Improving our communications

 

 

The highlight of the year was launching our new website www.ico.gov.uk in August 2006. In response to user feedback, we produced material aimed more specifically at individuals or organisations, improved the navigation and provided more information about the ICO. The new site allows people to find out about data protection and freedom of information matters as they occur in real life, by following links on topics such as credit, health, housing, education and junk mail. Similarly, people with data protection and freedom of information responsibilities at work are able to follow links on the most frequent areas of need, such as employment, setting up a new business, and marketing.

This year also saw the start of a new programme of publications, designed to fill gaps in the information we provide, and to offer the right level of information for users’ needs. Highlights for data controllers include a new training DVD, “The lights are on”, to help people get data protection right in the workplace, as well as a new guide to notification. For individuals, the ICO launched a “Personal information toolkit” in January, to mark European Data Protection Day. The booklet was designed to help people protect their personal information, and was promoted by a set of public information adverts. We also launched a new series of consumer fact sheets called “It’s your information”, which focus on data protection matters in everyday situations. This is a stablemate for the now established Good Practice Notes we produce for data controllers, which continue to attract the attention of trade and specialist media.

We distributed over 306,000 publications altogether, a rise of about 38% over last year. Our most popular leaflet remains “Credit explained”, a consumer guide to personal information and credit (we sent out over 72,000 copies). “Your guide to openness”, our guide to freedom of information, remained in the top five most requested publications, with around 40,000 being distributed. In response to customer requests for more information about the ICO, we launched a quarterly e-newsletter, as well as two leaflets on what the ICO does and the legislation we cover.

Wide-reaching media coverage of data protection and freedom of information stories demonstrates a high level of public interest in the issues. Freedom of information and environmental information decision notices continued to provide a steady source of media stories covering topics as broad as empty council properties, ministerial advice on salmon fishing, MPs’ expenses and aircraft noise. Our international data protection conference in London in November, which focused on the topic of the Surveillance Society, gave rise to significant national and international media coverage. Overall, the ICO generated over 1,500 media items in 2006/07 reaching a combined audience of over 356 million.

Efforts to improve our communications are paying off. More people are now aware of their data protection rights (82% of individuals compared to 76% last year). Awareness of freedom of information rights among individuals remains high at 73%. Awareness among practitioners is very high: 94% are aware of data protection rights (compared to 91% last year) and 97% are aware of freedom of information rights.

We have continued to improve our internal communications by launching a new internal communications strategy. Central to this was the development of an intranet, a corporate style guide and a corporate identity. Training has also started to help managers improve their role as communicators.