Publication Scheme
This is the publication scheme of Scarborough Borough
Council. The overall responsibility for it lies with the Head of
Legal Services, Ian Anderson, who is based at Town Hall, St
Nicholas Street, Scarborough, North Yorkshire YO11 2HG, telephone
01723 232323, fax 01723 500636, email ian.anderson@scarborough.gov.uk.
What is the Publication Scheme?
Our publication scheme is a list of those classes of
information, which we will make available to the public as a matter
of course and is part of our commitment to open government. From
January 2005, the Freedom of Information Act gave a general right
of access to all types of recorded information held by the Council;
it also sets out exemptions from that right, and it places a number
of other obligations on the Council.
One of those obligations requires the Council to adopt and
maintain a publication scheme setting out the classes of
information which the public can look at, the manner in which we
intend to make the information available, and whether a charge will
be made for the information. The purpose of the scheme is to ensure
that as much information as possible is available as a matter of
course without the need for specific requests.
Scarborough Borough Council is committed to the scheme and will
endeavour:
- To proactively publish or otherwise make available as a matter
of routine, information, including environmental information, which
is heldby the authority and falls within the information
classifications.
- To specify the information which is held by the authority and
falls within the classifications below.
- To proactively publish or otherwise make available as a matter
of routine, information in line with the statements contained
within this scheme.
- To produce and publish the methods by which the specific
information is made routinely available so that it can be easily
identified and accessed by members of the public.
- To review and update on a regular basis the information the
authority makes available under this scheme.
- To produce a schedule of any fees charged for access to
information which is made proactively available.
- To make this publication scheme available to the public.
What is not included?
The publication scheme does not include personal information
falling under the Data Protection Act 1998. However, under that
Act, individuals already have their own rights of access to
information about themselves held by the Council.
Some of the classes of information in the new scheme exclude
‘exempt’ information. This means exempt under Schedule 12A to the
Local Government Act 1972 or exempt under sections 21 to 44 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. In each case ‘exempt’ means that
the information will be kept confidential unless it is later
released by the Council under its review procedure.
The classes of information will also not generally include:
- Information, the disclosure of which is
prevented by law, or exempt under the Freedom of Information Act,
or is otherwise properly considered to be protected from
disclosure.
- Information in draft form.
- Information that is no longer readily available as it is
contained in files that have been placed in archive storage, or is
difficult to access for similar reasons.