The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives you the right to request information from any public authority. It promotes openness and accountability among public sector organisations, so that everyone can understand how authorities make decisions, carry out their duties and spend public money.
The Act gives you a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by Leeds City Council. There are some exemptions to this general right of access and these are known as ‘absolute exemptions’ and ‘qualified exemptions’. If a qualified exemption applies, then it is subject to the public interest test. This means that the Council must decide whether in each particular case it serves the interests of the public better to withhold or to disclose the information requested.
The Freedom of Information Act also says that we must maintain a publication scheme which sets what information the Council routinely makes available, how the information can be accessed, and whether we will make a charge to provide it. The idea of a publication scheme is to try and make sure as much information as possible is freely available, and easy to access, so that you do not need to make a specific request for it.
As of January 2009, there is one model scheme approved by the Information Commissioner which must be adopted by all public authorities. You can view the Council's publication scheme and other guidance notes from the downloadable documents section of this page.
Each directorate within the Council has a Freedom of Information practitioner and their contact details are shown below. If you know the name of the directorate which will have the information you are requesting, you can email your request directly to the respective practitioner. If you are not sure which directorate to contact you should email your request to cs.freedom.of.information@leeds.gov.uk.
To find out more about the Freedom of Information Act and publication schemes, visit the Information Commissioner's Office online.