REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION

The Council will comply with all requests for information in accordance with the appropriate statutory regimes and will endeavour to assist the public in exercising their ‘right to know’ by ensuring that such regimes are understood by its employees and internal procedures are in place to facilitate access.

All recorded information, personal and non-personal, held by the Council in any format is subject to a statutory access regime under the DPA, the FOIA or other existing legislation.

Personal Information

Requests for access to recorded personal information by the individuals to whom the information relates will be processed by the Council in accordance with the requirements of Section 7 of the DPA 1998.

Requests must be submitted in writing and must provide a name, postal address and sufficient details to ensure that the identity of the applicant can be confirmed.

Applicants should refer to the DPA when they make a request for access to their personal information and to this end the Council uses a standard hard copy application form, which helps applicants to make valid requests.  In order to further facilitate access and help applicants the Council will provide an on-line application form for DPA purposes.

There is no requirement for applicants to use application forms and correspondence that provides all the necessary details will be accepted as valid requests.

All officers of the Council will respond positively to an enquiry by an individual about accessing their personal information and will follow the Council’s subject access procedures. These are available on the Council’s Intranet service or from DP Representatives/TIMs.

Applicants will not be asked to explain the purpose of their request, although in the course of clarifying requests and ascertaining exactly what information is being sought by an applicant it may be necessary to seek further information from them.

Information under the FOIA

Any request for recorded information held by the Council in any format will be treated as a request under the FOIA, unless another statutory access right applies.

Requests will be accepted from any individual or organisation worldwide, this includes the Press and other media agencies.

Requests must be submitted in writing and must provide a name. The Council will respond to email or facsimile correspondence, since the full identity and postal address of the individual or organisation is of little consequence under the FOIA regime.

Applicants will not be required to refer to the Act in any correspondence requesting information, but the Council will provide a standard hard copy and on-line application form to help applicants to make valid requests.

There is no requirement for applicants to use application forms and correspondence, emails or facsimiles that provide all the necessary details will be accepted as valid requests.

All officers of the Council will respond positively to an enquiry about access to information by an individual or organisation and will follow the Council’s access to information procedures. These are available on the Council’s Intranet service or from DP Representatives/TIMs.

Applicants will not be required to explain the purpose of their request, although in the course of clarifying requests and ascertaining exactly what information is being sought by an applicant it may be necessary to seek further information from them.  (Provision of Advice & Assistance’).

Requests for information will not be processed under the FOIA access regime in the following circumstances:-

*  The information does not exist in a recorded format and/or is information that is intended for future publication.  The Council will not generate new, recorded information that it does not currently hold in order to meet a request for information.  It will, however, endeavour to advise the applicant of recorded information that it does hold that is relevant to the request and goes some way to meet it.  It will also advise if the requested information is likely to be published in the future and, if so, when;

*  The information has already been pro-actively published by the Council (i.e., the information is publicly available and therefore “readily accessible by other means”, so applicants should be referred to the source of the information);

*  The information is already available via an existing charged service, e.g. public registers;

*  The information is subject to existing legislation where statutory access rights apply either to the Council or any other public authority. The FOIA does not override or replace the statutory access rights afforded by existing legislation.