Principal FOI Officer (PO1)

Who You Are

You are calm under pressure, politically aware, and excellent at building trust. You bring proven experience in handling FOIs, EIRs, and ICO complaints, including internal reviews. You have strong coaching skills, motivate and guide services, set clear expectations, and provide constructive feedback. You have a track record of delivering projects on time and within budget, and effectively planning and managing resources. Your stakeholder management skills are excellent, and you are confident working across multiple service areas such as Adults, Children’s, Housing, Regeneration, and Customer Services. You maintain high standards of customer service and communicate professionally in spoken English when advising both the public and colleagues.

What the job involves

Your role involves leading the Council's approach to Freedom of Information (FOI), Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), and managing the interface with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You will act as the organisation's subject-matter expert, ensuring the quality of responses, coaching services, spotting trends, and driving performance improvements to maintain compliance and responsiveness. Your responsibilities include overseeing the FOI/ICO relationship, assuring quality by reviewing and signing off draft responses, providing robust advice on FOI, EIR, and the Data Protection Act, and championing transparency by aligning actions with the Local Government Transparency Code. You will collaborate widely across departments such as Legal, Governance, Digital, Data Protection, and frontline services to ensure a coordinated information management approach.

Skills

• Experience handling FOIs, EIRs, and ICO complaints
• Strong coaching abilities
• Project delivery and resource management
• Excellent stakeholder management
• High standards of customer service
• Clear, professional spoken English