Data Protection and Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives you
the right to ask in writing for any information held by any public
authority.
The Government's stated aim was to create a
new period of openness and accountability in the public sector.
Anyone, anywhere in the world can send an information request to
the any public authority, including any government department,
school, NHS trust, police force and council. Public authorities
must provide advice and assistance to persons asking for
information.
Public authorities must respond promptly to information requests
and at the most within 20 days. This 20 day time limit does not
apply while we wait for your response to our request to clarify the
information you want when reasonably we are unsure of it. Once you
have submitted a request if you have not received a response within
the 20 day timeframe please contact freedomofinformation@bedford.gov.uk
The Freedom of Information Act does allow us to refuse to give you
information where it must not or should not me made public. For
example, we may be prevented by other legal provisions from
providing it or it may include personal information that should be
kept private. The Act also allows us to refuse information where
the cost of supplying it is excessive. Where we are unable to
supply information to you we will always give you a full
explanation of the reasons.
You have the right to ask for a review if you are unhappy in any
way with the response we give or the way we respond. We will
arrange for an independent review of the decision through our
internal review procedure. If you are still unhappy with our
response to your information request after going through our
internal review procedure you can appeal to the “Information
Commission.” They will review our decision including the way we
have responded and can order the council to let you have the
information. You (or the Council) can appeal against the
Information Commission’s decision to the Information Tribunal.
Please click
here to download the FOI Complaints Procedure
If you are still unhappy after the internal review, you can
complain to the Information Commissioner, who oversees
public authorities’ performance under the act. The
Information Commissioner will decide if your request has been dealt
with properly.
We can only charge a fee if we estimate the cost of providing the
information will be more than £450. We can then refuse to
answer on cost grounds, charge up to the full cost or answer it for
free.
Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires every
public authority to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme which
has been approved by the Information Commissioner’s Office and to
publish information in accordance with that scheme.
Please click here to download the Freedom of
Information Publication Scheme
To comment on the Publication Scheme, please click here and
complete the online form.
Although information requests can be sent to any council
department, it would help us and avoid any uncertainty if you sent
your request indicating the service you want a response from.
By letter to the following address:
Freedom of Information
Town Hall
St Paul’s Square
Bedford
MK40 1SJ
Email us at: Freedomofinformation@bedford.gov.uk
Fax us at : 01234 221606
Or by completing the following form
If you experience problems with accessing any of the information
linking from the Freedom of Information Publication Scheme, please
contact Ann Jones - email ann.jones@bedford.gov.uk
The Freedom of Information Champion is Michael Gough - Assistant
Chief Executive (Governance), but would you please send any
enquiries in the first instance to the Freedom of Information
Officer at freedomofinformation@bedford.gov.uk
For
information regarding Data Protection please click
here.
For further information please look at the
following external links: