It sounds to me that the Council should have considered the request
under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004
("EIRS"). The SIC has some useful briefings on (1) when information
is "environmental", and (ii) when public authorities can charge for
EI.
(1)
<<http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/uploadedfiles/EIRBriefingsDefinition.pdf>>
This considers that "Environmentally-relevant aspects [of whether info
falls under EIRS] will extend to design, performance, construction,
contamination, demolition, waste disposal and almost all other aspects
of the life-cycle of a building",
ie making what you're looking for fitting into Reg 2 which defines EI
as (amongst other things) as "... (f) the state of human health and
safety, including the contamination of the food chain,
where relevant, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built
structures inasmuch as they are or may be affected by the state of the
elements of the environment [..]"
Edinburgh's webpage makes their photocopying costs look quite
expensive at £15/hr...
<<http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/704/access_to_information/381/environmental_information_scotland_regulations_2004/3>>
(2)
<<http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/uploadedfiles/EIRBriefingsHandling.pdf>>
But... no charge is allowed under EIRS for inspecting information "in
situ", and SIC say that "unlike under FOISA, public authorities can
only charge for supplying the information requested, and that this
does not include the staff time taken in the location and/or retrieval
of that information. It is therefore likely that the costs will be
limited to the actual cost of photocopying (or equivalent) and the
staff time taken to undertake that copying"
IANAL, etc...
Cheers
Alex
On 26 November 2012 11:20, Simon Haywood <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
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