Information Standards and Guidelines

Our Standards

Data Quality Standards 

Data or Information Management for suppliers must follow the same standards laid down by the audit commission. The Audit Commission goes on to define six characteristics of good data quality:

• Accuracy – Information and data should be sufficiently accurate to present a fair picture of performance and enable informed decision-making at all appropriate levels. The need for accuracy must be balanced with the costs and effort of collection
• Validity – Information and data should represent clearly and appropriately the intended result. Where proxy data is used, bodies must consider the appropriateness of the proxy selected.
• Reliability – Information and data should reflect stable and consistent data collection processes and analysis methods across collection points and over time, whether using manual or computer based systems or a combination.
• Timeliness – Information and data must be available for the intended use within a reasonable time period.
• Relevance - The information and data reported should comprise the specific items of interest only.
• Completeness - All the relevant information and data should be recorded. Monitoring missing or invalid fields in a database can provide an indication of quality and can also point to problems in the recoding of certain items.

Personal Data

You must ensure that any application that handles personal data has the means to adhere to the Data Protection Act (1998)

You must also ensure that the Council Fair Processing Notice (FPN) is displayed at the appropriate point of data capture to the end user. Emails us for further guidance. 

Information Sharing

You must ensure that you adhere to the Information Sharing Protocol (ISP) if you application enables the sharing of data with other agencies and organisations. See our Information Sharing with Partners pages for more information

Information Retention and Disposal

An information stored in applications must adhere to the Councils Retention and Disposal Policy 

Cookies and UK Regulation

You must not store information of a member of public obtaining their services, unless the user "is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information" and "is given the opportunity to refuse the storage of or access to that information."  

Version History

Version: 1.0

Date: 11/11/11

Change: First draft

Author: Yasin Jassat