How to make a FOI or Subject Access Request
There are three areas of legislation which give you specific rights of access to information held by us. These are:
Data Protection Act
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Environmental Information Regulations 2004
Before making any request to us for information, please check our Publication Scheme and our website for the information that you seek.
If you can't find what you are looking for on our website, open data page or in previous responses then you can submit a request for information.
your name
your address
a description of the information you wish to obtain
any preferences for the format for receiving the information
You can view our policy and guidance documents below.
Freedom of Information Policy and Guidance
You can make a Subject Access Request by downloading and completing the application form below.
We will respond to your request for information made under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations within 20 days of the request being received.
If you request personal information under the Data Protection Act, we will respond within one month.
We can charge for providing information where we estimate the cost to be more than £450. If we estimate the cost to be more than £450 we will inform you of this and advise you on how to refine the request to reduce the cost to below £450.
If we estimate the cost to be below £450 we may charge for disbursements such as photocopying and postage. If it is necessary for us to photocopy printed material a charge will be made of 20p per A4 sheet or £1.00 per A3 sheet. We will always advise you of this beforehand.
Sometimes there will be exemptions under FOI or exceptions under EIR which will prevent us from disclosing the information in its entirety or in part.
There are 23 exemptions which include information that is commercially sensitive, confidential, subject to other legislation, relating to national security or easily available (e.g. in the Publication scheme or on the website). A list of these exemptions can be found in the Freedom of Information Policy and Guidance
We will notify you in writing if your request for information falls under an exemption.
