Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI)

The FOI Act is intended to promote a culture of openness and accountability by providing people with rights of access to information held by public authorities. It is expected that these rights will facilitate a better understanding of how public authorities carry out their duties, why they make the decisions they do and how they spend public money.

The FOI Act covers all information created or owned by the public authority. Access must be given in the format which the requestor asks for. A fee can be charged and the requestor must be made aware of the cost for the work. The Act came into force in two stages:

1) Each public authority (schools are deemed to be public authorities in their own right) 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. (The KCC publication scheme can be found on www.kent.gov.uk).

2) 1 January 2005 any individual can make a specific request for information and must be informed whether the organisation holds that information and subject to any exemptions, must be supplied as requested. Public authorities will normally have a maximum of 20 working days to respond to the request, however there are circumstances when this time limit can be extended.

School Model Publication Scheme

How to complete Model Publication Scheme - Guide from the Information Commissioners Office

Records Management Toolkit for Schools