FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT - DEMONSTRATION

What is the Freedom of Information Act?

The Act requires all government departments to be open with information (subject to obvious exemptions such as national security risks and information covered by the Data Protection Act). For more details, click here.

Why a system?

The system saves tens of thousands of pounds in administration costs and provides a better service to the enquiring public. It facilitates best practice.

Since the original partners took led the development of the system, it has been rapidly adopted in many live sites all over England Wales and Scotland in both public sector organisations and in the private sector.

How does it work for public sector organisations?

The web site is a viewing and maintenance mechanism for a database with a huge number of documents at any government department, running into thousands. These documents may be stored in content or document management systems, in computer files or in physical locations. When you have selected your document, the appropriate information will be returned. Also, there will be details of any cost, any available media (e.g. Braille, large print, hardcopy, PDF, audiotape, etc.)

These documents should be available for all citizens and other agencies and organisations to see on the web. Likewise local authority staff should find it an essential search tool when dealing with enquiries from the public who prefer to write, visit or telephone the authority. In order to make the task of searching through them easier, various facilities have been provided: a standard browser search, a meetings diary, an A-Z search and a tree menu navigator.

The search facility allows filtering by different district authorities and parishes in a local authority and searching by key words such as “refuse”, or “planning”. Tree navigation of “CATEGORIES” (with the icon), ”sub-categories” (with the icon) and “classes” (with the icon) of data with document pointers allows the site visitor to drill down into the areas in which they are interested. Diary Display allows the user to pick a meeting date and see all the associated documents attached to agenda items. Lastly, the A-Z search allows the user to pick a subject by the first letter of the word they feel describes it. Thus "d" for "dustbin" may also bring back a document entitled "Refuse Collection" if the vocabulary of alternative keywords is set up.

Secure Maintenance

Maintenance of the document catalogue is supported by a secure site for staff to add documents and the robust workflow to make sure that the appropriate levels of management approval are in place before publication on the live website.

Partnership members