The Freedom of Information Act 2000

From 1st January 2005, the Freedom of Information Act allows you the right of access to all types of information held by public bodies such as NMSI. For the first time you can request to see business records.

The Act gives you two related rights:

• The right to be told whether the information exists.
• The right to receive the information (and where possible, in the manner you request).

The Act is retrospective so NMSI is required to provide information recorded both before and after the Act is implemented.

Making a request

Requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act must be in a permanent form, for instance in writing, fax or by e-mail.

Once received, we will respond to your request within 20 working days. However, you may be asked for further information, in order to better identify and locate the information requested.

As part of the Act, we have been asked to prepare a Publication Scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to provide a guide to what information NMSI already makes available. You should consult this document first to see what information is easily accessible without the need for you to make a specific request. The Publication Scheme is currently under review and an updated version, compliant with the recently released Information Commissioners Office guidelines, will be available by 31st March 2009.

If the information you desire is NOT held within the Publication Scheme, then please fill in a FOI Request Form.

Complaints

If you feel your request for information has not been handled properly, then you are entitled to lodge a complaint. In the first instance, this should be to NMSI itself, using the FOI Complaints Form. If you are still dissatisfied then you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office. The form holds all the details.