In response to a small number of media articles, resulting
from
public comment by the Information Commissioner, the ISA makes
the
following comments:
"The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) is committed
to
transparency and is determined to implement an open, fair and
balanced
decision making process. Therefore comments reported in the media,
which
stated that individuals will not know why they are being barred
from
either the workplace or voluntary settings, are totally
incorrect.
Anyone who the (ISA) is considering barring from working with
children
and vulnerable adults will know the reasons for that
consideration.
Not only will the ISA inform individuals that it is
considering
barring them, it is also legally bound to share with them all
the
information on which it will rely. They have (except in the case of
the
most serious of criminal convictions) the opportunity to make
'representations' and in doing so 'put their side of the story'.
The ISA
will take any information they provide into account when making
its
final decision.
If an individual considers that the ISA has made an error
in
fact or law than an appeal may be made to the Upper Tribunal.
The ISA assumed it had an on-going and productive dialogue
with
the Information Commissioner's Office (including face to face
meetings).
Therefore the ISA was disappointed with the comments attributed to
Mr
Thomas, which indicate that he had some concerns with the ISAs
response
to his correspondence. The Chief Executive of the ISA has received
one
letter from the Information Commissioner (27th May 2009) and
responded
in full on the 12th June 2009.
The only other correspondence the ISA has received from the
Commissioner's office was a letter of November 19th 2008 to a
more
junior member of staff. That letter was responded to by way of a
meeting
at the ISA offices during April 2009. During that meeting, staff
from
the OIC expressed no concerns as to the way the ISA was developing
its
policies and explicitly stated that there was no requirement for
a
written response to the letter of November 19th 2008 - all aspects
of
which were discussed during the meeting.
We have written to both Information Commissioner and
Deputy
Commissioner, to have these comments clarified and to highlight
the
positive work that has so far been undertaken by the ISA with
the
Commissioners Office - which we hope will continue. We are
currently
awaiting a reply."
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