FOI: MODEL PUBLICATION SCHEME FOR FIRE AUTHORITIES
Explanatory Notes

The model publication scheme has been approved by the Information Commissioner for;

• A fire authority constituted by a combination scheme under section 5 or 6 of the Fire Services Act 1947.
• A joint fire authority established under Part IV of the Local Government Act 1985.
• The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.
• A joint fire authority established by virtue of an order under section 42(2) of the Local Government Act 1985.

These notes are aimed to help you when deciding whether the model scheme is appropriate for your organisation and will explain the steps you need to take in order to adopt the scheme. Having adopted the model scheme your organisation will then be obliged to publish the information set out in it.

The model scheme was developed and submitted by the Fire Lawyers Network.

Contact David Cutting, Solicitor, South Yorkshire Fire and Civil Defence Authority, 18, Regent Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2PQ. Phone 01226 772855.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 defines the public authorities that are covered by the Act and so are required to adopt and maintain a publication scheme. The types of fire authorities listed above are all identified in Schedule 1, Part II of the Act as public authorities covered by the Act. It is for these fire authorities that this model scheme has been prepared. It is your responsibility to check whether your organisation falls within any one of these definitions.

Although all such fire authorities are required to adopt a publication scheme, they are not obliged to adopt the model publication scheme. It is anticipated that this model scheme will cover most of the core functions undertaken by a fire authority. However if you wish to, you may submit a bespoke scheme for approval by the Commissioner which better caters for your organisation’s individual circumstances. If you decide you would prefer to submit a bespoke scheme, you should follow the procedure detailed in the Commissioner’s booklet; Publication Schemes - Approval Documentation, which you should already have received. This booklet is also available from our website.

The model scheme has been developed in a way that should allow a fire service to simply insert its own details into the appropriate places as indicated by the bold text in capital letters contained in square brackets.

Section 4 of the model scheme presents the classes of information to be published in the form of a table. Included in the table are details of what format the information will be published in, how the information can be obtained and whether it will be provided free of charge or for a fee.

The left hand column of the table gives the general class heading, whilst the next column contains the definition detailing the sort of information intended to be included in that class. The third column informs users how the information will be presented, the final column provides details of how to obtain the information. The final column also indicates whether a charge will be made for the information.

The model scheme recognises that there are some variations in the services provide by different fire authorities. For example not all services will have a fire fighting at sea function. Within most of the classes there are optional documents listed under the second column in order to accommodate these variations. These are shown in bold text.

There are also two optional classes, one of which relates to those functions unique to the London Fire and Emergency planning Authority and one relating to those services who either operate a museum or provide information on the history of the brigade to the public.

The Commissioner needs to be aware of which, if any, of these optional documents or classes a fire authority has selected. Therefore you should submit a completed copy of the model scheme with all the appropriate contact details etc of your fire authority and showing the options selected.

We will acknowledge receipt of your submission and then, later, the Commissioner will advise you formally when your declaration has been accepted.

Simply submitting a completed copy of the model scheme does not in itself fulfil a fire service’s obligations under the Act in relation to publication schemes. A public authority has to make its publication scheme available and publish information in accordance with that scheme. By adopting the model scheme, your organisation is committing itself to publishing the information described by the classes that you have selected.

As new information is produced which falls within a class definition, it should be prepared for publication and made available.

The scheme provides scope for a fire service to publish information in a variety of ways. It is anticipated that a lot of information could be made available on the authorities own website. Other information may only be available on request from the appropriate person. There is also the option of making copies of information available through local libraries.

We are very aware that not all people have access to the internet for a variety of reasons. Therefore even where information is available on a website the Commissioner would still expect hard copies to be made available.

The Freedom of Information Act aims to develop a culture of openness amongst public authorities. Fire authorities should raise awareness of the existence and contents of the scheme it adopts to, the general public.

A fire authority may choose to charge for the information it is making available. It is sufficient for the purposes of this Office, that you simply indicate whether any of the information contained in a class is to be made available free of charge or not. For example it is likely that all the information made available under the Public Relations class will be free. This can be indicated by simply putting “Cost - Free” in the fourth column. If however any newsletters produced would be charged for, then the column should be completed by entering “Cost - £” to indicate some of the information in that class would be charged for. It is not necessary, for our purposes, to state the actual price of the newsletter.

All publication schemes, including model schemes, will be approved for a specified period, this will generally be 4 years. The Commissioner will advise you whether your organisation’s adoption of the model scheme has been accepted. At that time you will also be informed of the date the approval of your model scheme will expire.

For further information about the way in which this model scheme was developed or its contents please contact Dave Cutting of the Fire Lawyers Network.

Queries about the submission process and subsequent operation of the scheme once adopted should be addressed to the F.O.I team at the Information Commissioner’s Office.