Access to Information Policy p2
1 Introduction
Information is a valued corporate and public asset.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) gives the public a general right of access to information held by public authorities, with the aim to increase openness and accountability in the public sector.
Aim
This policy covers both the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and is a statement of how the Council intends to ensure compliance with the legislation.
Scope
The policy applies to all Council employees and elected representatives.
All information held by the Council is potentially eligible for release but certain categories may be protected and therefore an exemption under the FOIA or an exception under the EIR will apply.
This policy applies to all information the Council processes regardless of how it was created or received, including information in the possession of third parties which is held on behalf of the Council.
It applies to all forms of information, whether the in paper or electronic format.
Responsibilities
The Chief Executive has overall responsibility for the Access to Information Policy.
Each Director is responsible for ensuring operational compliance with this policy within their own departments and for routine requests where information is released in accordance with a request, whether written or not.
All Elected Members and staff members have responsibility for following the Access to Information policy and procedures.
The Policy Team, Corporate Services Department is responsible for managing all requests and providing advice on the application of the legislation and policy.
Relevant staff members will have responsibility for answering the requests and will provide advice and guidance on whether or not an exemption or exception applies.
The Chief Executive is the Qualified Person for determining whether disclosure would be likely to prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs (Section 36, FOIA) and will have the final say on disclosure.
2 Access to Information
Access to Information is principally governed by the following legislation:
- Data Protection Legislation – UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016 and the Data Protection Act 2018.
This relates to personal information held by the Council and the right of an individual to access their own personal information. - The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI), provides the right of access to any information held by public bodies and not subject to any statutory exemptions.
Requests must be in made in writing.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities. public authorities are obliged to publish certain information about their activities (Publication Scheme); and members of the public are entitled to request information from public authorities (Requests for Information).
The Council has 20 working days to deal with a request and provide any relevant information subject to limited exemptions. - The Environmental Information Regulations Act 2004, (EIR) enables access to environmental information held by the Council.
For example, information about land development, pollution levels, energy production and waste management.
Requests can be made verbally or in writing.
The Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations are comparable with some minor differences in their application.
Due to the similarity between them, this policy will mainly refer to the Freedom of Information Act throughout.
Appendix A – Environmental Information Regulations is available for further details.
3 Publication Scheme
Under the Freedom of Information Act, all public authorities are required to adopt and maintain a publication scheme.
The publication scheme is designed to increase transparency and allow members of the public to routinely access information relating to the function of a public authority.
The publication scheme commits an authority to make information available to the public as part of its normal business activities.
The information covered is included in the classes of information mentioned below.
Classes of Information:
- Who we are and what we do.
Organisational information, locations and contacts. - What we spend and how we spend it.
Financial information relating to projected and actual income and expenditure, tendering, procurement and contracts. - What our priorities are and how we are doing.
Strategy and performance information. - How we make decisions.
Policy proposals and decisions.
Decision making processes, internal criteria and procedures, consultations. - Our policies and procedures.
Current written protocols for delivering our functions and responsibilities. - Lists and registers.
Information held in registers required by law and other lists and registers relating to the functions of the authority. - The services we offer.
Advice and guidance, booklets and leaflets, transactions and media releases.
A description of the services offered.
The classes of information will not generally include:
- Information the disclosure of which is prevented by law, or exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, or is otherwise properly considered to be protected from disclosure.
- Information in draft form.
- Information that is no longer readily available as it is contained in files that have been placed in archive storage or is difficult to access for similar reasons.
During the implementation of this Policy, it will be a priority to consolidate the information Council routinely publishes online as prescribed by the legislation.
If information requested is contained within the Council’s publication scheme, the request will not be treated as a formal request (see Appendix B – The Publication (Public Information) Scheme).
The requestor will be signposted to access the information via the Scheme.
4 A request for information
Anyone is entitled to request information from public bodies, regardless of their age, nationality, location, motive or history.
Any information held by the Council is eligible for release.
However, a limited number of exemptions may be applied to protect some information that truly warrants such protection.
Each legislation provides a right to access recorded information, not specifically documents.
The information may be contained in reports, policies, letters, emails etc., together with other information that has not been requested.
The information may be extracted from relevant documents and provided in a different format, in accordance with the appropriate legislation.
The generic term of Request for Information is used for formal requests for all information held by the Council, irrespective of which access regime is appropriate.
Appendix C provides more details on what constitutes a Request for Information.
Requests for personal information are dealt with separately under the Council’s Data Protection Policy.
4.1 Valid Requests
Requests should be made in writing, either in hard copy or electronically; state clearly what information is required; and state the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence.
Whilst requests for ‘environmental information’ may be made verbally, under the EIRs, applicants will be encouraged to submit written requests to avoid any misunderstanding of the request.
Requests can also be made via social media (Twitter and Facebook) however, we may require further information to fully complete this request.
To enable us to respond to any request fully we require an email or postal address where we can send a reply.
Applicants must provide their real name and not use a pseudonym.
Both email and postal addresses are acceptable.
Public authorities do not have to comply with requests that do not meet the above requirements.
The response to a request will confirm whether or not the Council holds the information, unless confirming whether or not the information is held would disclose exempted information.
If an exemption does not apply, the Council will provide the requested information.
If an exemption does apply, the Council will explain why the information cannot be provided, quoting a statutory exemption and the reasoning behind it.
A request for information may only be refused if an exemption under the relevant legislation applies.
In some cases, only some of the information will benefit from an exemption, in such cases the exempt information will be redacted (removed/blacked out) from that provided.
The response will state which exemption the Council relies on and the reasoning behind it and will provide details to the requester of the Internal Review Process.
4.2 Clarification
Where the Council receives an unclear or ambiguous request for information, it has a duty to provide help and assistance and we will offer to help the requester clarify the request.
The Council will answer a request based on what the requester has actually asked for, and not on what it thinks they would like.
Examples of unclear or ambiguous requests might be where there is more than one objective reading of the request, or the actual request suggests that other information would be of more use.