follow when you receive an FOI-request? Is there any guidance or any induction or training material for new staff on either team?

Please find below, 3 x Portable Document Format (PDF) in which the requested information has been provided.

Q2 - Could you please advise how many FTE (full-time-equivalent) staff currently work for the MPS Data + FOI-Team?

As of 5 September 2024, there are 18.47 Full Time Equivalent working exclusively on FOI.

Note:
The Data Rights Department, also have staff that log our FOI requests; however, this is alongside similar work for other areas of Data Rights and as such those staff are not included in the figure above.

INFORMATION
Data Rights is going through a restructure and as part of that, a new pillar is being added which will be known as the Continuous Improvement Team. As this team becomes established, one of their responsibilities will be to review and update our existing FOI guidance.