Freedom of Information (FOI)

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act provides that from 21 April 1998, every person has the following legal rights:

• the right to access official records held by government departments or other public bodies listed in the Act
• the right to have personal information held on them corrected or updated where such information is incomplete, incorrect or misleading
• the right to be given reasons for decisions taken by public bodies that affect them.

The Act distinguishes between personal and non-personal information. You can access your personal information regardless of when it was created if it is still in existence. You can only access non-personal information which has been created after the 21st April 1998 (commencement date of the FOI Act).

The Department of Education has prepared an FOI Publication Scheme, which makes available a range of information about the department and its work.

The Act requires public bodies to respond to requests from the public for information they hold. In most cases, public bodies must give their decision on a request within 4 weeks of receiving it.

A week is defined in the Act to mean 5 consecutive weekdays excluding Saturdays and public holidays.

Sundays are also excluded as they are not weekdays.

The following records come within the scope of the FOI Act:

• all records relating to personal information held by the department irrespective of when they were created
• all other records created from the commencement of the FOI Act (21 April 1998)
• any records necessary to the understanding of a current record even if created prior to 21 April 1998
• personnel records of serving staff created from 21 April 1998 and those created prior to that date where being used or proposed to be used in a way which adversely affects or may affect the person involved

To allow government business to be properly conducted, it will sometimes be necessary to exempt from release certain types of information in some circumstances. These are set out in the Act.

Among the key exemptions are records relating to:

• government meetings
• law enforcement and security
• confidential and commercially sensitive information
• personal information (other than information relating to the person making the request)

Please see here if you want to make an FOI request.