Re-use of County Council information

On 1 July 2005, as a result of a European Directive, new regulations came into force that allow the public to apply to re-use information held by Gloucestershire County Council to promote their own research and publications.

Re-use means using the information for a purpose other than the purpose for which the document was originally produced. This could include a commercial purpose.
Documents means written texts, databases, audio files and film fragment.

• Put your request in writing
• State the contact name and address
• Specify the document which is required for re-use.

Send your request to the Information Management Service

We must respond to requests within 20 working days. Where a request is received outside of normal working hours (i.e. evenings and weekends) it will be treated as having been received the next working day.

Sometimes it may be necessary to extend the time limit. Where this happens we will tell you before the end of the 20 working day deadline why we are extending the time limit and the date on which we expect to be able to respond.

Responding to a request means:

• making the requested document available for re-use, or
• where conditions are attached to the re-use, finalising the offer of the conditions on which re-use will be permitted, or
• refusing the request.

Not always. The regulations allow us to refuse requests for one or more of the following reasons:

• The document contains information in which intellectual property rights are owned by a third party,
• The content of the document is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000,
• The document falls outside of the Council's statutory functions.

Yes - if we refuse a request for re-use we must inform you in writing of the reason for refusal.

We must also advise you of your right of an internal review and of appeal. Where the refusal is because intellectual property rights are owned by a third party we should tell you who owns the relevant intellectual property rights (where we know that information) or the name of the person from whom we obtained the document.

No. We can impose conditions on re-use. Where we do this these conditions will be imposed by licence, but they will not unnecessarily restrict the way in which a document can be re-used or restrict competition.

We cannot discriminate between two applicants who request the same information. Both requests have to be dealt with.

We cannot grant exclusive rights to re-use the information, except where the arrangement is for the provision of a service in the public interest. If an applicant is granted exclusive rights, these should be for a relatively short duration so they can be reviewed, for example every 3 years, and the details of the exclusivity agreement may have to be published on our website.

We can charge for allowing re-use, but we are not allowed to charge more than it costs us to provide the information, other than allowing a reasonable return on our investment. If we have provided the information under FOI or EIR and have made a charge, this charge will be deducted from the charge for permitting re-use.

You can ask for an internal review of the decision. To do this you need to put your complaint in writing to us within 40 days of being informed of the decision.

Following the outcome of the internal review if you are still unhappy you can write to The Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI)Opens new window

OPSI is required to publish details of how it will deal with complaints. In complex cases, they may require the complainant to pay a £750 non-refundable fee. Any appeal to OPSI must be lodged before the end of 28 working days from the date you were advised by us of the outcome of our internal review.

You can complain to the Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (APPSI)Opens new window.

Your appeal must:

• be in writing
• state the nature of the appeal
• include a copy of the decisions of OPSI and the Council
• be lodged with AAPPSI before the end of 28 working days from the date you were informed by OPSI of the results of their review

The APPSI may make a charge of £750 to process a complaint.