FOI Legislation and information regarding fees

Legislation for requesting information 

The Freedom of Information Act 1997 as amended by the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Act 2003 continues to apply to any FOI request made before the new Act came into effect. It also applies to any subsequent review or appeal. 

On 14 October 2014, the Freedom of Information Act 2014 ("the Act") came into effect. The new Act introduced a number of changes to the Freedom of Information (FOI) scheme. The Freedom of Information Act 2014 provides that every person has the following legal rights:

• the right to access official records held by public bodies prescribed under the Act (FOI bodies);
• the right to have personal information held on them corrected or updated where such information is incomplete, incorrect or misleading; and
• the right to be given reasons for decisions taken by FOI bodies that affect them. 

Any person may make an FOI Request under the Act. The public body in question must normally respond within 2 weeks (10 working days) with an acknowledgment of the request, and with a final reply within the 4 weeks (20 working days) following receipt of the request. 

In the case of large and/or complex requests this timeframe may be extended by a further 4 weeks. In the case of requests for Personal Information, the processing of the FOI request will not commence until the required I.D or other verification documents have been received from the Requester. 

Under the FOI Act 2014 the Decision Maker may grant full access, may refuse access or provide partial access to the information requested based on specific exemption detailed within the FOI Act 2014. 

Under the Act, you can appeal an FOI body's decision – initially to an Internal Reviewer and if not satisfied you can make an appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner.