Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) requests

You have a legal right to ask for information we hold under:

the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI)
the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR)

Environmental information covers things like environmental policies, emissions, waste management, and other information about the environment.

You can read the legislation in full at legislation.gov.uk:

Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004.

How to make a FOI or EIR request

Anyone can ask us for information that we hold.

A request must be made in writing and you do not need to explain why you want the information.

Submit an FOI or EIR request

When not to make a FOI or EIR request

I want information about myself or someone else

There is a different process to ask for personal information about you or someone else. This also applies if you are requesting information about someone who has died:

Request information about you or someone else

I have a question about a council service

If you have a question about a service you are receiving our customer service team can help.

Contact our customer service team

I want general information held by the council

The information may already be available on our website:

Search the website or contact the customer service team for help
Take a look at the Council's Publication Scheme
Search the FOI disclosure log for responses we have already provided

Our response times

After you submit a request, we will:

Acknowledge your request within 3 working days
Respond within 20 working days

We may need to ask you for more information to clarify your request. If we do this then the time limit to respond only starts after we have received clarification from you.

If we ask you to clarify your request and you don’t, the request will lapse after 3 weeks.

Charges

It is free to make a FOI or EIR request.

However, if postage and photocopying cost over £10, we may charge you:

10p per printed page in black and white
£1.00 per printed page in colour.

If there is a charge, we will tell you what it is, and you have the choice of paying it or withdrawing your request. If we do not hear from you after a month, we will treat the request as withdrawn.

When we may refuse a request

We may refuse if:

we do not hold the information
it would take more than 18 hours to gather the information
a legal exemption or exception applies.

If we refuse your request because of the time it would take, we will give you guidance on how you can adjust your request to fit in the timescale.

Exemptions and exceptions

Sometimes we cannot release information to the public because there is a legal exemption or exception. You can find more information about this on the ICO website:

If we decide that an exemption or exception applies, we will tell you why. Where relevant, we will explain the public interest reasons for withholding the information. You can appeal against this decision, and we will include details of how to do this in our response.