Section 12: How to access information which is not available under this Scheme
If the information you are seeking is not available under this publication scheme, then you may wish to request it from us. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) provides you with a right of access to the information we hold, subject to certain exemptions. The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) separately provide a right of access to the environmental information we hold, while the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) provides a right of access to any personal information about you that we hold. Again, these rights are subject to certain exceptions or exemptions.
Our leaflet 'How to open government' gives further explanation about your right to access information under the different legislation and sets out our commitment about how we will handle your requests for information.
Should you wish to request a copy of any information that we hold but is not available under this scheme, there are various ways of contacting us for it -
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/HaveYourSay/infoRequest
The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Charges for information which is not available under the scheme:
The charges for information which is available under this scheme are set out under section 7 - Our Charging Policy. If you submit a request to us for information which is not available under the scheme the charges will be based on the following calculations:
General information requests:
- There will be no charge for information requests which cost us £100 or less to process.
- Where information costs between £100 and £600 to provide you may be asked to pay 10% of the cost. That is, if you were to ask for information that cost us £600 to provide, you would be asked to pay £50, that calculated on the basis of a waiver for the first £100 and 10% of the remaining £500. At present however the Scottish Government normally waives this fee.
- We are not obliged to respond to requests which will cost us over £600 to process.
- In calculating any fee, staff time will be calculated at actual cost per staff member hourly salary rate to a maximum of £15 per person per hour.
- We do not charge for the time to determine whether we hold the information requested, nor for the time it takes to decide whether the information can be released. Charges may be made for locating, retrieving and providing information to you.
- In the event that we decide to impose a charge we will issue you with notification of the charge (a 'fees notice') and how it has been calculated. You will have three months from the date of issue of the fees notice in which to decide whether to pay the charge. The information will be provided to you on payment of the charge. If you decide not to proceed with the request there will be no charge to you.
Charges for environmental information:
We do not charge for the time to determine whether we hold the information requested, nor for the time it takes to decide whether the information can be released. Charges may be made for locating, retrieving and providing information to you.
In the event that we decide to impose a charge we will issue you with notification of the charge and how it has been calculated. The information will be provided to you on payment of the charge. If you decide not to proceed with the request there will be no charge to you.
Charges are calculated on the basis of the actual cost to the authority of providing the information.
- Photocopying is charged at 10p per A4 sheet for black and white copying, 30p per A4 sheet for colour copying.
- Postage is charged at actual rate for first class mail.
- Staff time is calculated at actual cost per staff member hourly salary rate to a maximum of £15 per person per hour.
The first £100 worth of information will be provided to you without charge.
Where information costs between £100 and £600 to provide you may be asked to pay 10% of the cost. That is, if you were to ask for information that cost us £600 to provide, you would be asked to pay £50, that calculated on the basis of a waiver for the first £100 and 10% of the remaining £500.
Where it would cost more than £600 to provide the information to you, however, we will ask you to pay the full cost of providing the information, with no waiver for any portion of the cost.
Requests for your own personal data:
Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you have the right to ask the Scottish Government to inform you whether it processes any personal information relating to you and if so to provide you with a copy of such data. This is called a 'subject access request'.
If you wish to access your personal information from the Scottish Government you should make your request in writing to the following address: -
The Scottish Government Information Management Unit
J Spur, Saughton House
Broomhouse Drive
EDINBURGH
EH11 3XD
Telephone: 0131 244 4328
Your request should include a contact address and also documented evidence of who you are (e.g. copies of your driving licence, passport or birth certificate). You should also provide as much detail as possible regarding the information you wish to access. We may come back to you for additional details in order to locate the material you require. We will also require from you payment of a fee of £10 before we start to search for your information.
We will aim to meet your request within 40 days of receiving from you all of the above information (and payment of the £10 fee).