Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information (FOI)

What is the Freedom of Information Act?

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act gives you the right to ask any public sector organisation for all the recorded information they have on any subject. Anyone can make a request for information – there are no restrictions on your age, nationality or where you live.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights and it regulates public body compliance with the FOI Act.

If you ask for information about yourself, then your request will be handled under Data Protection Legislation.

If your request is wholly or partly for “environmental information” the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) will treat that part of your request as a request under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).

The ICB’s full FOI and EIR Policy will be published here.

The following sections will assist you in finding the information you are looking for

  • A Guide to Information Held by the ICB – Our Publication Scheme
  • Information held by other organisations – Who might hold the information you are requesting
  • How to make a FOI or EIR Request
  • Your rights under the FOI Act
  • When our FOI Act obligations do not apply
  • How to make a complaint about the FOI service

A Guide to Information held by the ICB – Our Publication Scheme

The ICB places great importance on transparency and proactively publishes as much information as possible on its website. This information is linked to through the Publication Scheme.

What is the Publication Scheme

The ICB is committed to meeting the statutory requirements of the FOI Act and has adopted the ICO’s Model Publication Scheme.  The ICB will produce information as it becomes available in line with the ICO’s Definition Document for Health Bodies in England.

The Publication Scheme:

  • Specifies the classes of information we have committed to publish
  • Says how we will make that information available
  • Says whether the information is available free of charge or on payment

Most of the information covered by our publication scheme will be made available on this website. If you need information in an alternative format, we will do all we reasonably can to help.

This Publication Scheme is divided into classes as defined by the ICO and has been designed to give you a complete guide to the information routinely published by the ICB.

The scheme is not an exhaustive list of all the types of information that we publish – our policy is to publish proactively as much information as we can, where the information would have a wider public interest.

The scheme does not include information that we consider to be sensitive, such as certain types of commercial or personal information.

We review the Scheme at regular intervals and monitor how it is operating.

Publication Scheme classes

The ICO identifies seven classes of information which should be published by public bodies and describes the type of information that should be provided under these classes in Health Bodies Definition Document.

Click on the links below to find information relating to each of the classes for the ICB.

Copyright

The information the ICB provides to you is copyrighted to the ICB and provided to you free of charge for your personal use or for other specific uses permitted in the Copyright Act.

If you wish to use the information we provide for any commercial purposes including the sale of the information to a third party then, under the Regulations on the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015, you must ask us for permission to do so in respect of each specific piece of such information.

If we do grant such permission this may involve a licensing arrangement which may attract a fee. Should you wish to apply for permission for commercial re-use under the Regulations you should write to the Freedom of Information Team at hnyicb.foi@nhs.net.

Charges for Information

The majority of information can be accessed from this website free of charge. In certain cases, charges may apply.

If you do not have access to the internet, a printed copy of the web page(s) can be sent to you free of charge.

The following may incur a charge:

  • Requests for multiple copies
  • Where the cost of photocopying, postage and packing exceed £50.

Any charges made will be to cover the costs of photocopying, postage and packing. You will be told in advance of supplying the information if there will be a charge, and how much it will be.

Information not already published

If you cannot find what you want through this scheme, or otherwise on our website, you may wish to make a request to us under the FOI Act or EIR.

Please contact the Freedom of Information Team at hnyicb.foi@nhs.net.

 

More information is available on the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Freedom of Information webpage.