Carlisle City Council Publication Scheme

One of the aims of the Freedom Of Information Act is that public authorities should be clear and proactive about the information they make available to the public. These publication schemes are intended to encourage organisations to make more information available and to develop a greater culture of openness.

A guide to the scheme is available from the 'Related Links' below.

Central to this, Section 19(2) of the FOI Act sets out the requirements for a publication scheme. A publication scheme must specify:

• The classes of information the Council publishes or intends to publish;
• The manner in which they will be published; 
• Whether the information is available free of charge or on payment of a fee.

Section 19(3) states that "in adopting or reviewing a publication scheme, a public authority shall have regard to the public interest in allowing public access to information held by the authority and in the publication of reasons for decisions made by the public authority".

From 1 January 2009 we adopted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) approved model publication scheme.  

The scheme is based on seven classes of information: 

1)      Who we are and what we do

2)      What we spend and how we spend it

3)      What our priorities are and how we are doing

4)      How we make decisions

5)      Our policies and procedures

6)      Lists and registers

7)      The services we offer