The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are producing an online resource with topic-specific guidance on employment practices and data protection. They are releasing drafts of the different topic areas in stages and adding to the resource over time, and two new pieces of guidance are now out for public consultation:
ELA will be responding to this consultation and invites ELA members to apply to join the working party which will draft both of ELA’s responses. The working party will be co-chaired by Catrina Smith (Norton Rose Fulbright) and Jennifer Sole (Curzon Green).
The deadline for submissions is 5 March 2024. Those applying will therefore need to have availability to work on this over the next few weeks as we will be looking to finalise the draft by 27th February 2024.
Click here to complete a short application form and we will select the working party members only from those who have applied. Applications will close at 5pm on Wednesday 31 January 2024. We are keen to ensure we have balanced representation on the working party representing all sides of the debate. We would also encourage ELA Junior Members to apply as we will be including a junior member within the party.
How ELA working parties work
A typical working party will organise its work by sharing out the consultation questions amongst the working party members. In this way, the work can be shared out evenly, and members can volunteer to take on as much or as little as they feel able to at the time. Each working party member will then draft a response to the question(s) they have agreed to take on, within the agreed timetable. The submission deadlines are often quite tight, so it is vital that everyone keeps to the timetable. The chair(s) of the working party (who are almost always drawn from the L&P Committee) will then pull the individual submissions together and edit them for consistency, ensuring that our submissions are politically neutral and address the concerns of both employees and employers.