Freedom of Information (FOI)

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) you have a right to request non-personal recorded information that may be held by a public authority.

Contents

Exemptions and exceptions

Under the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Regulations you are able to request any non-personal recorded information held by the council or held on the council’s behalf. 

However, under both, there are exemptions (known under Environmental Information Regulations as exceptions) which can be used to withhold information if it is considered that it is not in the public interest to release it.

There are two types of exemptions;

  1. Conditional exemptions which require us to carry out a public interest test and
  2. Absolute exemptions for which a public interest is not needed.