Freedom of Information FAQs – For organisations

Under the Freedom of Information Act, any individual, anywhere in the world, is able to make a request to a public authority for information. They do not have to indicate why they want the information. An applicant is entitled to be informed in writing as to whether the information is held and to have the information communicated to them or provided with an explanation why this is not being done.

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Any request made to a public authority in writing (including those transmitted by electronic means), stating the name of the applicant, including an address for correspondence and describing the information required, qualifies as a request for information.

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The Freedom of Information Act only applies to public authorities as defined in the Act and includes companies that are wholly owned by public authorities.

If an organisation is unsure whether it is required to comply with the Act it should contact the Ministry of Justice who have responsibility for coverage. A basic guide to whether you are covered can be found on the website of the Department for Constitutional Affairs, although this is no longer updated.

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Generally, a company owned by more than one public authority is not a public authority itself, and therefore is not covered.

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The Freedom of Information Act only applies to public authorities as defined by the Act itself.

Public authorities are obliged to provide information:

• through a publication scheme; and
• in response to requests made under the general right of access.

When responding to requests, there are set procedures that public authorities need to follow. These include:

• the time public authorities are allowed for responding to requests;
• the fees or amount that public authorities can charge for dealing with requests. Public authorities are not obliged to deal with requests if the costs of finding the information exceed a set amount known as the appropriate limit; and
• public authorities need not comply with vexatious or repeated requests.

Full details of these can be found in our guidance section.

The Act also recognises that there are valid reasons for withholding information by setting out a number of exemptions from right to know, some of which are subject to a public interest test. For further details see our exemptions guidance.

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The public interest test favours disclosure where a qualified exemption (or an exception) applies. In such cases, the information may be withheld only if the public authority considers that the public interest in withholding the information is greater than the public interest in disclosing it. Our awareness guidance explains how and when to apply the public interest test.

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You must inform the applicant in writing whether you hold the information requested and if so, communicate that information to the applicant, promptly, but not later than 20 working days after receipt of the request. In some circumstances a request may be refused.  If this is the case, a Refusal Notice must be issued to the applicant.  It should state what exemption has been applied and why, if the exemption is a qualified exemption then the public Interest test reasoning must also be explained. This notice must also be communicated to the applicant within the 20 working day time period.

A limited number of factors could extend this period, full details can be found in our guidance section.

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If you do not hold the information requested you must confirm this in writing within 20 working days. This is not technically classified as a ‘refusal notice’, but simply follows your duty to confirm or deny whether you hold it. When appropriate it is also useful to give an explanation of why you do not hold the information, particularly in cases where the information has been deleted in line with a disposal schedule. The authority also has a duty to provide advice and assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect it to do so in accordance with the Code of Practice. This could include advising an applicant if information is available elsewhere or assisting them in focusing their request, perhaps by advising of the types of information available within the requested category.

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You may refuse a request for information where:

• The request is vexatious or repeated.
• The cost of complying with the request exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’ (see FAQ on cost/fee limits).
• The information requested falls under one of the exemptions listed in Part II of the Freedom of Information Act.

Full details of what is exempt are listed in Part II of the Act and is in our guidance section.

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The Commissioner’s general approach is that a request (which may be the latest in a series of requests) can be treated as vexatious where it would impose a significant burden on the public authority in terms of expense or distraction and meets at least one of the following criteria.

• It clearly does not have any serious purpose or value
• It is designed to cause disruption or annoyance
• It has the effect of harassing the public authority
• It can otherwise fairly be characterised as obsessive or manifestly unreasonable.

This is not, however, intended to be a formulaic approach for every request, and each specific request should be looked at and assessed individually. For example, there could be occasions when the above statements are true, however a request should not be deemed vexatious due to its serious and proper purpose.

You may not refuse a request for information which should be available through your publication scheme (see FAQ on publication schemes) on the grounds that it is vexatious.

Full details can be found in the specific guidance on vexatious requests.

