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The Campaign for Freedom of Information Suite 102, 16 Baldwins Gardens London EC1N 7RJ Tel: 020 7831 7477 Web: www.cfoi.org.uk Campaign for Freedom of Information Ltd. Registered in England no. 1781526. Registered office as above A Short Guide to the Freedom of Information Act and Other New Access Rights Version 1.0 January 28 2005 CONTENTS 1. Introduction page 2 2. Obtaining information page 5 3. Model letter page 10 4. Charges page 11 5. When information can be withheld page 15 6. Challenging decisions page 17 7. Exemptions and the public interest test page 22 Table 1. FOI exemptions to which the public interest test applies page 26 Table 2. FOI exemptions to which the public interest test does not apply page 29 Table 3. EIR Exemptions page 31 8. Obtaining your own personal data page 33 This guide has been produced with the assistance of a grant from the Nuffield Foundation. The Campaign for Freedom of Information’s work is also supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Allen Lane Foundation, UNISON, the Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation and by donations from individuals. © Campaign for Freedom of Information -2- 1. INTRODUCTION On January 1 2005, five important new rights to information came into force:  The Freedom of Information Act 2000  The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002  The Environmental Information Regulations 2004  The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004  Amendments to the Data Protection Act 1998 Freedom of Information The Freedom of Information Act gives you a wide-ranging right to see all kinds of information held by the government and public authorities. You can use the Act to find out about a problem affecting your community and to check whether an authority is doing enough to deal with it; to see how effective a policy has been; to find out about the authority’s spending; to check whether an authority is doing what it says it is and to learn more about the real reasons for decisions. Authorities will only be able to withhold information if an exemption in the Act allows them to. Even exempt information may have to be disclosed in the public interest. If you think information has been improperly withheld you can complain to the independent Information Commissioner, who can order disclosure. There are actually two new Freedom of Information Acts, one for the whole of the UK except Scotland and another for Scotland:  The Freedom of Information Act 2000 applies to UK government departments - including those operating in Scotland - and public authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It also applies to the House of Commons, the House of Lords and to the Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies.  The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 provides similar, though slightly better, rights to information held by the Scottish Executive, Scottish public authorities and the Scottish Parliament. -3- The UK Act is enforced by the UK Information Commissioner and the Scottish Act by the Scottish Information Commissioner. Environmental information If the information you want relates to the environment, your request will not be dealt with under the FOI Act but under new Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs). These implement a European Union directive and provide a stronger right of access than the FOI Acts. A notable feature is that information about emissions to the environment cannot be withheld on grounds of commercial confidentiality. There are two sets of EIRs, one for the UK and another for Scotland, also enforced by the UK Information Commissioner and the Scottish Information Commissioner. The definition of “environmental information” is surprisingly wide. It includes information about the state of the air, water, land, natural sites and living organisms including genetically modified organisms. It covers emissions or discharges to the air, water or land including energy, noise and radiation. Information about legislation, policies, plans, activities, administrative and other measures likely to affect any of these or intended to protect them is covered. So are assessments of the costs or benefits of such measures and reports on the implementation of environmental legislation. To the extent that any of these factors affect human health or safety, food contamination, living conditions, built structures or cultural sites, the information about these matters is also environmental information. Personal information Your rights to see personal information held about you by public authorities have also been strengthened. The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) already entitles you to see many kinds of personal information about yourself, whether held by public or private bodies. This law has now been amended by the FOI Act to improve your rights to see personal information held by public bodies. The right to information held by private bodies has not been affected. The UK Information Commissioner enforces this right across the whole of the UK including Scotland. -4- This guide This guide explains what these new laws do and how you can use them. It deals mainly with questions such as how to make a request and how to challenge refusals. More detailed information about the exemptions and the public interest test will be published later.  In most cases, the process of applying for information or challenging refusals is the same whether you are using the FOI Act or the EIRs. Where there are significant differences, the guide points them out.  If you are applying for personal information about yourself under the Data Protection Act, the process is different and is described separately at the end of the guide.  Where the UK and Scottish FOI Acts are identical, the guide sometimes refers to ‘the Act’, in the singular. Where the UK and Scottish Environmental Information Regulations are identical, it refers to them as ‘the regulations’ or ‘the EIRs’ without separately referring to both sets. -5- 2. OBTAINING INFORMATION Which bodies are covered by the legislation? The UK Freedom of Information Act applies to public authorities at all levels: central government departments and agencies; local authorities; NHS bodies including individual GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists; schools, colleges and universities; the police, the armed forces, quangos, regulators, advisory bodies, publicly owned companies and the BBC and Channel 4 (though not in relation to journalistic materials). The Houses of Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and, if reconvened, the Northern Ireland Assembly are all also covered. UK authorities which operate in Scotland are covered by the UK Act. For the full list of bodies covered see: http://www.foi.gov.uk/coverage.htm The Scottish Freedom of Information Act applies to the Scottish Executive and its agencies, the Scottish Parliament, local authorities, NHS bodies, police forces, schools, colleges and universities and other Scottish authorities. For a full list see: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/foiact8.htm Courts and tribunals are not covered by either Act nor are the security and intelligence services. Individual private bodies with public functions, or private contractors providing services on behalf of a public authority, can be brought under the UK or Scottish FOI Act. A Parliamentary order will have to be made to do this. If it is, you will be able to apply for information about those functions or services directly to the private body. No private bodies have been included at the time of writing. The Environmental Information Regulations apply to authorities which are covered by the FOI Acts and to any other public authorities including courts and tribunals1 and the security and intelligence services. Private contractors providing environmental services, consultancy or research for public authorities are also covered. What information is covered by the FOI Act and EIRs? The FOI Act and EIRs apply to any recorded information held by or on behalf of an authority. This includes paper records, emails, information stored on computer, audio or video cassettes, microfiche, maps, photographs, handwritten notes or any other form of recorded information. Unrecorded information which is known to officials but not recorded is not covered. 1 The right of access to environmental information held by courts and tribunals will apply to information about their administrative functions - not to information about the cases they deal with. -6- The age of the information is irrelevant. The new rights apply to information recorded at any time, including information obtained before the FOI Act or EIRs came into force. Anyone who destroys a record after you have asked for it, in order to prevent its disclosure, would commit a criminal offence. But it is not an offence to destroy records which have not been requested. Do authorities have to publish information under the Act? Before requesting information under the FOI Act or EIRs it is usually worth checking what information the authority has already published. In particular, have a look at the authority’s ‘publication scheme’. The Act requires every authority to have a publication scheme describing the classes of information that it publishes or intends to publish and saying whether there is any charge for it. These should be available on the authority’s website and in hard copy on request. The schemes must be approved by the Information Commissioner and are then legally binding. Where an authority’s scheme commits the uploads/Religion/ the-campaign-for-freedom-of-information-suite-102-16-baldwins-gardens-london-ec1n-7rj-tel-020-7831-7477.pdf