Information Governance and Data Security Policy Writers

What are Information Governance and Data Security Policies?

Information governance and data security policies outline how organisations manage and protect information so that it is accurate, available, secure and used responsibly.

Strong governance and security controls help ensure compliance with legislation, reduce risks of data loss or misuse, and build trust with customers, employees and regulators.

A clear policy ensures that staff understand their responsibilities in protecting information and that data is managed in line with best practice.

What Do Information Governance and Data Security Policies Cover?

An information governance and data security policy typically includes:

• Roles and responsibilities of staff, managers and information governance leads

• Procedures for collecting, storing, accessing, sharing and disposing of information securely

• Standards for ensuring data quality, accuracy and reliability

• Access control measures to protect sensitive or restricted data

• Compliance with data protection laws, including UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018

• Security measures to safeguard confidentiality, integrity and availability of information

• Procedures for incident reporting, data breaches and corrective action

• Training and awareness requirements for staff handling data and systems

• Links to data protection, confidentiality, records management, IT security and audit policies

A clear policy helps employees understand how information must be handled and what safeguards must be applied across the organisation.

It also supports compliance with UK data protection legislation, ISO/IEC 27001 standards, and sector-specific requirements such as the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit for healthcare organisations.

By embedding strong information governance and security practices, organisations can improve operational efficiency, maintain compliance and strengthen stakeholder confidence in the responsible use of information.

Legal Basis and Standards

This policy combines information governance and data security, suitable for organisations that prefer a single combined document over separate IG and IS policies.

Legal anchors include UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, ISO 27001:2022 (the 2022 revision's 93 controls in 4 themes), the NCSC 10 Steps to Cyber Security, and Cyber Essentials.

Common Compliance Pitfalls

• Combined policy that fails to give either discipline (governance / security) the depth needed for audit.
• Roles unclear: who is the SIRO, who is the security lead, how do they coordinate.
• Personal-data flows not mapped to underlying systems, breaking the security risk assessment.
• No documented review cadence, so policy becomes stale within 12-18 months.
• Subcontractor and cloud-service security expectations absent or generic.

What Policy Pros Delivers

Our Information Governance and Data Security Policy package combines the IG framework with ISO 27001-aligned security controls in a single coherent document.

It covers Information Asset Register, classification, retention, security-by-design, access control, supplier security, incident response, and the role definitions required to operate the policy effectively.