Vale of Glamorgan Council
Cyngor Bro Morgannwg
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Requests for Information

Access to information held by the Council can be obtained through two main regimes; Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

 

If you require access to information about yourself, this is regulated under the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

 

Brief details of the three pieces of legislation can be found below.

 

Access to Information regimes, both under Freedom of Information and the Environmental Information Regulations, provide a general right to access information held by Authorities, however creating new information or giving an opinion or judgement that is not already in existence would be outside the ambit of these regimes.  

 

Please note that the provision of information under access legislation does not confer any automatic right to re-use information provided. Accordingly if it is, your intention to re-use the information you would need to make an application to this Council under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015.

 

Please note: Access to information legislation is not designed to address grievances with the authority. Other channels are available for this. Please see the Councils Corporate Complaints Policy.

 

freedom of information

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI) / Environmental Information Regulations

These provide the public with a general right of access to recorded information held by public authorities.

 

How to make an FOI request

Please make information requests, clearly stating the information you would like, via:

 

The FoI Unit

Vale of Glamorgan Council

Civic Offices

Holton

Barry

CF63 4RU 

 

 

If the information is held, this will be provided within 20 working days*, unless the information is exempt from disclosure. If the information you have requested is exempt from disclosure, you will be notified of this in writing with an explanation of the exemption.  

 

Make a payment

 

  • A number of exemptions exist in the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations which will prevent us from disclosing the information. An example of information that would be exempt from disclosure includes personal information.
  • Much of the information held by the council is reported to Cabinet or Scrutiny Committees, for example Planning, Social Care, Housing. This information is already in the public domain via the minutes published on the  Councils website. To avoid waiting for information via an FOI request, you may wish to check the Vale of  Glamorgan Councils website.
  • Access to Information regimes, both under FOI and the Environmental Information Regulations, provide a general right to access information held by Authorities, however creating new information or giving an opinion or judgement that is not already would be outside the ambit of these regimes.
  • The council may make a charge for the information, in accordance with the Council’s Access to Information Charging Policy. 

Companies can pay with corporate credit cards, please contact:

  • 01446 700111

 

 

 

*The 20 working day time frame for the council to respond to a request may be extended where necessary in accordance to the Freedom of Information Act to consider the public interest test in disclosing the information or if under the Environmental Information Regulations the time may be extended to 40 days if the request is complex of voluminous.

 

statswales.gov.wales

Open Government Licence

The Vale Of Glamorgan Council is dedicated to being an open, accountable and transparent local authority. As such, we publish a range of information for people to access.


You are free to re-use this information following the terms of the Open Government Licence.


Further information on the legislation is available from the Information Commissioner's Office.

Data Protection Requests Subject Access

This gives individuals certain rights regarding information held about them. You may wish to make a request for certain information held by the council about yourself. This is known as a Subject Access Request. 

 

The General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. Provides a right to access your personal information.

 

You can request information by writing to: 

 

FOI Unit

Vale of Glamorgan Council  

Civic Offices

Holton Road

Barry

Vale of Glamorgan

CF63 4RU

 

  • 01446 700111

 

Generally these requests will be processed free of charge however please see The Council’s Access to Information Charging Policy linked above in relation to the limits of this. We may ask for identity in processing requests. We shall advise you of this when we respond.

 

Please note in some circumstances there is an exemption to the right. If an exemption applies we will inform you of this when we respond.

 

We are required to provide information on the action taken on a request without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt of the request. The period may be by a further two months where necessary taking into account the complexity and number of requests. We will inform you of any extension within one month of the receipt of the request.   

Publication Scheme

As of January 2009, all authorities have adopted a scheme which lists information under seven broad classes:

 

Further Information

Further information on the details of the access regimes can be obtained from the Information Commissioner's Office:

 

Information Commissioner's Office - Wales

Second Floor, Churchill House

Churchill Way,

Cardiff

CF10 2HH

 

Further information on details of the legislation and the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005 can be obtained from the:

 

Office of Public Sector Information


Vale of Glamorgan Council Standards of Service