Wiltshire County Council

Wiltshire Council

Complaints Procedure for Information Requests

The Freedom of Information Act has been introduced to give the public greater access to information about the way in which organisations are run. The intention is to make public bodies more accountable for the information they hold and store. As the Council is a public body, as defined by the Freedom of Information Act, it has a duty to provide information that is not exempt under the Act.

Any organisation that records and uses personal information must be open about how they use the information. Under the Data Protection Act 1998, individuals generally have the right to see the information the Council holds about them and have it corrected it if is wrong.

THE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE FOR Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations Complaints

STAGE 1 - Informal Stage

A complaint made at this stage should be fairly straightforward to resolve. A customer may wish to raise an issue or concern they have with the information they have received. They may have been expecting something in addition to what they have received or may be unsure of the timescales involved in sending the information and were expecting it to arrive sooner.

In these cases the departmental Information Officer dealing with the case is responsible for replying to the customer. They should inform the Corporate Information team and input the complaint onto the tracking sheet. The customer should expect a response within 10 working days.

The departmental Information Officer concerned will make the customer aware of the next stage in the process and copy any correspondence regarding the complaint to the Corporate Information team.

STAGE 2 - Formal Complaint and Internal Review

If the customer remains dissatisfied with the outcome at Stage 1, they can ask for their complaint to go through an Internal Review.

The departmental Information Officer dealing with the complaint will pass the request for review to the Head of Governance, who will not have been involved in determining the matter until this point.

The Head of Governance will review the decision. The review should be completed within 28 working days of the request for a review being received.

If the decision not to provide the information is not upheld, the council will take steps to provide the information as soon as practicably possible, and in any event within 10 working days of the review being completed.

When writing with the council's decision, whether or not the complaint has been upheld, the council will, in informing the complainant of the outcome of the review, advise them of their right to complain to the Information Commissioner if they are dissatisfied with the council's response. They can be contacted at Information Commissioner's Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, 01625 545745.

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