Introduction
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities. The Act does this in two ways:
- The requirement for the local authority to publish and maintain a publication scheme (a guide to their services and information) and;
- The requirement for the local authority to respond to requests for information and provide a response within twenty working days.
Anyone, including commercial companies, can make a freedom of information request (FOI). Individuals do not have to be a UK citizen, or reside in the UK, in order to make a request for information.
Search for FOI requests
The council publishes all responses issued to FOI and EIR requests on our FOI Disclosure Log, which is updated daily. We encourage you to search for FOI requests using the button below before submitting a request, as we may have previously responded to something similar.
Some of the most common requests include those about business rates, public health funerals, senior salaries, council structure and payments over £500 made by the council.
Please note: It is not currently possible to undertake searches of recently responded to FOI requests, but we are working to provide this again. If you are looking for any past responses, or have an enquiry about past responses, then please do contact us via email at foi@peterborough.gov.uk with details and we will be happy to assist you.
Submit an FOI request
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) & Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR)
If the information you require is not in our Publication Scheme, or available on the Data Transparency or other Open Data Information pages, then you can make either an FOI or EIR request.
The Council will treat any request for environmental information under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). The EIRs are very similar to FOIs in that we must respond to requests within 20 working days and we must proactively publish environmental information. Examples of environmental information which the Council might hold would include information about planning, waste management and pollution.
FOI requests must be submitted in writing or you can made a request online using the link. EIR requests can be made verbally, however we do encourage written requests to ensure that we have as much detail as possible in order to search for and provide the information you have asked for.
The process
You should receive the information you have requested within 20 working days of making your request. If we need to extend this, we will contact you and explain why. We may not be able to release certain information to you and where this is the case we will clearly set out the reasons for withholding the information in our response to you. You will also be provided with details of how to appeal our decision.
Further information
If you require further assistance, please contact the Information Governance Team by phone on 01733 452533 or email foi@peterborough.gov.uk.