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Request for Exemption Process

The Government Connect Programme Board will establish an Exemption Committee to consider specific fixed time period requests by local authorities for exemption from the new data access policy. The Exemption Committee will be chaired by the Government Connect Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) – Kenny Robertson, DWP Director of Transformational Government – and will comprise a subset of the Programme Board, including the LGA, and other specialist advisors. In addition to reporting to the Government Connect Programme Board the Exemption Committee will also report to the DWP Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) – Joe Harley, DWP Director General Corporate Information Technology. In the event of dispute the DWP SIRO is the final escalation point and his decision concerning access to DWP data is final.

The Exemption Committee will consider fixed and specific time period requests by local authorities for exemption from the new data access policy subject to the following:

1. An exemption request is made in writing (by post or e-mail) by the local authority Section 151 officer and received no later than 30th September 2008. Exemption requests should be addressed to the Government Connect Exemption Committee c/o the Government Connect Programme Office.

2. An exemption request is for a specific, fixed and reasonable period of time not exceeding 6 months commencing 1st April 2009.

3. The local authority has obtained the GCSx Code of Connection and undertaken an initial review of its GCSx Code of Connection compliance in consultation with their Government Connect Regional Account Manager and submitted an initial draft of their completed Code of Connection to the Government Connect Assessment Team. Please go to the Government Connect web site to obtain details of your Regional Account Manager and to request a copy of the Code of Connection.

4. The local authority has agreed with the Government Connect Assessment Team areas of current compliance with the Code of Connection and has provided an action plan for compliance with all other mandatory controls the authority is not yet compliant with.

5. The local authority confirms it has commenced a formally governed project to implement GCSx including a compatible file transfer capability, achieving compliance with the Code of Connection and any other scope items required to achieve operational services over GCSx.

6. The local authority confirms it will make available to the Exemption Committee reasonable access to details of its project to implement GCSx including specifications, plans, risks, issues, management reports and occasional meetings with key members of the local authority project team.

The Exemption Committee will consider requests for exemption where it is evident that:

1. The reason for the exemption request is due to specific circumstances that mean it is not reasonable for the local authority to achieve a live GCSx service by 31st March 2009.

2. The local authority has made implementation of secure communication links an immediate priority and can demonstrate realistic aspirations to implement GCSx as soon as practicably possible.
   

Once a request has been made to the Government Connect Exemption Committee:

1. The Government Connect Exemption Committee will either accept a request for consideration or return the request to the local authority by the 7th October 2008.  Reasons for this may be that there is not sufficient evidence supporting the request.  Local authorities will have a 5 working day period in which they may reapply.
   
   
2. The Government Connect Exemption Committee will then consider the request and either grant the request to the local authority to an agreed date between 31st March 2009 and 30 September 2009; or reject the request. 
   
   
3. The local authority may then either resubmit their request to the Government Connect Exemption Committee within 5 working days, or may apply to present to a Government Connect appeal panel within the agreed time period.
   

Click here to view and print the GC Exemption Process Chart.