Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) provides the public with a general right of access to information held by public bodies, such as local government, the police, the NHS and state schools.

The RBSAB and RBSCP are statutory partnerships in their own right, set up under the Children Act 2004 and the Care Act 2014. They are not public authorities for the purposes of the FOI. They are therefore exempt from the duty to provide information under the FOI.

Section 3 of the FOI provides that:

(2) For the purposes of this Act, information is held by a public authorsity 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.

A FOI request may be made directly to partner agencies of the RBSAB and RBSCP.  Where a RBSAB or RBSCP partner which is deemed to be a public authority under the FOI holds information for its own purposes, then it does so otherwise than on behalf of another person and the information held will be subject to the FOI. However, partners in possession of RBSAB/RBSCP minutes, documents, reports etc. are holding this information on behalf of ‘another person’ (RBSAB and RBSCP) and it is therefore not liable to disclosure under a FOI request.