FOI Returns

What is Freedom of Information (FOI)?

Freedom of Information, or FOI, refers to rights provided to every person under the Freedom of Information Act 2014. The Act provides that from the effective date, every person has the following legal rights:

• The right to access official records held by Government Departments or other public bodies as defined by the act.
• The right to have personal information held on them corrected or updated where such information is incomplete, incorrect or misleading.
• The right to be given reasons for decisions taken by public bodies that affect them.

Regulations provide that parents, guardians and next-of-kin may apply to exercise these rights in certain circumstances

These rights mean that people can seek access to personal information held on them no matter when the information was created, and to other records created after the effective date.

How does FOI work?        

The Act requires FOI bodies to respond to requests from the public for information they hold. In most cases, public bodies must give their decision on a request within 4 weeks of receiving it. Also, FOI bodies are required to publish information in line with the model publication scheme, and are encouraged to publish as much information as possible outside of FOI.

What records can be requested?

Under the Act, the following records may be accessible:

• All records created after the Act commenced on 21st April 1998
• All personal records regardless of when they were created
• All staff records created after 21st April 1995

What Information can I get access to?

Any official information held by public bodies can be sought under the Act.

However, in order to allow FOI bodies to properly conduct their business, it will sometimes be necessary to exempt from release, certain types of information in some circumstances. These are set out in the Act.

Among the key exemptions are records relating to:

Government meetings

law enforcement and security

confidential and commercially sensitive information

personal information (other than information relating to the person making the request)

FOI Disclosure Log

FOI Disclosure Log 2017 (pdf 74Kb) 

FOI Disclosure Log 2018 (pdf 60Kb) 

FOI Disclosure Log 2019 (pdf 71Kb) 

FOI Disclosure Log 2020 (pdf 69Kb) 

FOI Disclosure Log 2021 (pdf 71Kb) 

FOI Disclosure Log 2022 (pdf 77Kb) 

FOI Disclosure Log 2023 (pdf 398Kb)