Applies to all Public Authorities including LSE. This means organisations performing a public function and subsidiary companies that are wholly owned by Public Authorities.
Only applies to the public sector
Allows anyone, no matter who or where they are, to find out whether information on a particular subject is held by the School and to receive that information in the format requested if it is
Covers all information related to the governance and administration of the School and is completely retrospective
Includes exemptions which cover certain types of information that does not have to be released
Requires the School to develop and maintain a Publication Schemes stating what information is already made available
Can result in imprisonment for contempt of court or a personal fine of up to £5000 for any employee who deliberately hides or destroys information after a request is made

Who is affected?

The main organisations that are covered by the act are:

Parliament
Central Government
Local Government
Police, Fire and Transport Authorities
The National Health Service
Schools, Colleges and Universities
and almost 400 Non-Departmental Public Bodies

Requests for information

From 1 January 2005 any written request for information that comes into LSE is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Written requests include those made via fax and email.

Furthermore, unless there are any exemptions|, the School is obliged to provide the information requested within 20 working days. The School must not sit on any requests and holidays or sick leave is not an excuse for not answering. Where an exemption is used, the reason for using the exemption must be given. Where only some of the information on a document is exempt, this will be redacted (blacked or blanked out) and the rest of the document released.

Information can be asked for in three different ways, though the School can choose a different format if the one asked for will be too difficult to provide:

Copies (paper or electronic) of the records
Viewing the original records
Summaries of the information

No fees will be charged for finding the information, however, there will be a charge for photocopying and postage of paper copies.

Publication Scheme

The Act requires all 100 000 public authorities including LSE to publish a list of all the information that is already made available and/or published regularly. This list is called a Publication Scheme|. Publication Schemes have to be approved by the Information Commissioner, who will also review them to make certain that we are publishing what we say we are publishing. The Publication Scheme is also intended to be a conduit for frequently asked for information to be published.

Records management

Obviously if LSE is to be able to fulfil its duties under the Act, information must be quickly and efficiently located and for that there must be appropriate records management. Records management is the process which ensures systematic management of records created by an organisation from creation to destruction.

Records management also ensures that all information is identified and listed and that it is only retained as long as it needs to be retained for.

For more information, please refer to the Records management| pages.