The Freedom of Information Act came fully into force on 1st January 2005. The Act gives individuals and organisations a statutory right of access to information held by the Council.
The City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council has approved a policy of charging for providing information under the Freedom of Information Act consistent to other West Yorkshire Authorities. Schools are also recommended to adopt this policy.
The Freedom of Information Fees Regulations determines the rules by which public authorities (local authorities and schools) are able to make a charge for handling requests for information.
The Regulations stipulate that public authorities cannot charge anything other than disbursements where the cost of complying with the request is under a £450 threshold (i.e. the equivalent of locating and retrieving information for 18 hours free of charge). Should the request cost anything over this limit then public authorities have the option not to comply with the request, or to make a charge to the applicant at a recommended rate of £25 per hour.
A charge can be made for disbursements such as complying with the applicants' request for information in a particular format (e.g. summary, inspection, copy), reproducing any document, or postage and other forms of transmission.
The West Yorkshire Information Management Forum believes that there are benefits to be gained by ensuring that West Yorkshire local authorities have a similar fees policy for handling requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act. This will lead to a consistent approach being adopted across the county, particularly in instances where an applicant is requesting information from several authorities at a time.
i) A charge for all officers undertaking the search and retrieval of information is set at £25 per hour in line with the Government's recommendation in the Fees Regulations;
ii) The Council will undertake requests for information that are over the threshold limit of £450, but will make a charge of the applicant in line with Regulation 4 of the Fees Regulations (i.e. £450 plus £25 per hour for every additional hour it takes to locate and retrieve the information);
iii) On every occasion that the request for information exceeds the threshold limit, the applicant will be given the opportunity to narrow the scale of the request in the first instance;
iv) The Council will charge for disbursements for any request below the £450 threshold, but will not make a charge for those disbursements costing less than £15 in total;
No charge for the cost of staff time in determining whether the Authority is obliged to comply with the request can be made (for example, whether an exemption to releasing the information applies).
It should also be noted that these Regulations do not apply to:
i) Information that is already reasonably accessible (for example, books, pamphlets and leaflets that are already published);
ii) Material available under the Council's Publication Scheme; and
iii) Disclosure for which a charge can be made under any other enactment (for example, certificates for birth, marriage and death).
