Some of our online payments including garden waste and licensing will be unavailable from 2pm Thursday 28 March until midday Tuesday 2 April due to essential maintenance.

About our publication scheme

Our publication scheme sets out the categories or classes of information that we publish and explains how to get that information. It is not a list of individual publications.

We publish information as outlined in the Information Commissioner’s Office guidance.

You can search:

  • our website for information and publications
  • our consultations website
  • Council meetings and agendas

You can also access data and information from our transparency page.

Categories of information

The publication scheme specifies 7 categories of information, under which most information we hold falls into. These are:

  1. who we are and what we do
  2. what we spend and how we spend it
  3. what our priorities are and how we are doing
  4. how we make decisions
  5. our policies and procedures
  6. lists and registers
  7. services provided by the council

How information is published

With few exceptions our publications can be downloaded from this website. They are also available in hard copy form from our offices. The exceptions are listed in the appendix of the scheme.

If you have difficulty in finding what you are looking for you can contact us using the form on this page.

Cost of publications

All publications on our website may be freely downloaded unless otherwise indicated. Most printed publications are available free of charge, but a charge may be made at rates decided from time to time for others.

Information that we will not publish under the scheme

A great deal of information that is held by us is personal and private to individuals. This includes our employees and former employees and we will not publish it.

Individuals have rights under the Data Protection Act to seek information relating to their own circumstances. A separate application will need to be made to us for this information.

Information which is exempt from disclosure or inspection under other legislation or would infringe someone else’s rights may not be published. Wherever possible we have drawn attention to those categories which may contain information which cannot be published.

The Freedom of Information Act and publication scheme does not limit other rights that people have to information.

Where to find our publication scheme

The publication scheme is available on our website and in our offices. If your first language is not English, we can arrange for interpreters to provide the information in a range of languages. The scheme is also available on request in large print or as audio. For further help and advice contact us on 01454 868009.

Individual requests for information

Following the Freedom of Information Act 2000 coming fully into force in January 2005, you are now able to make an individual request in writing for any information which has not already been published. Subject to certain exceptions we will have to tell you whether we have that information and then supply it to you. There may be a separate charge for providing this.

This part of the Act is fully retrospective which means that you may be able to obtain information from all of our records in existence. As with the publication scheme there will be some types of information that we cannot provide. Written requests for information can be sent by post to any council office or emailed to FreedomOfInformation@southglos.gov.uk.

Re-use of public sector information

The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 encourage the use by a person of a document held by public sector body for a purpose other than the initial purpose within that public sector body’s public task for which the document was produced.

In general, information published by the council is available for re-use under the terms of the Open Government Licence (for example information listed in our Publication Scheme). However in some instances there may be restrictions on re-use (for example information exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, personal data or where intellectual property rights are held by a third party).

Applications and enquiries regarding re-use should be made in the first instance to FreedomOfinformation@southglos.gov.uk

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