Staff Commission For Education And Library Boards Northern Ireland

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) provides a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities and establishes the Office of Information Commissioner with responsibility for ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Act.

Section 19 of the FOIA requires every public authority to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme which has been approved by the Information Commissioner and to publish information in accordance with the Scheme.

Model Publication Scheme 2009

The Information Commissioner, who is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, has drawn up a Model Publication Scheme for all public sector organisations, effective from January 2009, which the Staff Commission has adopted and is committed to.

Access to Information

The Staff Commission is a transparent and open organisation and we publish a range of information about what we do on our website which you can access by using the search facility clearly marked on our home page.

We have reviewed the information we routinely put into the public domain to ensure we are compliant with the Model Scheme. You will be able to identify the information made available by referring to the Access to Information Guidance Document.

Accessing information which is not included in the Publication Scheme

As an open and transparent organisation we are committed to routinely publishing as much information as possible; however if you want information which is not on our website or otherwise available through our Access to Information Guidance Document you may ask us for it in accordance with further provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and of the Environmental Information Regulations 2005. Requests for such information should be sent to: Philip Robinson, Deputy Secretary, Staff Commission for Education and Library Boards (philip.robinson@scelb.org.uk)

We will deal with such requests within 20 working days. If you make a request and are not satisfied with the way in which we deal with it you may ask us to review any decision we make. If you wish us to undertake such a review you should write to Mrs Patricia Weir, Chief Executive, Staff Commission for Education and Library Boards (patricia.weir@scelb.org.uk)

Any review will normally be under the control and direction of a senior member of staff who had no involvement in the original decision or process.

If you remain dissatisfied at the conclusion of any review you may complain to the Information Commissioner whose address is 51 Adelaide Street, Belfast BT2 8FE.

Fees and Charges

The Freedom of Information Act and the associated Fees Regulations stipulate that we cannot levy a fee for information unless there is a statutory basis for doing so or the amount of time taken to locate the information exceeds 18 hours. However we are allowed to charge for disbursements related to the provision of information and any reformatting requested by the applicant provided we ensure that applicants are aware of any charges which may be made.

No charges will be made for any information accessed via our website. For any information which is provided in hard copy and where there is no statutory provision for charges our rates for photocopying, reformatting and postage will be provided on request.

If you want any further information about the provision of information or have any difficulty accessing information provided on our website please contact, Philip Robinson, Telephone 028 9049 1461, Email philip.robinson@scelb.org.uk.