Freedom of Information: Awareness Guidance

The UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 is intended to promote a culture of openness and accountability amongst public authorities by providing people with rights of access to the information held by them. The Act creates two principal obligations for public authorities: (1) each public authority must adopt and maintain a publication scheme, setting out details of information it will routinely make available, how the information can be obtained and whether there is any charge for it, and (2) from 1 January 2005 each public authority must comply with requests for the information that it holds unless an exemption from disclosure applies. The Awareness Guidance series address how public authorities are to meet these obligations. Guidance are also available on the exemptions permitted by law and how to deal with complaints involving the application of exemptions.