PSI (Public Sector Information) Regulations are not about access to information, they are about use of information to which access has been provided, eg by publication.
Look at the exclusions at Reg 5 para 2 - the Regs don't apply unless the 'document' (defined at Reg 1) has been (a) identified by the authority as available (perhaps in a publication scheme or information asset register, for example) or (b) has been provided to the applicant or (c) is accessible otherwise than by making an FOI or EIR request. So, the starting point is that the information is already accessible to the person seeking permission to re-use it.
Look also at the other exclusions at Reg 5 para 3 - libraries and archives, for example.
The complaint rights at Reg 18 relate to refusal of permission to re-use 'a document', not to refusal to provide the document.
Susan Healy
Head of Information Policy and Legislation Unit
The National Archives
Kew
Surrey TW9 4DU
Tel 020-8392 5330 ext 2305
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Smith, Tony
Sent: 16 June 2005 17:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] SI 2005 No 1515
Sorry to keep on about this but, has anyone figured out what the above SI means? It seems to be saying that someone can ask for information under the DPA or FOIA and there will be two decisions made. One is whether they can have it and the other is whether they can use it for a set purpose. I must be missing something but the following (extreme) hypothetical situations occur to me:
1. I am having problems with the rent departrment of the council. I am on housing benefit and believe my rent account is up-to-date. I apply for my HB records. The council decides that I can't have them and, even if I could, they could not be used in an argument with the rent department. I would have to appeal to the IC to get the records and then to OPSI to use them.
2. I am a black person with a child. The school next door to my house has an average pass rate of 8 GSEs each year but only has white pupils. I am aware that roughly 1/2 the kids in the area are black. I apply for records about how many white and black kids there are in the area and how many of each group attend schools where 8 or more GSEs are obtained on average. I want this information to complain about racism within the school admissions policy (we are assuming that I am not entitled to the information under any race/education or other legislation other than FOIA). The council say that I can't have the information and, even if I could, I could not use it in the complaint. I would, yet again, have to go to the IC and OPSI with two different complaints.
Has anyone come up with a better explanation of what the SI means? Having read it (and the explanatory memorandum) a number of times I am getting increasingly confused.
Tony
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