Freedom of Information (FOI)

Right to Information

The Freedom of Information Act does two main things:

• It gives applicants a general right of access to recorded information held by public authorities - with some procedural and substantive limitations
• It imposes an obligation on public authorities, including the National Audit Office, to maintain a Publication Scheme approved by the Information Commissioner

How to find or apply for information

Publication Scheme

The NAO Publication Scheme lists the range of information we proactively make available without the need for specific FOI requests.  It also gives details of how the information can be obtained and any charges.

We recommend you start your information search by looking at the Publication Scheme pages.

Charges for Publication Scheme items

Generally, information published on our website is available free of charge - although the user will have to meet any charges by their Internet Service Provider, personal printing costs etc.

Requests for multiple copies or for archived copies of documents which are no longer available on the website, may incurr a charge for the cost of retrieval, photocopies, postage etc. 

If you are likely to be charged, we will let you know the charge at the time of the request. 

Making a request

If you want information which is not available under the Publication Scheme you may write to the FOI Team and submit a request.

Your request will be acknowledged and information supplied within 20 working days where possible - subject to exemptions which may prevent some information being released.

In making a request you must

• State your name
• Give an address for correspondence
• Describe as fully as possible the information you are seeking

It would be also be helpful if you were to give a telephone number in case we need to discuss your request with you.

Cost Limit

We do not routinely charge for FOI requests, however there is no obligation for us to provide information if the estimated cost of doing so would exceed £450. This is the limit set in secondary legislation sponsored by the Ministry of Justice.

In cases where the cost limit would be exceeded, we will contact you to discuss whether you would prefer the scope of your request to be modified so it would cost less than the limit.

(When calculating whether the limit is exceeded, we will take account of the costs of determining whether the information is held, locating and retrieving the information, and extracting the information from other documents. We do not include the costs of assessing whether information is exempt under the Act. Staff costs are calculated at £25 per hour).

Copyright

Unless otherwise stated:

• The NAO holds the copyright for information contained within the publication scheme 
• all material available via the website may be downloaded, copied or reproduced free of charge in any format or medium without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. Where the material is being published or issued to others, the sources and copyright status should be acknowledged
• From time to time NAO publications may contain information which is subject to Crown copyright, for example where we have reproduced information produced directly by a Crown body.
  
  Where this is the case we will have included a copyright statement and users should observe this statement and act accordingly.
  
  Crown Copyright is administered by Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) and further details are available on the Copyright Guidance section of their website.
  
  Also see the OPSI website for details of Click-Use Licences.
  
  The NAO does not accept responsibility for material hosted on any external sites.
• If you are maintaining or developing a website you do not have to ask permission to link directly to pages hosted on the NAO website.
  
  However, you must not link to information on our website in a way that implies a relationship with, or endorsement by the NAO, or which misrepresents NAO content as being published by anyone other than NAO.
   

Publication Scheme Accountability

The Director of Corporate Affairs is responsible for the scheme.

Day to day management of the scheme is the responsibility of Nora Miller, Freedom of Information Officer.

Complaints

If your request for information is denied then you may follow a complaints procedure.

In the first instance complaints should be sent to the Director of Corporate Affairs at the NAO.

If you are not happy with any subsequent response you can write to the Information Commissioner who has responsibility for approving Publication Schemes, promoting compliance with the Act and powers of enforcement.

Contact details for the Information Commissioner are:

Information Commissioner
Wycliffe Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Tel: 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510

Website: http://www.ico.gov.uk/
 

Feedback

If you have any questions or comments about our Publication Scheme please send them to the FOI Team at the address listed above.