How to Obtain Information

The ‘guide to information’ will help you to find information that is routinely published and readily available from the College. It explains how to access the information, who to contact and whether a fee will be charged for the documents. Where you are asked to contact the college for a document, we aim to comply with the Act by providing the information within twenty working days.

What about information not mentioned in the guide?

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you have the right to request any information held by the College that has not already been published and listed in the guide to information.

Requests have to be made in writing and, in general, the College has 20 working days to respond.

Fees for Information

Requests for information that is not listed as ‘free’ in the guide will attract a charge for the cost of retrieval, copying, postage etc. We will let you know the charge at the time of your request. The fee will be calculated according to Fees Regulations and the charge will be payable in advance.

Under the FOI Act, the College is not required to release information to which an exemption in the Act legitimately applies. This includes personal information and information of a commercially sensitive nature. If an exemption applies, we will explain why we are not releasing information and we may also have to justify this to the Information Commissioner.

When requesting information please include the following details:

• The request for information must be in writing (this can be an email)
• You must give a name and address (this can be an email address)
• Be as specific as possible about the information or documents you require
• Indicate the format you would like the information in (e.g. via email, paper copy, on CD)

Please send your request to:

Karen Burton - FOI Request
The College at Braintree
Church Lane
Braintree
Essex
CM7 5SN
E-mail: kburton@braintree.ac.uk

If your request is refused or is only partially answered

If your request is refused or is only answered partially, a full explanation for our decision will be provided. You will be entitled to appeal to Braintree College using our complaints procedure. Details of this procedure will be provided and you will also be given details of how to make an external appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner.

Further information about the Act is available from www.foi.gov.uk