Information - Availability

The Council holds a lot of information, which is not published and not intended for publication.  However, a great deal of that information is now accessible under the laws introduced by the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

Data Protection Act -  this gives you access to personal information about yourself.  Please refer to Data Protection for further information 

Freedom of Information Act (FoI) and Environmental Information Regulations - These introduced a general right of access to a lot of information held by public bodies.  You can find further information about these rights on Access to Information 

The law requires us to supply the information requested within 20 working days of receiving the request, unless it falls within one or more exemptions contained in the Act and the Regulations.  If the Council refuses to release the information, it must give the applicant, in writing, the reasons for refusal and their right to appeal.  There are a number of exemptions, which include:

1. Information is accessible by other means or intended for future publication;
2. Investigations and proceedings;
3. Law enforcement;
4. Personal information
5. Effective conduct of public affairs;
6. Commercial interests.

Most (but not all) exemptions require a "public interest" test to be applied before a decision can be taken to withhold the information.  For exemptions with a public interest test, a request can only be refused if the public interest in not releasing the information outweighs that in releasing the information.