Dear Roger,
The exemptions are given in Parts 2-44 of Section 21 of the Act.
Personal information is dealt with under the DPA; Environmental
information is dealt with under the EIR, etc. Any other information not
described by the exemptions is dealt with under the FoI Act.
By the way, I'd be much obliged if you could respond to my letter of 15
September.
Cheers,
Neil Campling
>>> [log in to unmask] 08/10/2004 16:43:45 >>>
Neil, you may be correct to say requests for EI have to be dealt with
under the EIR, not the FOIA (see my second paragraph). I don't know. But
that doesn't make the FOIA 'subsidiary' legislation. As an Act of
Parliament, the FOIA is primary legislation.
I' be interested to know which provisions (of the FOIA, EIR or both?)
make environmental information an 'exemption' from the FOIA. Can you
give me the reference?
Best wishes
Roger
-----Original Message-----
From: Issues related to Sites & Monuments Records on behalf of
Neil Campling
Sent: Fri 08/10/2004 16:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Act
Sorry Roger, but requests for environmental information have to
be dealt
with under the EIR, not the FoI. One of the "exemptions" from
the FoI
is the EIR. That's what is meant by subsidiary.
Cheers,
Neil
>>> [log in to unmask] 08/10/2004 15:26:37
>>>
I don't think this is quite right. The Freedom of Information
Act 2000
is just that - an Act of Parliament (a statute) and therefore
primary -
not 'subsidiary' - legislation. Other statutes and Statutory
Instruments
will not override the FOIA as a matter of course.
How the particular provisions of the FOIA relate to those of
other
legislation (such as the EIR), however, is another matter.
Roger
-----Original Message-----
From: Issues related to Sites & Monuments Records on behalf of
Neil
Campling
Sent: Thu 07/10/2004 14:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Act
Dear All,
The FoI Act is subsidiary legislation: other legislation
or
Statutory
Instruments, such as the DPA, over-ride the FOI.
Therefore, one
of the
exemptions of data from the procedures of the FoI Act is
the
EIR.
Please note the 1992 EIR will be replaced by the EIR
2004. As
noted
yesterday, the Statutory Instrument is currently in
draft form
and will
be modified as and how we respond to the Code of
Practice. But
that
does not mean that we won't have to record rrequests
for
information,
just that we have to do it under the new EIR, not the
FoI Act.
cheers,
Neil
>>> [log in to unmask] 07/10/2004 09:43:30
>>>
Many thanks for all the comments. Very useful. As I
feared
nothing is
ever
straight forward...
Pete - Not sure. I think FoIA probably does override the
1998
Environmental
Information (Amendment) Regulations, but would need to
check
My planning colleagues recently asked for guidance on
certain
issues,
Including pre-planning application enquiries, and were
told by
the FOI
office:
The weighting of the FOIA is always in favour of
disclosure and
authorities
should think very carefully before applying any
exemption. The
access
code
in section 45 of the Act does advise:
and
although there may well be cases in which it is right
for
authorities
to
declare information exempt under section 41, to avoid
any
actionable
breach
of confidence, it is not a judgement that should be
taken
lightly.
Our HER is included in our local authority Publication
Scheme
and it
is
interesting to note Emma that you say that inclusion in
the
scheme
means
that HER information is not subject to FOI enquiries as
the
resource
is
reasonably accessible. I have asked for clarification on
the
issue of
whether all enquiries for HER information from 1st Jan
have to
be
recorded
on our corporate FOI enquiry database or whether we
continue to
record
them
as now. How do we know whether an enquiry comes under
the FOI
Act and
does
it really matter, as the HER is accessible anyway?
Perhaps we could have an update on this issue at the
next HER
Forum
meeting?
Thanks
Jill
Jill Collens
Project Leader - Historic Environment
+Environmental Planning
Cheshire County Council
Backford Hall
Backford
Chester CH1 6PZ
(01244 603204
:[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Iles, Peter [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06 October 2004 14:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information Act
Jill - does this new Act override the 1992
Environmental
Information
Regulations? under those regs I belive the following
may be
true:
In Section 4 information MAY be not be disclosed if (a)
it
relates to
the
subject of any legal or other proceedings, actual or
prospective
(inc.
Local
Planning Enquiries); (b) it relates to confidential,
internal
communications
of the County Council; (c) it is contained in a document
or
other
record
which is still in the course of completion. (This
latter begs
the
question, when is an SMR complete?)
Information MUST not be disclosed if (a) it was supplied
to the
County
Council by another party who was under no legal
obligation to do
so
and
could not have been put under any legal obligation to
supply it
and has
not
consented to its disclosure; (b) its disclosure would
increase
the
likelihood of damage to the environment affecting
anything to
which
the
information relates.
In Section 3.3 if the request is manifestly unreasonable
or is
formulated in
too general a manner it may also be refused.
Peter Iles
Specialist Advisor (Archaeology)
Lancashire County Council Environment Directorate
PO Box 9
Guild House
Cross Street
Preston
PR1 8RD
T 01772 531550
F 01772 533423
E [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: COLLENS, Jill
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06 October 2004 10:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Freedom of Information Act
Dear all
I have a query about the Freedom of Information Act
which comes
into
force
on 1/1/05 and its implications for HERs. I know we
discussed
this a
few
years ago at the SMR User Group, but here in Cheshire
the
authority is
very
busy informing staff about the implications. Whilst the
provision of
data is
all part of the HER role, I am a little concerned about
some of
the
messages
that are coming back from our service and corporate
Records
Management
Officers regarding charging for commercial enquiries
(I'm told
you can
only
charge one tenth of your normal rate which makes it
uneconomic
to
charge at
all), also if anyone requests a copy of all of the data
in the
HER then
I am
told we have to provide it.
I anyone else getting similar messages and how will the
FOIA
affect the
NMR?
Thanks
Jill
Dr Jill Collens
Project Leader - Historic Environment
+Environmental Planning
Cheshire County Council
Backford Hall
Backford
Chester CH1 6PZ
(01244 603204
:[log in to unmask]
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