Freedom of information

Publication scheme

Prepared under Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Preamble

Plymouth City Council (the Council) is a Unitary Authority with a responsibility for providing services to the people of Plymouth. The Council's priorities are providing sustainable economic activity, ensuring provision for the elderly young and disabled people and tackling exclusion, improving education standards, the environment and tourism. The Council realises the need to be customer focused in its dealings and ensure its services are delivered competently and professionally.

Responsibility for this scheme lies with the City Solicitor, Plymouth City Council, Civic Centre, Plymouth PL1 2AA.

Responsibility for maintaining the scheme on a day to day basis lies with the post of the Data Protection and Information Officer.

Background

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 received Royal Assent on the 30 November 2000. It gives a general right of access to recorded information held by public authorities, sets out exemptions from that right and places a number of obligations on public authorities. A public authority is defined in the Act and includes but is not restricted to central and local government, non-departmental public bodies, the Police, the Health Service and schools, colleges and universities. Any person who makes a request to a public authority for information must be informed whether the public authority holds that information and, subject to exemptions, supplied with that information.

Local Authorities have, for some time, been subject to legislation requiring openness, for example the public have a high level of access to meetings, to most reports and minutes of decisions; and in the context of audit legislation, access to detailed financial information; also environmental information is available under the Environmental Information Regulations 1992. Individuals have the right of access to information about themselves under the Data Protection Act 1998. As far as public authorities are concerned, the Freedom of Information Act will extend this right to allow public access to all types of information held, subject to a range of exemptions, which are set out in the Act.

Every public authority is required to adopt and maintain a publication scheme setting out:

• the classes of information it publishes or intends to publish
• the manner in which it intends to publish the information
• whether a charge will be made for the information

Access to classes of information published

Classes of information already available to the public are set out in Appendix 1 of this document, along with details of how to obtain the information and any charges payable for the information. Persons accessing the Appendix will find a key to abbreviations used. It is suggested that this key is understood prior to looking through the main information.

Classes of information, which the Council intends to publish in the future, are set out in Appendix 2 of this document.

Whereas the Act requires public authorities to give details of  classes of information, the Council appreciates the need to be as open and transparent as possible in its dealing with the public and has detailed the published information in a manner which makes it as easily and clearly recognisable as possible by everyone accessing this document.

The purpose of a scheme is to ensure a significant amount of information is available, without the need for a specific request. Schemes are intended to encourage organisations to publish more information proactively and to develop a greater culture of openness.

Other information available on request

If the information required is not included within the classes of information referred to above, then it may still be available under the terms of the Act unless it is the subject of an exemption. The exemptions are set out in Appendix 3 to this document. The first part of the list of exemptions are absolute and if the information required falls within these categories it cannot be made available. The second part of the exemptions list is subject to the public interest test. If information requested falls within these categories, then the Council has to decide whether it would be in the public interest to release the information.

An individual has the right to request information held by the Council relating specifically to him or herself under the Data Protection Act 1998. An application made on this basis falls outside the remit of the Freedom of Information Act. However, if an application made under the Freedom of Information Act requests information about any individual, then the Council must comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act and respect the privacy of individuals.

As stated in paragraph 3 above, the information and publications which are set out in Appendix 1 are presently available at any time on request. Those which may become available in the future are set  out in Appendix 2 and these too would, in due course, be available on request.

However, information which is not included within this Publication Scheme may be available under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as from January 2005 in which case note should be taken of the following:

Procedures for making requests

The Act gives applicants two rights:

• the right to be told whether the information requested exists
• the right to be given the information (subject to the limitations of the exemptions referred to above).

The Act comes into force in January 2005. Other than those documents referred to in the Appendices hereto, there is no right to request information under the Act until that date, but as from January 2005 the Act is retrospective, ie all information held by the Council on any subject may be requested. Applicants should, however, bear in mind that Councils do not keep records and documents forever. Some may be kept longer than others but, apart from deeds, it is unlikely that many documents or files will be kept for more than 20 years and, in some cases, much shorter periods will apply.

All applications for information under the Act must be made in writing to the person responsible for the day to day maintenance of the scheme details of whom are set out in paragraph 3 above. The applicant should provide full details of their name and address for correspondence and as much information as possible to enable staff to identify the information sought. If information is required in a particular format, for example a photocopy or computer record etc., then the request should make this clear. The Council will do its best to comply with the formatted request and, if unable to do so, shall do its best to supply an alternative acceptable format.

The Council generally has 20 working days to respond to a request.

A fee may be charged for information. This may be based upon an hourly charge for locating and copying records. No charge may be made for time spent in considering requests. Central Government will, in due course, issue Fees Regulations setting out the manner of calculating fees. If a fee is required the 20 working days response time will be extended by up to 3 months until the fee is paid.

If the Council considers that the information requested should not be made available because of an exemption applying then the applicant will be informed of this; no charge would be made in these circumstances.

Rights of review and appeal

The Council will be as open as possible in supplying both information included within the Publication Scheme (Appendix 1 and 2 of this document) and, following from a request under the Act. However, as explained above, the Council may withhold information if it considers that its release would cause significant harm.

If information within a document made available under this Publication Scheme is withheld then the document should be marked to show where information has been removed and the exemption used.

If the Council refuses to supply all or part of any other information requested, it will write to the applicant setting out the reasons for refusal.

If an applicant is not satisfied with the reasons given then there is a right of appeal.

Applicants should initially seek an internal review of the decision within the Council by writing to the person with responsibility for the day to day administration of the Scheme (paragraph 3 above). Review of the Councils initial decision will be carried out by two Officers of the Council who are not involved in making the original decision. The outcome of the internal review will be communicated to the applicant, if possible, within 20 working days. This period may be extended by agreement between the parties.

If an applicant remains dissatisfied with the outcome of his/her application then they may seek an independent review of the decision by the Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner is responsible for the regulation of both the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts. Requests for a review by the Commissioner should be made in writing directly to the Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF telephone 01625 545700 fax 01625 545510.

An internal Council review should be completed before an appeal can be made to the Information Commissioner.

Copyright

Copyright restrictions may apply to individual documents listed within the publication scheme. In the majority of cases copyright statements appear on the document/publication. In all other cases you should assume that copyright lies with Plymouth City Council and copies of documents etc. provided to you should not be made without the specific consent of the Council.

Changes to the scheme

It is intended that this acheme should be a living document and as such will be updated annually. Following each review it is anticipated that new material will be added or references changed to include the most up to date information.

Access to the scheme

This document is also available as a printed document (normal and large print).

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