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Where you have previously complied with a request for information which was made by any person, you are not obliged to comply with a subsequent identical or substantially similar request from that person unless a reasonable interval has elapsed between compliance with the previous request and the making of the current request.

Although there is no definition in the Freedom of Information Act of a ‘reasonable interval’, we have published guidance that will help you determine whether a request may be ‘repeated’ and provides guidance for public authorities on how to deal with them.

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A publication scheme sets out the kinds of information that a public authority should make routinely available. The information should be easy for the authority and any individual to find and use. Public authorities must adopt a publication scheme approved by the Information Commissioner. To reduce duplication and bureaucracy and to ensure consistency in the release of information, the Information Commissioner’s Office has developed a model publication scheme that any public authority can use.

All public sector organisations are being encouraged to adopt the pre approved model scheme on the 1 January 2009.

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A model scheme classifies information at a high level and broadly states the way authorities can provide information and what they can charge for. All public sector organisations are being encouraged to adopt our new model scheme on the 1 January 2009.

The model specifies seven classes of information. To maximise the routine release of information the categories have been set at a high level. Most information that a public authority holds falls into the seven classes. However, this does not mean the authority must routinely release all the information covered by the broad definitions in the definition document for that sector.
The scheme sets out the circumstances under which an authority would not be required to make information routinely available. These are when:

• the information is not held;
• the information is exempt from disclosure, for instance personal data or commercial interest; or
• the authority cannot easily access the information.

Routinely published information should be available as part of an authority’s normal business. So the information should be easy to access through a website or be easily and quickly sent out by a member of the authority’s staff. For more information, consult the model publication schemes section of our website.

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All public authorities covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

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A 'class of information' is a group of information records having one or more common characteristics. The model scheme specifies classes of information at a high level, most information a public authority holds will fall into these classes.

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You must publicise the fact that you have adopted an approved publication scheme.

You must make sure that information is available in accordance with the provisions of the scheme.

To achieve this, the organisation must compile and publicise a guide to the specific information it makes available under the scheme.

Staff, particularly front line staff, needs to be aware of the commitment the organisation has made to provide information and how it is obtained. As in most circumstances requests for information covered by a publication scheme may not be in writing, you also need to make sure that all staff know what to do when asked for information the organisation routinely makes available by telephone or at a public counter.

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The actual information contained within the organisations guide should be reviewed and maintained by the authors of the material on a regular basis. Staff should be aware of the documents and other recorded information covered by it.

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The appropriate cost limit for a request is £600 for central government and Parliament and £450 for other public authorities. This means when you receive a request you need to estimate how much it will cost to deal with it, and if it will be within this limit.

When estimating the cost of compliance, you can take into consideration the cost of:

• Determining whether it holds the information requested
• Locating the information
• Retrieving such information or documents
• The cost of staff time associated with these activities is currently calculated at £25 per hour.

You can not take the time spent considering whether or not information is exempt from release into account when estimating the cost of compliance.

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Where the limit is not exceeded, the only charges that can be passed to the applicant are those associated with providing the information, for example photocopying and postage. These are collectively known as disbursements.

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Where you estimate that the limit will be exceeded you are not obliged to comply with the request and should inform the applicant by way of a Refusal Notice.

As part of the duty to provide advice and assistance to applicants, you should consider explaining what, if any, information could be provided within the cost limit and advise the applicant that they should consider narrowing down their request.

You may be willing to provide the information even where the cost exceeds the limit if the applicant is willing to pay the full costs in dealing with the request. You can also decide to provide the information free of charge, despite the application of the appropriate limit if you wish.

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If you need to request a fee for ‘disbursements’, such as photocopying and postage, or because the costs exceed the appropriate limit, you need to issue a Fees Notice within 20 working days of receipt of the request. When you issue the Fees Notice the 20 working day limit for responding stops, and then will start again when you receive payment. If you do not receive the fee within three months you are not obliged to comply with the request. Further guidance on fees can be found on the Ministry of Justice website.

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