CROPTHORNE PARISH COUNCIL
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION POLICY
Introduction
1. Cropthorne Parish Council is committed to making information publicly available whenever possible. The Council has adopted the Model Publication Scheme produced by the Information Commissioners’ Office which sets out what information the Council should publish. The Scheme is accompanied by a Guide to Information which sets out how the information is published. Most of the Parish Council’s information can be provided electronically but there is a small amount which is only available in hard copy.
2. If it is thought the Parish Council might have information that is not listed in the Guide a request to see it can be submitted via letter, or email. The Parish Council will then advise whether it has the information and, if it does have it, will provide it. There are a few ‘exemptions’, for example personal data about other individuals, where the Parish Council may refuse to provide information.
3. More about an individual’s rights to information can be obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office (Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Tel: 08456 30 60 60 or 01625 54 57 45 / website: www.ico.gsi.gov.uk.
Procedure
1. Requests for information must be in writing to the Proper Officer (Clerk to the Council); this can include email. The request must contain a full description of the information required and must show the name and address of the requestor.
2. When a valid request for information has been received the Parish Council, via the Proper Officer, will acknowledge the request within three working days together with a scale of appropriate charges.
3. If the information is available on-line, the requestor will be directed to find the information there unless the requestor is not able to access it.
4. Within 20 working days of receipt of a valid request the Parish Council, via the Proper Officer, will reply stating whether it holds the information and, if so, the information will be communicated to the requestor.
5. If the work is likely to take more than 18 hours to complete then the Parish Council is entitled to refuse to provide such information.
6. Where the Parish Council has more than 17 requests for the same or similar information, the information will be aggregated.
7. Members of the Council will forward any Freedom of Information requests they receive to the Proper Officer to deal with. The Proper Officer will advise the Council of any requests and the response.
8. No information will be released if it is likely to breach the Data Protection Act, for example the disclosure of personal information.
Adopted June 5th 2017