Freedom of Information Act at Cranfield University
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 received Royal Assent on the 30 November 2000 and came into full force on 1 January 2005. It gives a general right of access to recorded information held by public sector bodies, sets out exemptions from that right, and places a number of obligations on public authorities. Universities are included in the definition of a public sector body that appears in the Act. More information about the act can be found at information commissioner’s website: http://www.ico.gov.uk/
The Act is intended to promote a culture of openness and accountability amongst public sector bodies by providing people with rights of access to the information held by them. It is expected that these rights will facilitate better public understanding of how public authorities carry out their duties, why they make the decisions they do and how they spend public money. Cranfield University fully embraces the spirit of the Act and will do all that it can to promote this culture of openness and accountability. Under the Act the university has 2 main obligations:
- It must adopt and maintain a publication scheme, setting out details of information it will routinely make available, how the information can be obtained and whether there is any charge for it.
- It must comply with requests for the information that it holds unless an exemption from disclosure applies. It will normally have a maximum of twenty working days to respond to the request, however there are circumstances when this time limit can be extended.
All of the documents that can be viewed online are free of charge. For hard copies of information contained in the publication scheme, or for information that is not included in the scheme, and is not exempt under the conditions set out in the act, a fee may be charged. This will be decided on an individual basis depending upon how much work is involved in accessing the information that has been requested and the cost of producing it. An applicant will be informed of any fees that will be charged before an enquiry is processed. Under the terms laid out in the Act an applicant then has 3 months to pay the fee or it will be assumed that the information is no longer required.
Please address any queries concerning Freedom of Information to:
Management Information Research Centre (MIRC)
Cranfield School of Management
Cranfield University
Cranfield
Bedfordshire
MK43 0AL
T: +44 (0) 1234 750111
E: foi@cranfield.ac.uk
