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Freedom of
Information
Introduction
What is meant by Freedom of Information?
What does the Act do?
What is information?
Exemptions
Your Rights
What are the Council's Responsibilities?
Role of the Information Commissioner
How to request information from Sunderland City Council
What will happen to my request?
Will I be given all the information I ask for?
What if I think my request hasn't been dealt with properly?
Sunderland City Council request
log
Introduction
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into force on 1st January 2005,
across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland introduced its own
Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act.
What is meant by Freedom of Information?
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is intended to promote a culture of
openness and accountability amongst public authorities by providing people
with new rights of access to the information we hold. It is hoped that these
rights will facilitate better public understanding of how we carry out our
duties, why we make the decisions we do, and how we spend public money.
What does the Act do?
The Act enables anyone to request information from a public authority,
about anything. It supports the proactive publication of information by local
authorities through a Publication Scheme.
What is information?
Any information held in the records of a public authority is eligible for release, from
reports to minutes of meetings. However, a number of exemptions may be
applied to protect confidential information.
Exemptions
The Act provides for exemptions where information is not suitable for
publication. These include exemptions for commercially sensitive information,
information intended for future publication, personal information about
living individuals, and information related to
investigations, law enforcement and court records.
Your Rights
With regard to requests for information, the individual has the right to:
- Be told whether or not the public authority holds that information; and
if so,
- To be provided with the information in the most suitable format.
What are the Council's Responsibilities?
The council has a duty to:
- Provide advice and assistance to people who have requested information
- Respond to information requests within 20 working days of receipt of a
valid request.
- Supply all of the information that has been requested, unless it falls
under one of the exemptions
- For information that should be in the public domain, publish the
requested information onto its publication scheme.
- Have a comprehensive system in place to review its management of
requests.
Role of the Information Commissioner
The  Information
Commissioner (IC) is an independent person, appointed by the Crown to
promote and enforce the FOI Act across the public sector. The IC's main
responsibilities under the FOI Act are:
- Promoting good practice by public authorities in the observance of the
FOI Act.
- Informing the public about the FOI Act.
- Approving publication schemes.
- Considering complaints about any alleged failure to comply with the FOI
Act.
How to
request information from Sunderland City Council
If you would like to make a freedom of information request you can do
this in a number of ways:
It will help us if you mark your correspondence clearly 'Freedom of
Information Request'. If you are not sure which service you should ask, you
can send your request to the:
Information Governance Team
City Solicitor
Corporate Services
Civic Centre
Burdon Road
Sunderland
SR2 7DN
Tel: 0191 553 1105 or 0191 553 1263
The team will arrange for your requests to be dealt with by the service
that holds the information you are asking for. If you would like help with
making a request, you can call in to a Council office, telephone or e-mail.
Council staff will be happy to help you complete your request form.
What will happen to my request?
Once your request has been made, you will be told whether we hold the
information you have asked for, and you will be able to see the information
we do hold.
The information will be provided promptly and, in any case, within 20 days
unless it is, or may be 'exempt' from being provided under the Act. There may
be a fee to pay, but for simple requests you will not be asked to pay more
than the cost of photocopying and postage.
You will be told if a fee is required. Sometimes we may need to contact
you to check we have understood your request or, for example, if there is
likely to be a large fee for the full information, to discuss how much of the
information you would like us to give you.
If you are able to give us a telephone number, or e-mail address to get in
touch with you, this will save time and the cost of writing to you. By
working together we can keep down the cost of providing you with the
information you have requested.
Will I be given all the information I ask for?
Some information is exempt from disclosure, for example, personal information about someone
else or information that is
confidential for another of the reasons set out in the Act, and it is not in
the public interest to publish the details. For example, it would be unlikely
to be in the public interest for a public authority to publish confidential
plans for dealing with a security alert. Other information such as commercially confidential
documents, or information provided in confidence
may be exempt. The Act does not, generally, require a public authority to
duplicate work already carried out or ongoing, and information that is
already available to the public will not be provided separately. Where
information is intended for future publication you may be asked to wait until
it is published.
What if I think my request hasn't been dealt with properly?
We will attempt to discuss and resolve any concerns with you in the
course of replying to your request. If our response is not satisfactory
to you, you are entitled to ask for a review of how your request has been
dealt with. This will be co-ordinated by the Customer Services
Manager on behalf of the Chief Executive.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may want to
refer your concerns to the Information
Commissioner.
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