Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act
Your rights
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 give you new rights to ask for and to be given information from public authorities in Scotland. This includes Scottish Borders Council.
You can ask us for recorded information about anything including information held on paper or electronically. If we hold that information we must supply it as long as it is not subject to one of the exemptions in the Act. We do not retain all information permanently. You can check our Corporate Records Retention Schedule to see how long we keep classes of records. The schedule was approved by the Corporate Management Team in April 2008 and applies to information created after that date.
You can find out more about your rights on the web site of the Scottish Information Commissioner.
We list the information we make public routinely in our Publication Scheme with details of how to obtain it and how much it will cost. Copies of the scheme can also be viewed in libraries and contact centres.
The cost
The charge for supplying the information is
- free for the first £100 - although there may be a charge for photocopies
- Over £100 - we may charge you 10% of our costs and copying charges
- Over £600 - we do not have to supply the information
If the request is for environmental information we may apply a reasonable charge to supply it.
Personal information
If you are looking for information about yourself you already have the right of access under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998. There is a charge for this information. The Freedom of Information Act does not give you additional rights to access personal information about other people.
Related links
- Requesting information from Scottish Borders Council
- Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner (external link)
- Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (external link)
- Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (external link)
- Codes of Practice to assist Public Authorities to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (external link)
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