Sophie Turner, Senior Officer, FOI Upstream Regulation Team, ICO
Did you know that school trusts are obliged to respond to requests for information from the public, and that any member of staff could receive a request? And that trusts must proactively make some information available?
The laws governing this are the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR), regulated by us, the ICO.
Requests can be sent by anyone: researchers, journalists, commercial organisations or members of the public, as well as people connected with school, and trusts must treat them all in the same way.
It’s everybody’s responsibility to know what to do if they receive a request for information. We know that dealing with requests can be daunting, but we want to support you in getting it right.
Who’s responsible for dealing with requests?
A request can be valid whether it’s addressed to the board, the school, or to individual staff.
In legal terms, it is the academy trust board as "proprietor” that is responsible for compliance with FOIA and EIR, regardless of how many schools are in the trust. Whilst it can be practical for school staff to handle routine requests, the trust must keep track of compliance.
We recommend designating a staff member as an FOI officer, to handle and track requests. Tell all staff who their officer is, and make sure they know to send all requests to them straight away. There are strict timeframes for responding. Remind staff to keep an eye on Spam or Other email folders; requests can end up there, but they still start the clock ticking to respond.
When to respond
You must respond promptly, within 20 school days; meaning when students are in. If you have different term dates across the trust, you should take account of school days for the academy the request relates to. Even allowing for non-school days, however, the maximum time limit for response is 60 working days (any day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or a public or bank holiday).
FOIA or the EIR?
Whilst FOIA would cover information like accounts, exam results and meeting minutes, information about things like school buildings, outdoor spaces or traffic management is "environmental”. Trusts must handle those requests under the EIR. If the requested information isn’t environmental, handle the request under FOIA.
There are some differences in how the two laws work, so it’s important to know the difference. Our guide Is the information environmental? will help you.
What information should we publish proactively?
You are obliged to make some information available under a publication scheme; please see our guide.
Public authorities have also told us that it can help manage the volume of requests to proactively publish commonly-requested information.
Do we have to provide the requested information?
Whilst you must respond to requests, there are exemptions to protect information that shouldn’t be disclosed; for example, because disclosing it would cause harm or would be against the public interest. So, you can sometimes refuse a request. You might also need to consider whether the requester has a right to the information under other legislation, such as the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
Examples of requests and what to consider
- A parent asking for their child’s school record – handle this in line with the UK GDPR; see our guidance on accessing pupil information.
- Someone wanting lesson plans – handle under FOIA. You might need to consider whether the plans are another organisation’s commercial property or if there’s any personal data on the plans.
- Someone requesting a TA’s timetable – it might be exempt under FOIA if it’s the individual’s personal data, but if the request is for the allocation of TAs during the school week, consider providing an anonymised version.
- Someone wanting a copy of the bullying policy – this should be published online and you can send the requester a link.
- Someone asks whether your school buildings include RAAC – handle this under the EIR.
- Someone wants to know about your photocopier contract – handle this under FOIA.
- A parent who’s exhausted the complaints procedure is now sending multiple FOI requests – you might be able to refuse these as "vexatious”, but case law has set a high bar. See our guidance on vexatious requests.
Next steps?
It’s important that everyone understands how to spot a request, the timeframes involved and who’s responsible for responding.
To get the conversation started, please share this blog with staff across your organisation. You could also add FOI to the agenda for upcoming staff and trustees’ meetings.
Check that your school trust has a system in place for logging FOI and EIR requests, and when you’ve responded. Our template can help. And consider offering all-staff training on FOIA and the EIR – our training videos can help.
The ICO is here to help
We want to support you in dealing with FOIA and the EIR. A good place to start is our website, which is full of advice and resources.
Our Guide to managing an FOI request covers all the key issues. If you’re short on time, our FOI in 90 seconds guide gives you the basics.
For specific questions, you can contact our business advice team or call them on 0303 123 1113.
