Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows public access to information held by all UK public bodies. This includes Craven College.
Information is accessible in two ways:
- Some information is available via a Publication Scheme. This is a list of types of information the College makes available. (This is yet to be developed)
- Individuals have the right to request information that is not already made available.
Requests may be subject to exemptions.
The College follows the Freedom of Information Act and has a Freedom of Information Policy.
Similarly to the Freedom of Information Act, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) provides the right to access environmental information.
Requesting information
Requests for information should be in writing to the College’s dedicated mailbox or by post. The team responds to requests for information and maintains the College’s Publication Scheme. Requests should specify all the information you need and include your name and address.
The information you request should not already be online or available via the Publication Scheme. (to be developed). If you need help with making your request, please email foi@craven-college.ac.uk.
You can make your request by email or by post:
Processing your request
When we receive your request, we will try to locate this information however we may be in touch to ask you to provide more detail.
The College has twenty working days to respond to your request. A working day is any day, Monday – Friday which is not a bank holiday in any part of the UK. This twenty-day period begins when we have all the information we need from you to process your request. If your request is subject to the public interest test, the College can apply an extension of up to 20 working days to the standard statutory deadline.
There are several circumstances where the College will not process a request for information. These are listed below. If we refuse to provide information, we will normally issue you with a letter called a refusal notice which explains why we are not providing you with the information you have requested and what you can do about it.
A name and address have not been included
An address can include an email address. If we believe that the name and address provided are not real, we may ask you to prove that it is. If we do not hear back from you or if we receive notification that the name or address do not exist, we will not process your request.
Your request does not provide an adequate description of the information you need
If your request does not have an adequate description, we will ask you for more information. If we do not hear back from you, we will not process your request.
The request would take more than 18 hours to process
The College can refuse requests where the estimated time to process the request is longer than 18 hours. This is referred to in the Act as an ‘appropriate limit’.
The estimate of time includes:
- Determining if we hold the information
- Finding the information
- Retrieving records
- Extracting the requested information
The information requested is exempt
The Act contains several very specific exemptions that are listed below.
With the exception of those listed in bold each exemption is subject to a public interest test. This means that the College must consider all the factors relating to the request and the information and we can only withhold the information if the public interest in withholding the information is greater than that of releasing it.
Most exemptions do not apply to information held by the College but all exemptions in the Act are listed here.
The following classes of information are exempt:
- information already reasonably accessible
- information intended for future publication
- research information
- information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters
- criminal investigations and proceedings conducted by the authority
- information relating to civil or criminal investigations and proceedings which use confidential sources
- court records
- information relating to the formulation of government policy
- communications with Royal Family and Royal Household and the granting of Honours
- environmental information (NB even though this information is exempt under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, it is accessible by the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and so any request would be progressed under those regulations)
- personal information where the applicant is data subject
- trade secrets
- information prohibited from disclosure under other laws
Information is also exempt if its disclosure would be or would be likely to be prejudice to following:
- national security
- defence
- international relations
- relations within the UK
- the economy
- investigations
- law enforcement
- audit functions
- parliamentary privilege
- effective conductive of public affairs
- health and safety
- the privacy of third parties
- confidentiality
- legal professional privilege
- commercial interests
Your request is subject to a fee, and we have not received payment
The College may charge a fee to process your request. If you do not pay this fee, we will not process the request. For more information please refer to the College’s Freedom of Information Policy.
Vexatious and repeated requests
We may refuse identical or substantially similar requests that have been made before. We can also refuse requests for the following behaviours:
- Abusive or aggressive language
- Burden on the College
- Personal grudges
- Unreasonable persistence
- Unfounded accusations
- Intransigence
- Frequent or overlapping requests
- Deliberate intention to cause annoyance
- Scattergun approach
- Disproportionate effort
- No obvious intent to obtain information
- Futile requests
- Frivolous requests