Project Description

Using e-Redact has reduced subject access turnaround times by 40%.

Download a printable case study

The challenge

Subject access requests from the public, regarding information held about them, has been increasing rapidly over the years. 

Before the council discovered e-Redact, they reviewed client cases manually and applied a marker pen to remove sensitive information. The issue was that, often, sensitive data remained visible underneath the pen and the redactor had to search through an entire document for repeat instances of a word.  In addition, the paperwork had to be photocopied twice and locating the manually redacted copy following release was problematic due to incorrect filing. 

Altogether, the entire procedure was time consuming, expensive and unreliable.

The strategy

There was a very obvious need for an electronic redaction system whereby documents could be scanned, saved and re-opened when further alterations were required and when output needed to be shared with other team members. 

E-Redact was therefore implemented as a matter of urgency due to spiralling costs and issues caused by human error.

The benefits

  • Redaction process is wholly electronic

  • No requirement for additional staff

  • Search term functionality improved accuracy and quality 

  • Text remained visible under opaque layer 

  • Simple to use

  • Hours of redacting time saved

  • E-files instantly emailed to the requester

  • Significant cost savings on postage and photocopying

  • Redactions applied later to larger documents 

  • Irreversible output that aligns with PD:0008 

  • 100% FOI, DPA, EIR compliance 

ROI for Aberdeen City Council

40% time saving through search terms

Subject access turnaround times reduced by 40%

e-Redact reduced our subject access turnaround times by 40%. In turn, this has allowed us to process more requests with the same staff numbers and in many cases respond to the requester more quickly.

Trevor Gillespie, Social Care and Wellbeing Team Manager, Aberdeen City Council

We would happily recommend e-Redact for its ease of use and its time cost saving features.

Trevor Gillespie, Social Care and Wellbeing Team Manager, Aberdeen City Council

The benefits of e-Redact

Fast and secure

The manual redaction tool allows information to be removed quickly and easily using the rectangle or scribble redaction tools.

No more manual redaction

The manual redaction has been proven to redact files 80% more efficiently than other conventional photocopying and marker pen redaction techniques.

100% FoI, DPA & EIR compliant

All e-Redact tools are 100% compliant with the Freedom of Information (FoI), Data Protection Act (DPA) and Environmental Information Request (EIR) legislation.

Flexible

Redact any point within any document, scanned paper file, email, spreadsheet, well any file at all really. The manual tool can remove tiny intricate points in a file or entire pages, it’s up to you.

Irreversible

Redactions applied cannot be undone within the Redacted Copy file providing total peace of mind.

Environmentally friendly

e-Redact removes the need to repeat photocopy and physically remove information from paper-based files as all redactions are carried out online. Even paper-based files do not need to be re-printed after scanning into e-Redact.