Freedom of information for schools
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Last updated: 24 January 2005
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 came fully into force 1 January 2005. There is now a legal right for any person to ask a school for access to information held by that school.
Governors need to ensure that from January 2005 their school meets FoI requirements. The DfES has produced guidance which is designed to help schools; i.e., governing bodies, head teachers and school staff to understand the requirements of the FoI Act and to handle requests for information under the Act, which is fully retrospective. It recognises that schools already deal with a great variety and number of requests for information and offers a straightforward approach to compliance.
An Annex provides links to more in-depth guidance and to additional sources of information, including two codes of practice, one on guidance to public authorities and the other on records management, for those who need or want a greater level of detail.
A checklist of actions, PowerPoint presentation, *retention schedule and electronic copy of a summary leaflet for governors are also available.
*Current guidance on the retention of records is being reviewed as a result of work that is being taken forward in response to the recommendations in Sir Michael Bichard's Report into the Soham murders.
The guidance complements that from the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and the Information Commissioner — the independent authority responsible for administering and enforcing FoI.
FoI update January 2005
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The DCA has confirmed that the ceiling limit for schools in providing information is £450. Guidance can be found on the DCA website
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Regulations came into force on 1 January that exclude non-school days for the purpose of calculating the 20 working days within which the information must be sent, as explained in the DfES guidance (paragraph 33)
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Section 36 exempts information whose disclosure would be likely to have certain effects. The application of Section 36 needs to be approved by a qualified person, which in this case is the chair of the governing body. Further guidance on this exemption (and others) can be found on the DCA website
Main text
Legislation
Key documents
Further information
Model policy
