Information Request policy

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) ( the Acts) create a legal obligation for the Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (the Council) to provide an over-arching right of access to all information held. This does not erase the Council’s obligations to other legislation and codes of practice, which may prevent the Council from releasing information. The Council must however approach all requests with the assumption that information may be released, unless evidence implies otherwise, and must provide assistance if able.

This obligation is the responsibility of the Information Governance team and the Principal Governance Officer, who can be contacted at freedom@welhat.gov.uk.

The Council is also obligated to provide the right of access to personal information under the Subject Access Request regime, which includes the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s Data Protection policy maintains the confidentiality of personal data held or processed whilst providing accessibility to individuals to their personal information. For more information, please contact the Data Protection team and the Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@welhat.gov.uk.

Other relevant policies that should be read in conjunction with this policy are:

• The Council’s ICT Strategy
• Data Protection Policy
• Information & Records Management Policy