Publication scheme

What is a publication scheme?

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) requires us to adopt a publication scheme. This sets out classes of information that we are required to make available; how this information is published and whether the material is available free of charge or on payment. Anyone may access information from this publication scheme.

The Information Commissioner has issued a model publication scheme and from 1 January 2009 the council has adopted the model scheme. This scheme contains seven classes of information:

• Who we are and what we do
• What we spend and how we spend it
• What our priorities are and how we are doing
• How we make decisions
• Our policies and procedures
  • Policies and procedures for conducting council business
  • Policies and procedures about the recruitment and employment of staff
  • Customer service
  • Records management policy
  • Charging regimes and policies
• Lists and registers
• The services we offer

Our classes of information are in the process of being updated.

The classes of information will not generally include:

• Information where disclosure is prevented by law, or which is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, or is otherwise properly considered to be protected from disclosure
• Information in draft form
• Information that is no longer readily available as it is contained in files that have been placed in archive storage, or is difficult to access for similar reasons

By adopting the Information Commissioner’s model scheme, the council is committed to the following:

• Proactively publishing information (including environmental information we hold and contained within each class)
• Providing a means by which the council can ensure the public is aware of the sorts of information we have committed to making readily available, how they can access this information and whether they will have to pay for it
• Reviewing and updating the information on a regular basis

The act states that a publication scheme should be reviewed from time to time. We will regularly check our scheme for outdated information and review the operation of the scheme annually.

Open data and datasets

There is a link to open data available on every page of this site.

The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 brought in changes to FOIA to include datasets. The changes stated how the information could be released rather than what was released. The introduction of datasets doesn't change what information is available under the act.