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The Freedom of Information Act 2000 took effect from January 1st 2005. We intend to operate as openly and transparently as possible in the spirit of the Act.
What is the Freedom of Information Act?
The Freedom of Information Act is a law which gives a general right of access for the public to recorded information held by public authorities, and includes information held by the Ombudsman.
Responsibility for overseeing the operation of the Act rests with the Information Commissioner who is independent of the government reporting directly to Parliament.
For detailed information on the Freedom of Information Act, its scope and your rights to information, visit the Information Commissioner's website.
Guide to information
One of the key principles of good administration is to be open and accountable. We therefore welcome the rights of access set out in the Freedom of Information Act and we are committed to publishing a wide range of information about our activities and on subjects in which there is known to be a public interest.
At the same time under our legislation, our investigations must be conducted in private and the information gathered for the purposes of those investigations can only be disclosed in very specific circumstances. We must also balance our wish to operate openly and transparently with our duty to protect the personal and confidential information we hold. Therefore the information that we can place in the public domain about our investigations is limited.
PHSO’s guide_to_information is based on the Information Commissioner’s model publication scheme for non-departmental public bodies. It is specifically designed to ensure that we make a significant amount of information available without the need for a specific request under the Freedom of Information Act.
If you are unable to find the information you require through our publication scheme, you can make a request for that information by contacting foi.officer@ombudsman.org.uk.
If you wish to make a complaint about how a request for information included in the publication scheme has been handled, you can do so by contacting complaintsaboutus@ombudsman.org.uk.
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