yes, that is the general approach to be adopted but bear in mind that
disappointed applicants can appeal and it will be up to the Information
Commissioner to determine on a case by case basis whether the archives are
reasonably accessible and the s21 exemption was lawfully claimed. He may
consider the level of fees charged, opening hourse, accessibility to
overseas applicants .... . For this reason I have been advocating for some
years now development of the draft standard on access services to archives
into a real British Standard, to serve as an objective benchmark of
'reasonably accessible' for s21 purposes which we would hope the
commissioner would use.
However, I do not see how the s21 exemption can be claiemd for uncatalogued
material.
The draft Environmental Information Regulations, which set up a parallel
regime for access to environmental information, have a similar exception
although it is expressed differently. These Regulations, to be laid under
FOIA s 74, will bring into UK law a new EU Directive about access to
environmental information. The regime will be similar but not identical to
FOI. Here is a link to the DEFRA web pages on which there is information
about the draft Regulations and a link to the Directive (which did not work
when I just tried it but perhaps I was unlucky). The definition of
envirnomental is very wide and I think that many requests for information in
record offices may fall under the EIRs not FOI, so you need to look at the
Directive.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/pubaccess/ecdir/index.htm
Susan Healy
National Archives
-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Allen [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 August 2003 14:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Access to Records Office Records
We have been asked the question about access to information held by our
Records Offices and the possibility of individuals making Freedom of
Information Access requests rather than normal requests, where this might
result in lower charges.
My view is this.
Section 21 of the FOI Act states that access requests under FOI are exempt
from FOIA regulation if the "information may be reasonably accessible to the
applicant even though it is accessible only on payment" as modified under
sub-section (3) to include information if it is "made available in
accordance with the authority's publication scheme and any payment required
is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme."
Therefore any information held by our Records Office, that is by definition
accessible to the public, is exempt from FOI Act access provisions, as long
as the Records Office material is included as a category within the
Publications Scheme and the fact that "fees at the prevailing rate" may be
charged, is mentioned in the Scheme.
I would value your opinions about this interpretation and any thoughts you
may have had on the subject.
------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Allen
Corporate Information Security Manager
Corporate Information Unit
Suffolk County Council
Libraries & Heritage
Room 37, St Andrew House
County Hall, Ipswich
Suffolk, IP4 1LJ
Tel:+44 (0) 147 358 4567
http://www.suffolkcc.gov.uk
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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