Parish Council
The stimulus for this review was the recognition that the use of personal accounts by councillors for parish emails was a security risk, and did not comply with GDPR. If a data request was made, councillors could have their entire personal emails and computers open to scrutiny. In addition, although the existing OneDrive account enabled the Clerk’s documents to be stored online, and some documents to be shared, it was not suitable for collaborative working.
The excerpt from the Practitioners’ Guide in Appendix A shows the current guidance on IT matters from the authorities. The only action that Councils MUST comply with is having a website, which we already do, although I would recommend that the Parish Council should be a top-level menu item, rather than hidden as one of the groups and committees. I am happy to change that, particularly as one of the top-level items is about Covid and links to a ‘Coming Soon’ page!
In all the issues outlined below, it should be remembered that the Council did not include any IT changes in the budget for 2023/24, and only has £200 contingency which is possibly already earmarked for coronation expenditure. I also appear to have made a mistake in the budget for the website; forgetting that there was £50 in the Transparency Code Fund for this year, which will not be there next year.
Please see the table below for comparisons of the top four providers.
Issues Considered
I have asked Spencer how many emails are included in the domain hosting.
2. Gov.uk – The Practitioners’ Guide also recommends that councils use a gov.uk domain. However, the main issue here is cost; we currently pay £15 a year for the Sticklepath.org domain through Spencer Stallion (AB Web Design) who registers the domain for us. For a .Gov domain, according to https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-your-govuk-domain-name?step-by-step-nav=5a9309a3-9a80-4faa-b24f-1797023e897f “The baseline cost for a new domain name is £100 plus VAT for the first 2 years. The renewal fee every 2 years after that is £50 plus VAT. You can expect your registrar to charge a markup depending on the level of service they provide.”
A decision would have to be made as to whether the current website would move to the gov.uk domain, or whether we would maintain two domains. A gov.uk website would expect to have the Parish Council at its heart, which the current website does not. Any reorganisation of the website would cost money, and/or time.
3. Online Storage – For security and GDPR reasons all Council files are stored online, where they are backed up. No data is stored on the Clerk’s computer. At present a OneDrive account is used to hold the data. This can be shared, but access cannot easily then be withdrawn. Anybody with the link to the current shared folder can access it. If all councillors have council email accounts, then storage can be linked to these, and access can be restricted to current members. Members could also have storage of their own, so that there are no confidential documents on their computers (although this would cost more). The current OneDrive account is designed as a personal account, and at times does not appear to work correctly, depending on how it is accessed.
4. Collaboration – The current OneDrive does not support collaboration. However, it is questionable whether there is a need for several people to work on the same document, or whether it is better to have a person in control of each document and to feed edits through that person. It is necessary for all councillors to be able to upload documents to a shared space.
5. Task Lists – A shared task list system, that could enable the clerk councillors to view responsibilities, and/or to transfer tasks if necessary, would be useful, but not essential.
6. Calendar – A shared calendar would be a useful source of information, but we do not have a lot of information for it, so not essential.
7. Chat – We currently use WhatsApp, which seems to work well. It is secure, and instant. Although a chat associated with the email would be more integrated, I would worry that councillors would not look at it regularly in the way that they do WhatsApp. For instant messaging, a familiar app is critical to effective use.
8. Capacity – Since we need at least 8, preferably 10 email addresses (1 per councillor, 1 clerk, hardship and chair), I have not included any options which do not include this e.g. Microsoft Family.
Many of the offerings from the suppliers of Council IT systems include the use of business software such as Word, Excel etc, and the supply of dedicated laptops for each councillor. These provide an integrated, uniform, secure environment for members and the Clerk. Since these are out of the range of our budget, I have not considered these, although they are often included in packages with email, so I have sometimes detailed them in the comparison.
Please see the table below for data on which the following are based.
3. Use Zoho for parish council mail. Pay a total of £92.16 (including VAT) for a year’s email for 7 councillors and the clerk. To come from reserves.
and
a) Use Zoho for Document Storage. Pay an additional £23.04 (including VAT) for file storage for the clerk on top of the Zoho email.
and
b) Defer implementation until after the election and the end of this financial year.
and
c) chair@sticklepath.org to be an alias for the current chair, as it will be difficult to distinguish mail directed to the role rather than the person. Emails can be sent from it.
4.
a) Use an email alias for the hardship@sticklepath.org account to avoid paying an additional £11.52 (including VAT)
or
b) Pay the additional £11.52 (including VAT) to keep the hardship fund administrator emails separate from the councillor’s emails.
