The Freedom of Information Act, 2000

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) came into force on 1st January 2005. The Act gives people the right of access to information held by public authorities in two ways:

1. Publication Scheme
The Fire Service College is not considered to be a public authority in its own right within the terms of the FOIA. As an agency of the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG), we follow the guidelines set out in that department's publication scheme. Full details of the CLG's Publication Scheme can be found by clicking on their website and following the Access to Information links.
Details of publications available from The Fire Service College can be found in the Publications List.

2. General Right of Access
Any person has the right to make a request for information held by a public authority. The request must be in writing, including email correspondence. The authority must respond to this request within 20 working days.

More information about the FOIA and your rights to access information can be found on the Information Commissioner's website.

Requesting information from The Fire Service College
If the information in our Publications List does not cover the information you require, please complete a "request for information" form, or write to:

The FOI Officer, Information Services, The Fire Service College, London Road,Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos. GL56 0RH.

Email: informationservices@fireservicecollege.ac.uk

Request for Information Form

How we will handle your request
When we receive your request, we will send you an acknowledgement. This will tell you by what date you should receive a reply, normally within 20 working days of the receipt of the enquiry. In some circumstances it may take us longer to provide the information and in that case we will write to tell you when you can expect a reply.

We will inform you if a fee has to be paid for providing the information requested, before any work or research is carried out. Fees can be charged under:
prescribed costs - cover finding, sorting or editing the material. A standard hourly rate of £25 per person is used to estimate these. We will always provide information free of charge where the estimated prescribed cost is less than £600.
or disbursements - covering things like printing, photocopying or postage. These fees may be charged in all cases, regardless of whether the fee limit for the prescribed costs is reached. No charge will be made for disbursements where the cost is below £25.

If we cannot provide the information, we will write to explain why we cannot do so. One reason could be that we do not hold the information requested or that it is "exempt from release" under the conditions within the Act.

Receiving the information

We will normally send you the information requested, either by post or email. If you would prefer, you can make arrangements to view the information at the Learning & Resource Centre at the Fire Service College. A request to visit must first be made to The Information Rights & Services Advisor, The Fire Service College, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos. GL56 0RH or email: informationservices@fireservicecollege.ac.uk

Reuse of Information

  If you wish to reuse or reproduce any information that you receive as the result of an FOIA request, you may have to apply for a licence from The Fire Service College. The Fire Service College is a Crown body and our materials are subject to Crown copyright and the Reuse of Public Sector Information Regulations. For further details please see our Crown copyright Licensing information.

Complaints

If you want to make a complaint about the way we have handled your request or to appeal against our decision not to release information, you should write, asking for an internal review, to the Chief Executive, The Fire Service College, London Road, Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos. GL56 or email: complaints@fireservicecollege.ac.uk Please state clearly the reason for your dissatisfaction. We will then review the handling of the request.

If you are still not satisfied after we have considered your complaint or appeal, you can appeal to the Information Commissioner for a final decision by writing to: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.