Section 19: Publication schemes., Freedom of Information Act 2000

It shall be the duty of every public authority—

to adopt and maintain a scheme which relates to the publication of information by the authority and is approved by the Commissioner (in this Act referred to as a "publication scheme"),

to publish information in accordance with its publication scheme, and

from time to time to review its publication scheme.

A publication scheme must—

specify classes of information which the public authority publishes or intends to publish,

specify the manner in which information of each class is, or is intended to be, published, and

specify whether the material is, or is intended to be, available to the public free of charge or on payment.

A publication scheme must, in particular, include a requirement for the public authority concerned—

to publish—

any dataset held by the authority in relation to which a person makes a request for information to the authority, and

any up-dated version held by the authority of such a dataset,

unless the authority is satisfied that it is not appropriate for the dataset to be published,

where reasonably practicable, to publish any dataset the authority publishes by virtue of paragraph (a) in an electronic form which is capable of re-use,

where subject to subsections (2AA) and (2AB) any information in a dataset published by virtue of paragraph (a) is a relevant copyright work in relation to which the authority is the only owner, to make the information available for re-use in accordance with the terms of the specified licence.

If the whole of the relevant copyright work is a document to which the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 apply, subsections (2A)(c) and (2B) to (2F) do not apply to the relevant copyright work.

If part of the relevant copyright work is a document to which those Regulations apply—

subsections (2A)(c) and (2B) to (2F) do not apply to that part, but

those provisions do apply to the part to which the Regulations do not apply (and references in the following provisions of this section to the relevant copyright work are to be read as references to that part).

The public authority may exercise any power that it has by virtue of regulations under section 11B to charge a fee in connection with making the relevant copyright work available for re-use in accordance with a requirement imposed by virtue of subsection (2A)(c).

Nothing in this section or section 11B prevents a public authority which is subject to such a requirement from exercising any power that it has by or under an enactment other than this Act to charge a fee in connection with making the relevant copyright work available for re-use.

Where a public authority intends to charge a fee (whether in accordance with regulations under section 11B or as mentioned in subsection (2C)) in connection with making a relevant copyright work available for re-use by an applicant, the authority must give the applicant a notice in writing (in this section referred to as a " re-use fee notice ") stating that a fee of an amount specified in, or determined in accordance with, the notice is to be charged by the authority in connection with complying with the requirement imposed by virtue of subsection (2A)(c).

Where a re-use fee notice has been given to the applicant, the public authority is not obliged to comply with the requirement imposed by virtue of subsection (2A)(c) while any part of the fee which is required to be paid is unpaid.

Where a public authority intends to charge a fee as mentioned in subsection (2C), the re-use fee notice may be combined with any other notice which is to be given under the power which enables the fee to be charged.

In adopting or reviewing a publication scheme, a public authority shall have regard to the public interest—

in allowing public access to information held by the authority, and

in the publication of reasons for decisions made by the authority.

A public authority shall publish its publication scheme in such manner as it thinks fit.

The Commissioner may, when approving a scheme, provide that his approval is to expire at the end of a specified period.

Where the Commissioner has approved the publication scheme of any public authority, he may at any time give notice to the public authority revoking his approval of the scheme as from the end of the period of six months beginning with the day on which the notice is given.

Where the Commissioner—

refuses to approve a proposed publication scheme, or

revokes his approval of a publication scheme,

he must give the public authority a statement of his reasons for doing so.

In this section—

" copyright owner " has the meaning given by Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (see section 173 of that Act);
" copyright work " has the meaning given by Part 1 of the Act of 1988 (see section 1(2) of that Act);
" database " has the meaning given by section 3A of the Act of 1988;
" database right " has the same meaning as in Part 3 of the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997 ( S.I. 1997/3032);
" owner ", in relation to a relevant copyright work, means—
(a)the copyright owner, or
(b)the owner of the database right in the database;
" relevant copyright work " means— but excludes a relevant Crown work or a relevant Parliamentary work;
(a)a copyright work, or
(b)a database subject to a database right,
" relevant Crown work " means—
(a)a copyright work in relation to which the Crown is the copyright owner, or
(b)a database in relation to which the Crown is the owner of the database right;
" relevant Parliamentary work " means—
(a)a copyright work in relation to which the House of Commons or the House of Lords is the copyright owner, or
(b)a database in relation to which the House of Commons or the House of Lords is the owner of the database right;
" the specified licence " has the meaning given by section 11A(8).

Section 19: Publication schemes.

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