Report on the webinar “What's it Really Like Working in Government Information in 2024?”, Thursday 3 October 2024, by Susan Paterson
Susan Paterson, is an acting high school librarian working towards CILIP Chartership. On Thursday 3 rd October 2024 the CILIP Government Information Group (GIG) hosted the webinar “What’s it Really Like Working in Government Information?” which aimed to give insight into a range of roles within the sector. It was introduced and recorded by the Chair of the session, Naeem Yar and took the format of four professionals explaining what they do and answering questions about that. Tim Hayward (Lead Freedom of Information Business Partner, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) spoke first and explained his role and various remits such as housing, planning, policy development and building safety. There are 18 in the FOI team working on data protection and FOI requests. Tim explained the time deadlines they work towards to meet legislation and exemptions they have when information should not be issued. He shared some costs for them carrying out FOI requests and when it
