Socitm has published its
Local Government Data Handling Guidelines for councils.
The guidelines have been produced by Socitm working in
partnership with the Local Government Association, Welsh Local
Government Association and central government.
They show councils the steps they need to be taking to keep data
collected from residents, businesses and other parties safe and
secure.
Socitm said the guidelines provided chief executives, senior
managers and elected members with a "guide and essential checklist
to their responsibilities and accountability for secure and
effective handling of personal information".
But, Socitm said, it recognised that councils are best placed to
assess their own risk and put in the necessary safeguards which are
often equivalent to, or exceed, those set out in the document.
The guidelines take account of ISO/IEC 27000 (Information
Security Management System) standards and government benchmarks for
data.