As a result of the Publication Scheme Development and Maintenance Initiative the ICO has introduced a model publication scheme that we are encouraging all public sector organisations to adopt from 1 January 2009.
The model scheme is now available in both English and Welsh.
Authorities must produce a guide to the specific information they hold and which is contained within any of the scheme’s seven classes. We expect authorities to ensure that the information can be easily identified and accessed by the general public.
The ICO will regularly review the model scheme and guidance documents. Authorities should commit to reviewing and updating their information guide and its contents on a regular basis.
We have also produced a series of definition documents for the main public sectors. These documents identify the type of information we would expect to be included in each class.
Guidance
Definition documents
Central Government
Northern Ireland
Wales
Local Government
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eg fire and rescue authorities, passenger transport authorities, waste disposal authorities, port health authorities, where established as a joint or combined authority.
Health
Education
Police
Can’t find your sector specific definition document?
The ICO has now published a sector specific definition document for most public authorities. These documents accompany the new model publication scheme and are a guide to the types of information we expect authorities to proactively publish.
However, for some smaller authorities, the ICO will provide a completed ‘guide to information’ rather than a definition document. This will be a downloadable guide which can be printed off and used without further modification. We are currently developing (in association with National Association of Local Councils) a guide for:
Parish Meetings
Parish, Town and Community Councils
and liaising with NHS practitioners to produce a guide for:
General Practitioners
Dentists
Opticians
Pharmacists
Also, there may be organisations specified in Schedule 1 of the FoIA, eg Advisory NDPBs, who feel their role is too specialised to adopt the Non Departmental Public Bodies definition document. Although we recommend this as a starting point the ICO will welcome any suggestions on refining this definition document to make it more appropriate to these bodies.
This guidance will be available on the ICO website from autumn 2008.
The Initiative
The initiative ran throughout 2007 and concluded with the production of the model scheme and accompanying guidance.
The aim of the initiative was to encourage greater openness and transparency, to increase awareness and expand and improve proactive dissemination. At the same time the ICO sought to minimise the amount of resource public authorities need to develop, maintain and adopt a scheme and streamline the adoption process.
A series of sector based workshops took place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland with over 200 FoI practitioners attending. We also received responses from over 60 separate public authorities from government departments to parish councils. Their comments and observations and our own good practice approach have enabled us to develop and approve a model publication scheme which all public authorities can adopt.
Are you ready?
In May 2008 the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, wrote to all senior members of public authorities urging them to adopt the ICO’s new model publication scheme.
View the Information Commissioner's letter to public authorities and supporting 'FOI is changing – are you ready?' flyer here.
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