Hi, Colm has jumped in before me with a response. I'd offer to give some further help - but you are based in Scotland and I am only qualified (well, strictly speaking *insured*) to advise on the law of the UK where it is common to the whole of the UK.
The relevant legislation seems to be the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, since the authority you have requested information from is a local authority in Scotland. They appear to be relying on section 25: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2002/13/section/25 But they are also saying something about copyright. As Colm says that may be a confusion of theirs. The ICO has very clearly said that copyright does not prevent disclosure by a public authority. My view is that the ICO is wrong on this point actually, but the ICO's view ought to have the most weight in dealing with public authorities. I am not sure whether the Scottish Information Commissioner takes a different line, but I doubt it. Since I am not a Scots lawyer I don't know about "Building Warrants", but if they are open to public inspection by statute, then the authority _may_ let you inspect and take copies of the documents under section 47 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Have a read of it: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/47 Section 47 is under-used. It pre-dates FOI legislation but attempts to encode the assumption made by the common law courts that where there was a right of inspection there ought, logically, be a right to take copies (within reason) otherwise the right of inspection would be much more awkward. Common law judges weren't stupid for the most part. For example: this is the provision that allows people to buy Companies House data that includes third-party copyright material (such as company accounts) and then republish them in ways that fall under s.47. What this means in practice is *if* the building warrant is open to public inspection - which does appear to be their position - then they could give you permission to take copies, but they don't have to if they don't want to. If they are merely nervous - rather than being deliberately awkward - then this point might carry some weight. Talk to me privately about it if you like - though my time tends to be a bit limited. As Colm says, have a look at their publication scheme and see where that gets you. There may be more avenues to pursue after that. Francis 2012/11/26 Simon Haywood <[email protected]> > Hello, > > We're trying to get some info out of Edinburgh Council, but they've said > they can't release it because of copyright concerns. They have said that we > can visit their offices and *look* at the info, but not copy it, or take it > away - and they'll charge us a £50 fee for retrieving the documents. I > asked if a FOI would over-ride that, and they said "no", because the > information was already "freely available" (though quite how £50 = free, I > don't know...). > > The information we're after relates to design and calculations for > structural work on a private property. The council hold the information > because they require to issue a Building Warrant before work can start. We > don't think the work has been done properly - and the structure in question > actually supports our property, which is directly above. > > In general, I've found Edinburgh council to be rather good - so I'm a bit > surprised by this stance. I've not yet submitted a FOI request - but it > seems strange that I even need to. I would have thought it was perfectly > normal to want to take the information away, and have it checked by our > professionals - and I think it's strange that the council want to charge > just to see the documents. > > The comments of those on this list would be appreciated... > > Thanks > > Simon > > > > _______________________________________________ > developers-public mailing list > [email protected] > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public > > Unsubscribe: > https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/fjmd1a%40gmail.com > -- Francis Davey
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