The Lemon Fool

Hello Everyone,

I am aware that Councils have to supply information when requested, under Freedom of Information (F.O.I.) rules.

My question is ; do the same rules apply to Councillors?

Thanks for any help.

Regards,
Randval.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/schedule/1 lists those organisations subject to FOI requests. As you correctly say, local authorities are covered by these provisions- but there is no similar provision relation to members of the authority. I would suggest that the required information is held by the councillor as part of his/her official role, then it would be covered by a request to the council. If it's held in a personal capacity, then it's not covered.

There's a bit of grey area concerning when an individual is "acting as a Cllr" or not. Somewhere the FOI allows for Cllrs having discussions between themselves as might be expected of a political party or groups of individuals and these are not subject to FOI. So they can form an opinion in "private", but where that information becomes "public" its under FOI. Similarly, reports as such like that are formally considered by a Council in making a decision can usually be FOI'ed, even if there is some redaction to avoid personal or commercial details.

Have a look at the ICO website
http://www.qwerkity.com/air-rifle-target-duck-gallery-prod16063/
and also your local Council's published policy guidance. They are normally a good explanation of the law and recent precedents, as they have to be given that most base such publications on a common standard document provided by government or one of their central bodies.

But on a practical level, it really depends what you want the information for. An informal discussion with an Officer or Cllr can be far more productive.

HTH
C

Dorn1 wrote:There's a bit of grey area concerning when an individual is "acting as a Cllr" or not.

Unless other councils are different, councillors are usually under instruction that if they receive any FOI requests they should be passed to the Clerk to The Council's office (or whatever the name is locally) as the councillor may not
a) have all required information
b) know what may and may not be released or be required to be released.

Remember, councillors are not full time employees

Slarti

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the replies.

I have now looked at the Information Commissioners website and there is no definitive guidance.
I have also looked on the Council website.
I think my next approach will be to ask at the offices of the Council.

I will let the board know how I get on.

Thanks for help,

Regards,
Randval.

Slarti wrote:

Dorn1 wrote:There's a bit of grey area concerning when an individual is "acting as a Cllr" or not.

Unless other councils are different, councillors are usually under instruction that if they receive any FOI requests they should be passed to the Clerk to The Council's office (or whatever the name is locally) as the councillor may not
a) have all required information
b) know what may and may not be released or be required to be released.

Remember, councillors are not full time employees

Slarti

This is also correct! My point was that some information may be outside FOI because:-
- its private information, the Cllr is not acting as a Cllr at the time (eg. conversation with spouse)
- they may be gathering information which is only of interest to a Cllr, but are not yet "acting as" since they're not in a formal meeting making a decision

C