Freedom of Information Act 2000
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Status: This version of this Act contains provisions that are prospective. Changes to legislation: There are outstanding changes not yet made by the legislation.gov.uk editorial team to Freedom of Information Act 2000. Any changes that have already been made by the team appear in the content and are referenced with annotations. (See end of Document for details) View outstanding changes Freedom of Information Act 2000 2000 CHAPTER 36 An Act to make provision for the disclosure of information held by public authorities or by persons providing services for them and to amend the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Public Records Act 1958; and for connected purposes. [30th November 2000] Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:— Modifications etc. (not altering text) C1 Act: functions of Secretary of State transferred to the Lord Chancellor (26.11.2001) by S.I. 2001/3500, arts. 3, 4, Sch. 1 para. 12 Act (except ss. 15, 23, 24, 36, 46, 65, 66 and s. 53 for certain purposes): functions of the Lord Chancellor transferred to the Secretary of State, and all property, rights and liabilities to which the Lord Chancellor is entitled or subject in connection with any such function transferred to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (19.8.2003) by The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs Order 2003 (S.I. 2003/1887), art. 4, Sch. 1 (with art. 6) C2 Act: enforcement and appeals provisions applied (with modifications) (1.1.2005) by The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/3391), reg. 18 (with reg. 3) (as amended (17.9.2018) by The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Miscellaneous Amendments and Revocations) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/942), regs. 1(2), 10) C3 Act applied (with modifications) (22.11.2012) by The Police and Crime Panels (Application of Local Authority Enactments) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/2734), regs. 1(1), 3-6, Sch. Pt. 3 C4 Act applied (with modifications) (22.11.2012) by The Police and Crime Panels (Application of Local Authority Enactments) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/2734), regs. 1(1), 3-6, Sch. Pt. 2 C5 Act applied (with modifications) (E.W.) (22.11.2012) by The Police and Crime Panels (Application of Local Authority Enactments) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/2734), regs. 1(1), 3-6, Sch. Pt. 1 C6 Act: transfer of functions (9.11.2016) by The Transfer of Functions (Elections, Referendums, Third Sector and Information) Order 2016 (S.I. 2016/997), art. 7(a) (with arts. 8, 12) C7 Act: transfer of functions (9.11.2016) by The Transfer of Functions (Elections, Referendums, Third Sector and Information) Order 2016 (S.I. 2016/997), arts. 1(2), 3(1), Sch. 1(i) (with arts. 3(2), 6, 12) C8 Act modified (E.W.) (23.5.2019) by The Buckinghamshire (Structural Changes) Order 2019 (S.I. 2019/957), arts. 1, 15(2) 2 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) Part I – Access to information held by public authorities Document Generated: 2021-05-24 Status: This version of this Act contains provisions that are prospective. Changes to legislation: There are outstanding changes not yet made by the legislation.gov.uk editorial team to Freedom of Information Act 2000. Any changes that have already been made by the team appear in the content and are referenced with annotations. (See end of Document for details) View outstanding changes C9 Act modified (E.W.) (14.2.2020) by The Northamptonshire (Structural Changes) Order 2020 (S.I. 2020/156), arts. 1, 17(2)(f) PART I ACCESS TO INFORMATION HELD BY PUBLIC AUTHORITIES Right to information 1 General right of access to information held by public authorities. (1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled— (a) to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and (b) if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him. (2) Subsection (1) has effect subject to the following provisions of this section and to the provisions of sections 2, 9, 12 and 14. (3) Where a public authority— (a) reasonably requires further information in order to identify and locate the information requested, and (b) has informed the applicant of that requirement, the authority is not obliged to comply with subsection (1) unless it is supplied with that further information. (4) The information— (a) in respect of which the applicant is to be informed under subsection (1)(a), or (b) which is to be communicated under subsection (1)(b), is the information in question held at the time when the request is received, except that account may be taken of any amendment or deletion made between that time and the time when the information is to be communicated under subsection (1)(b), being an amendment or deletion that would have been made regardless of the receipt of the request. (5) A public authority is to be taken to have complied with subsection (1)(a) in relation to any information if it has communicated the information to the applicant in accordance with subsection (1)(b). (6) In this Act, the duty of a public authority to comply with subsection (1)(a) is referred to as “the duty to confirm or deny”. 2 Effect of the exemptions in Part II. (1) Where any provision of Part II states that the duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to any information, the effect of the provision is that where either— (a) the provision confers absolute exemption, or (b) in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exclusion of the duty to confirm or deny outweighs the public interest in disclosing whether the public authority holds the information, Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) 3 Part I – Access to information held by public authorities Document Generated: 2021-05-24 Status: This version of this Act contains provisions that are prospective. Changes to legislation: There are outstanding changes not yet made by the legislation.gov.uk editorial team to Freedom of Information Act 2000. Any changes that have already been made by the team appear in the content and are referenced with annotations. (See end of Document for details) View outstanding changes section 1(1)(a) does not apply. (2) In respect of any information which is exempt information by virtue of any provision of Part II, section 1(1)(b) does not apply if or to the extent that— (a) the information is exempt information by virtue of a provision conferring absolute exemption, or (b) in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. (3) For the purposes of this section, the following provisions of Part II (and no others) are to be regarded as conferring absolute exemption— (a) section 21, (b) section 23, (c) section 32, (d) section 34, (e) section 36 so far as relating to information held by the House of Commons or the House of Lords, [F1(ea) in section 37, paragraphs (a) to (ab) of subsection (1), and subsection (2) so far as relating to those paragraphs,] [F2(f) section 40(1), (fa) section 40(2) so far as relating to cases where the first condition referred to in that subsection is satisfied,] (g) section 41, and (h) section 44. Textual Amendments F1 S. 2(3)(ea) inserted (19.1.2011) by Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (c. 25), ss. 46(1), 52(2), Sch. 7 para. 2; S.I. 2011/46, art. 3(b)(i) (with art. 4) F2 S. 2(3)(f)(fa) substituted for s. 2(3)(f) (25.5.2018) by Data Protection Act 2018 (c. 12), s. 212(1), Sch. 19 para. 56 (with ss. 117, 209, 210, Sch. 20 para. 52); S.I. 2018/625, reg. 2(1)(g) 3 Public authorities. (1) In this Act “public authority” means— (a) subject to section 4(4), any body which, any other person who, or the holder of any office which— (i) is listed in Schedule 1, or (ii) is designated by order under section 5, or (b) a publicly-owned company as defined by section 6. (2) For the purposes of this Act, information is held by a public authority if— (a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person, or (b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority. Modifications etc. (not altering text) C10 S. 3 modified (29.9.2008 at 8.00 a.m.) by The Bradford & Bingley plc Transfer of Securities and Property etc. Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/2546), art. 41 4 Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) Part I – Access to information held by public authorities Document Generated: 2021-05-24 Status: This version of this Act contains provisions that are prospective. Changes to legislation: There are outstanding changes not yet made by the legislation.gov.uk editorial team to Freedom of Information Act 2000. Any changes that have already been made by the team appear in the content and are referenced with annotations. (See end of Document for details) View outstanding changes C11 S. 3 modified (7.10.2008 at 9.30 a.m.) by The Heritable Bank plc Transfer of Certain Rights and Liabilities Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/2644), art. 29 C12 S.