Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, sets out exemptions from that right and places a number of related obligations on public authorities including publication schemes and records management. The Act applies to any records held by the authority no matter when they were created.

From January 2005, any person who makes a request to a public authority for information must be informed whether the authority holds that information and, subject to exemptions, supplied with that information.

Individuals already have the right to apply for information about themselves under the Data Protection Act 1998. To assist you with this type of request, brief details about making an application are included in the Data Protection section.

As far as public authorities are concerned, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act will extend this right of access to non-personal information. Public authorities will be required to adopt and maintain a publication scheme, setting out the classes of information that are available, the manner in which they intend to publish the information and whether a charge will be made for the information.

The purpose of a publication scheme is to ensure that a significant amount of information is available without the need for a specific request. Schemes are intended to encourage organisations to publish more information proactively and to develop a greater culture of openness. Dundee City Council has had an approved publication scheme in operation since 1 June 2004.

If the information you seek is not available through the publication scheme (221KB PDF) then you can apply for this information by submitting a written request.

A form to assist you with these requests is available here, or alternatively, send an email to foi@dundeecity.gov.uk.

The right to apply for environmental information has been strengthened. Details about this can be found in the section on Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

The Council cannot keep all its records forever. Any organisation that kept everything would soon become very inefficient! We routinely destroy records when there is no longer any business need for them.