Freedom of Information Act - (FOI Act)

One of the aims of the FoI Act is that public authorities should be clear and proactive about the information they make available to the public. The FoI Act is intended to encourage organisations to make more information available to the public and to develop a greater culture of transparency and openness.

Requests for Information

The provisions of the FOI Act relating to general requests for information came into full force on the 1st January 2005 when applicants will be able to exercise their full right of access to ALL the information Mid Beds District Council holds.

If you have searched the publication scheme and can not find what you are looking for, you can make a written request for the information.

If you require information about yourself, held by Mid Beds District Council, this is dealt with under the Data Protection Act. Further information can be found on the Council's Data Protection Act web page.

Access Rights

Anyone will be able to make a request for information, although the request must be in a permanent form, the Council has developed an Information Request Form to assist you with your request.

The FOI Act gives applicants two related rights:

The right to be told whether the information exists
The right to receive the information (and where possible, in the manner requested, i.e. as a copy or summary, or the applicant may ask to inspect a record)

Mid Beds District Council will have to respond to requests within 20 working days and we may charge a fee, which will be calculated according to the Fees Regulations. If a fee is required it must be paid in advance and if the fee is not paid within three months then the request for information will lapse.

Any person who makes a request to the Council for information must be informed whether the Council holds that information and, subject to a number of exemptions, should be supplied with that information. In cases where information is covered by an exemption, the Council is required to consider if the public interest in maintaining the exemption in question outweighs the public interest in disclosure. The information available will be fully retrospective.

Publication Scheme

Central to the FOI Act, Section 19(2) sets out the requirements for a publication scheme. A publication scheme must specify:

the classes of information the Council publishes or intends to publish;
the manner in which they will be published;
whether the information is available free of charge or on payment of a fee.

Section 19(3) states that "in adopting or reviewing a publication scheme, a public authority shall have regard to the public interest in allowing public access to information held by the authority and in the publication of reasons for decisions made by the public authority".

Mid Beds District Council has developed a publication scheme, which has been approved by the Information Commissioner. This document will be reviewed from time to time, and any updated versions will be available here.

Mid Beds District Council's publication scheme is available as a download at the bottom of this page. Further information on our publication scheme can be found on our publication scheme web page.

Your comments and feedback

We welcome comments and suggestions on how we can improve the scheme, as it is important that the scheme meets your needs.

Your comments on the following questions would help us to develop the scheme and make us more open in how we work.

Have you understood the aim of the publication scheme?
Are there any other areas of our work that you would like us to include in the Scheme?
Did the structure of the scheme allow you to find the information you needed easily?
Would any further indexing/cross referencing be helpful?
Did you receive enough help from our staff when you asked for information?
How could we improve the publication scheme?
Any other comments

Please send your feedback or for more information please contact:

Freedom of Information Officer
Mid Beds District Council
Priory House
Monks Walk
Chicksands, SHEFFORD,
Bedfordshire SG17 5TQ

Telephone or Fax: 08452 30 40 40
Email: foi@midbeds.gov.uk

Some detailed guidance is currently available on the Department for Constitutional Affairs website and the Information Commissioners website.