Your rights under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
This Act says the council and other public authorities must (1) run a Publication Scheme and (2) respond to all requests for information in line with the Act. The Act gives you a provisional right to have information but not to have particular documents (but Guildford Borough Council is happy to consider requests for specific documents so you can still ask).
1. Publication Scheme
This tells you:
- What information we will routinely publish
- How to get hold of the information and
- Whether it will cost you anything
Guildford Borough Council’s Publication Scheme (this page opens in a new window)
2. Requesting Information
You may ask for any information. For example, to find out how the council has performed or to find out the background on how a decision was made. We must confirm or deny that we hold the information and we must respond fully within 20 working days.
We may hold information back if it falls under one of the exemptions given in the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However, we must usually carry out a 'public interest test' to decide whether or not it is in the wider public interest to release the information. There are a small number of 'absolute' exemptions where we may refuse to provide certain kinds of information without carrying out a public interest test.
Please use our request form to make your Freedom of Information requests or alternatively write to the Information Rights Officer using the contact details at the bottom of this page. You may wish to read the Tips for successful FOI requests before submitting your enquiry. (You may also click on the followig link to find out more about the role of the Information Rights Officer.
All requests for information will be handled in line with our customer care policy and our Access to Council Information policy.
If you do not agree with the way the Council has dealt with your request, you may write to the Monitoring Officer using the address at the bottom of this page, to review the decision. If you do not agree with the Monitoring Officer's decision you may then contact the Information Commissioner's Office to ask them to review the way the Council dealt with your request. Once the review has taken place, the Information Commissioner will issue a decision notice.
The following are full transcripts of the decision notices resulting from requests made to Guildford Borough Council.
The contact details for the Office of the Information Commissioner can be found on their website www.ico.gov.uk (this page opens in a new window).
Information Rights Officer
Guildford Borough Council
Millmead House
Millmead
Guildford
GU2 4BB
Tel: 01483 444053
Email: iro@guildford.gov.uk