Foundation Certificate in Freedom of Information

The DPAS Foundation Certificate in FOI will give those working within information requests team the basic knowledge of the Act and how to respond to requests. It will give those with no prior training or experience the required knowledge to go on and complete the BCS Practitioner Level Certificate in FOI.

The 1-day course will give those attending the knowledge how to understand the process within FOI requests.

The aim of the syllabus is to give those with no FOI training, or little understanding of the Act, an understanding of how to respond to FOI requests. The course covers ‘deep dives’ into some exemptions and into Section 40, Personal Data.

Unit 1 - Background

• The historical context of FOI
• Basic obligations
• Definitions

Unit 2 - Requests

• What makes a request valid?
• Are all information requests FOIs?
• Publication schemes
• Clarification
• Advice and assistance
• Cost limits
• Vexatious requests

Unit 3 – Other Legislation

• FOI vs EIR vs SAR
• What a FOI handling process might look like

Unit 4 – Exceptions 

• Exemptions and public interest tests
• All the exemptions - with a reference to rare ones, a closer look at exception’s 22, 30, 31, 36, 38, 41, 42 & 43

Unit 5 – Personal Data

• Section 40 - Personal Data
• Reviews, ICO, Tribunals
• Further reading and learning

• 1 day interactive course with experienced trainer
• Quizzes and interactive activities
• Opportunity to network with other data protection and FOI professionals

The course takes 1 day to complete and will be held virtually.  

You will need access to Microsoft Teams as the session will be held via Teams.

The course will start at 9:00 am and finish at 4:00 pm

This qualification is primarily aimed at those who are managing or responding to requests for information from the public, or working in this subject area, for instance information managers, or those that would like to understand more about the Freedom of Information Act, EIR and SARs.

This qualification is likely to be of particular benefit to those working in the following areas:

• Solicitors advising on information law issues
• Data Protection Officers
• FOI teams
• Information governance team members
• Data protection and privacy professionals
• Information governance, risk and compliance professionals
• Data management teams
• Project management teams
• Directors/Senior managers with data protection and FOI responsibilities
• Legal and procurement teams

The purpose of this training is to:

• Familiarise delegates with the FOI Act
• Talk through processes for managing requests and complaints
• Look at applying commonly used exemptions
• Understand the dangers of personal data in FOI requests
• Assist with continuous learning