Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Corporate Services

Councillor Garnham had brought this as an urgent item to Council because of the urgent nature of the content of the letter from the Cabinet Office dated 19 September 2013 in which it was made clear that Cheltenham Borough Council’s access to the PSN network could be switched off within 24 hours of the date of the Council meeting.

The Mayor confirmed to Members that she was of the opinion that the ICT network issue relating to the council’s PSN submission was sufficiently significant to the authority’s operations so as to justify its consideration as an urgent item of business at the meeting. It was agreed that Members could speak more than once in the debate.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services introduced the report and updated Members on the current position regarding PSN compliance. He explained that an extensive note had been separately issued which alerted public sector organisations to resourcing issues in the Cabinet Office. This note referred to 300+ organisations which needed extensive support to achieve compliance and that there was no immediate risk to suspension of PSN where there was genuine appetite and realistic plans to achieve compliance.

The Cabinet Member then highlighted the following:

• Access to the PSN allowed emails to be received and transmitted via the Government Connect Secure Extranet (GCSX). It was a requirement of the government that access should only be allowed if users completed an annual compliance assessment 
• The PSN rules required users to be compliant with a range of standards and criteria, when they are, they can use the GCSX to send and receive emails within an encrypted framework.
• The authority had been using GCSX as a method to transfer restricted data electronically since April 2009 and completed two previous assessments without issue.
• ICT Shared Service had been working on the current compliance submission and associated infrastructure work since April of this year with the compliance team for the Cabinet Office. Despite this, the Cabinet Office still issued formal warning letters to remind councils of deadlines.
• The management of the PSN compliance process and evidential requirements have changed substantially since last year which meant that the council had to provide significantly more evidence that the same ICT infrastructure, which had previously complied, still complied.
• The goalposts were moving on a continual basis with new guidance being provided on unmanaged end point devices as late as August 2013 which ICT responded to by amending its processes and guidance to remote workers connecting in to the council.
• He explained that this had therefore been a challenging process and had highlighted some key concerns for both officers and members and that there was a need to ensure that there was earlier engagement with the compliance team to address issues well ahead of the deadlines. He was confident that the new ICT shared service would ensure this happened.
• The Cabinet Member noted that that this had been a particularly challenging year for the ICT team and the more complex and stringent process had been adhered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14