Guidance index: freedom of information, environmental information

Here you can view a full index of freedom of information and environmental information guidance for organisations.

Advice and assistance  Codes of practice  Confirm or deny  Costs and fees  Deceased people  Destroying information  Environmental information - general  Exceptions - environmental  Exemptions - freedom of information  Freedom of information - general Higher education Holding information

MPs' correspondence The prejudice test Property searches Public interest test Publication schemes Publicly owned companies Records management Refusing a request Request handling Time for compliance Vexatious or repeated requests

Advice and assistance

• Good practice in providing advice and assistance 
• EIR advice and assistance FAQs 

Codes of practice

• Advice on using the procedural codes of practice 
• Environmental Information Regulations code of practice

Confirm or deny

• Duty to confirm or deny

Costs and fees

• Calculating costs where a request spans different access regimes
• Charging for environmental information
• Fees that may be charged when the cost of compliance does not exceed the appropriate limit 
• Fees that may be charged when the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit 
• Requests where the cost of compliance with a request exceeds the appropriate limit

Deceased people

• Access to information about the deceased

Destroying information

• Destruction of requested information

Environmental information - general

• What is environmental information?
• How we deal with complaints: a guide for public authorities

Exceptions - environmental

• An introduction to the EIR exceptions

Exemptions – freedom of information

• Section 21: information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means 
• Section 22: information intended for future publication 
• Section 26: defence  
• Section 27: international relations 
• Section 28: relations within the UK 
• Section 29: the economy 
• Section 30: investigations 
• Section 31: law enforcement 
• Section 32: information contained in court records 
• Section 32: information contained in court transcripts 
• Section 33: public audit 
• Section 35: policy formulation, ministerial communications, law officers' advice, and the operation of ministerial private office 
• Section 36: effective conduct of public affairs 
• Section 36: record of the qualified person’s opinion 
• Section 37: communications with Her Majesty and the awarding of honours 
• Section 38: health and safety
• Section 40: personal information 
• Section 40: applying the exemption for third party personal data 
• Section 40: circumstances where the names of individuals may be disclosed 
• Section 40: when should salaries be disclosed? 
• Section 40: access to information about public authorities’ employees 
• Section 40: access to information held in complaint files
• Section 41: information provided in confidence 
• Section 41: information provided in confidence relating to contracts 
• Section 41: the duty of confidence and the public interest 
• Section 42: legal professional privilege 
• Section 43: commercial interest 
• Section 43: commercial detriment of third parties 
• Section 43: public sector contracts 
• Section 44: prohibitions on disclosure

Freedom of information - general

• Guide to Freedom of Information
• Taking a positive approach to information rights
• How we deal with complaints - a guide for public authorities

Higher education

• Freedom of information legislation and research information: guidance for the higher education sector

Holding information

• Information held on behalf of another
• Information produced or received by councillors
• Official information held in private email accounts
• When is information caught by the FOI Act?

MPs' correspondence

• Guidance on dealing with requests for MPs' correspondence relating to constituents

The prejudice test

• The prejudice test

Property searches

• Environmental Information Regulations guidance - property searches

Public interest test

• The public interest test
• How exceptions and the public interest test work in the Environmental Information Regulations 

Publication schemes

• Charging for information in a publication scheme
• Definition documents and template guides to information
• EIR proactive dissemination
• Model publication scheme
• Model publication scheme for bodies only covered for certain information 
• Model publication scheme: using the definition documents
• What should be published: minutes and agendas 

Publicly owned companies

• Publicly owned companies and the Freedom of Information Act

Records management

• Records management FAQs

Refusing a request

• Refusing a request
• Writing a refusal notice 

Request handling

• Consideration of requests without reference to the identity of the applicant or the reasons for the request 
• Do I have to create information to answer a request 
• EIR flowchart to request information 
• Guidance on circular (or round robin) requests 
• Hints for practitioners handling FOI and EIR requests 
• Interpreting a request
• Means of communications 
• Valid request - name and address for correspondence 
• Verbal request log sheet for environmental information

Time for compliance

• Time for compliance 
• EIR time for compliance FAQs

Vexatious or repeated requests

• Vexatious or repeated requests