Freedom of Information

Introduction

So far as is possible, Croxley Green Parish Council wishes to provide its staff and members of the public, with any information they need that is held by the Council. The Council is committed to promoting public understanding of its nature and activities via the systematic publication of all relevant information, and will make every effort to provide, where practical and permissible, additional information to members of the public in cases where routinely published information does not provide them with the information they require.
Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, individuals have rights in regard of obtaining information held by the Council. An information request form is available, please go to our Forms section. Before completing an application form, please read the notes below to determine the nature of your request.

Request for information held by the Council

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 you are allowed to ask the Council to provide you with any information held by the Council. For example, you may wish to see the minutes of a particular meeting.

The Council already publishes large quantities of the information that it holds on this web site. Before submitting any request you are advised to check the Council’s Publication Scheme to determine whether the information you require is already available (if you make a request for information that does already appear in public then our only response will be to direct you to the relevant resource). You may also wish to check our Freedom of Information Disclosure Log as the information you seek may have already been requested.

If you wish to make an enquiry about data held by the Council and which does not seem to be already available, then please complete the Request Form and return it to us. We will then instigate a search for the information you need.

Please note:

1. Where the information you request is already routinely published by the Council (or some other public body) then we will provide you with guidance on how to find this information, rather than the information itself.
2. If you wish to obtain personal information relating to yourself then we may need to ask for a more detailed request from you.
3. The Council will usually have 20 working days to respond to your request.
4. Please be careful to specify clearly all the information you require; we will make all reasonable efforts to locate this information, though we may need to ask you to provide more detail if your original application does not allow us to identify exactly what you want. If you require advice on how to specify your needs, please contact the Parish Clerk.
5. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides some limits to your access to information, though the Council would consider withholding information only in cases where an exemption legitimately applies. General guidance on the exemptions that the Council might apply to an Information Request are contained in the Council’s Policy on Information Requests, obtainable from the Parish Council. If we cannot comply with your request for any reason, we will provide you with a full explanation of the reason(s) for that refusal and details of how to appeal against that decision.
6. If it transpires that the Council does not hold the information you have requested then we will write to you to inform you of this. Where possible, we will suggest alternative ways in which you may be able to access the information you require.
7. If some/all of the information you request is held by another Public Authority then we will provide what information we can and then consider transferring the request to the relevant authority. Where possible, we will suggest alternative ways in which you may be able to access the information you require.

8. The Parish Council is confident that most members of the public and other requesters are exercising their rights under the legislation sensibly and in a responsible way. However, it is recognised that some individuals and organisations may try to abuse these rights with requests which are unreasonable and which would impose substantial burdens on the financial and human resources of the Parish Council. These cases may well arise in connection with a past or current grievance or complaint involving the individual and the Parish Council.

   The Parish Council take the view that a request, which may be the latest in a series of requests, would be considered vexatious where it would impose a significant burden on the Parish Council in terms of expense or distraction and meets at least one of the following criteria:

   a. it clearly does not have any serious purpose or value;
   b. it is designed to cause disruption or annoyance;
   c. it has the effect of harassing the Parish Council and its employees;
   d. it can otherwise fairly be characterised as obsessive or manifestly unreasonable.

   In cases deemed to be vexatious, the Parish Council may refuse a request.

Making a request for information

Once you have decided the type of enquiry you are making, please complete the form available in our Forms section return it to us. Please provide full contact details so that we may contact you quickly should we need to clarity the nature of your enquiry.