PDF version showing this table better
| Option | Current | Microsoft | Zoho | Proton | |
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | Google Workspace | Zoho Mail and WorkDrive | ProtonMail and ProtonDrive | ||
| https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products-b | https://workspace.google.com/intl/en_uk/pricing.html
|
https://www.zoho.com/mail/zohomail-pricing.html?src=mpd-menu
|
https://proton.me/business | ||
| Own accounts | 50GB per email | 15GB per email | 5GB per user | 15GB per user | |
| Online Storage | Personal 5GB OneDrive | 1 TB per user
OneDrive |
30GB per user
GoogleDrive |
1 TB per team | 200 GB single drive |
| Collaboration | None | Microsoft Teams Meetings.
Co-authoring in Office 365.
|
Google Meet meetings | Meetings included with Mail.
File Sharing/locking/versioning included with storage |
No meeting software |
| Tasks | Own systems | Microsoft Teams To Do and Planner | Google Tasks | Tasks included with Mail | Does not appear to have tasks. |
| Calendar | Own systems | Shared Outlook Calendars | Google Calendars | Calendar included with Mail | Calendar included with Mail |
| Chat | Microsoft Teams Chat | Google Chat | |||
| Also included | Web and Mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Ability to prevent forwarding and copying of documents. |
Docs, Sheets, Slides etc. (Google versions of Office apps). | (with storage) Zoho Office Apps | Enhanced security. | |
| Cost | Included in website costs.
£0 |
£4.50 per user/month excluding VAT.
£518.40 (inc. VAT) |
£4.60 per user/month excluding VAT.
£529.92 (inc. VAT)
|
£0.80 per user/month billed annually – email
£2 per user/month billed annually for storage Both £322.56 (inc. VAT) Just email £92.16 (inc. VAT) Email + Clerk Storage £115.20 |
6.99 euro per user/moth (10 emails per user)
Drive 47.88 euros/year (no tax?)
Both £550 (approx. conversion) Just email £507 (approx. conversion) |
| Pros | WhatsApp is instant because we are all using it. | Known apps, integrated functionality, security, support. | Integrated functionality, security, support. | Integrated functionality, security, support.
Cheap, especially for just email. Email used by Clerk at Belstone, so confident it works. Customisable, could have just our file storage for Clerk. |
Very Secure.
Well recommended. |
| Cons | Contrary to good Practice.
Unreliable Drive. No shared calendar, tasks or collaboration. Bad support, no control on accounts. No integrated spam service
|
Too expensive, larger than we need.
Cannot customise to only get functions we need. Stores data about users, but can be deleted. |
Too expensive, larger than we need.
Cannot customise to only get functions we need. Stores data about users, but can be deleted. |
Unfamiliar to most users, but does integrate with usual mail apps, so shouldn’t notice! | Expensive, less for the cost than Google or Microsoft. |
Further Information
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-email-provider
https://restoreprivacy.com/email/secure/
https://www.wired.com/story/google-tracks-you-privacy/
https://yourconsumerinsider.com/business%20email
Excerpt from the Joint Panel on Accountability and Governance (JPAG) Practitioners’ Guide which defines the ‘proper practices’ for councils. JPAG’s membership consists of sector representatives from the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), the Society of Local Council Clerks (SLCC) and the Association of Drainage Authorities (ADA). Together with stakeholder partners representing the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), the National Audit Office (NAO), and a representative of the external audit firms appointed to smaller authorities.
The importance of secure email systems and GOV.UK
5.204. All authorities except Parish meetings must now have an official website. To comply with GDPR, councils should provide official email accounts for their councillors as well as for their Clerk and other officers.
5.205. When choosing a domain name for the council’s website and emails, many local council websites are appropriately making use of the official GOV.UK domain (for example, ourparishcouncil.gov.uk), with email addresses being linked to that domain.
5.206. Using a GOV.UK domain for your council website and email accounts demonstrates the council’s official local government status. Members of the public are increasingly cyber security aware, so a GOV.UK domain can also help to build trust, credibility and visibly demonstrates authenticity. Many people will now reasonably expect a local council to have a GOV.UK domain name.
5.207. For the purposes of user management, councils should ensure that the Proper Officer can add and remove member and staff email accounts. Commercial ‘dashboard’ email and web systems offer centralised searching of all data contained within the system for effective compliance with GDPR Subject Access Requests and Freedom of Information Requests.
Parish Clerk – Sally Fullwood