Issue - meetings

Cabinet AGREED to adopt the following Charging Policy and that it be included in the Council’s Publication Scheme:

PUBLICATION SCHEME

CHARGING POLICY

A vast amount of information that the Council publishes can be downloaded from the website free of charge. Where a printed copy is requested, the information will normally be supplied free or at a nominal cost to cover printing, photocopying and postage.

Standard charges for printing and photocopying

Non-Standard & Statutory charges

Copies of some official publications are available on payment of a fixed charge or fee. For example, some publications held by Development Services fall into this category.  A list of such publications and charges will be published in due course. In the meantime, please contact the relevant service provider within the Council for details of any such charges.

Where the Council sets non-standard charges or fees (as opposed to charges set by statute), it will do so only where it can demonstrate that there is good reason for it to do so, and in considering whether any such reason exists, it will:

(i)                  take due regard of government guidance; and

(ii)                disregard any costs, including staff costs, associated with the maintenance of the information in question or its identification or extraction from storage; and

(iii)               disregard any factors beyond the number and size of sheets to be copied.

Access to unpublished information under Freedom of Information Act, Environmental Information Regulations & Data Protection Act

Any printing or copying charges associated with access requests for unpublished information under the above legislation shall be charged in accordance with that legislation and official government guidance.  Please refer to the Council’s Freedom of Information Policy & Procedure Guide.

Cabinet AGREED to adopt the following Charging Policy and that it be included in the Council’s Publication Scheme:

PUBLICATION SCHEME

CHARGING POLICY

A vast amount of information that the Council publishes can be downloaded from the website free of charge. Where a printed copy is requested, the information will normally be supplied free or at a nominal cost to cover printing, photocopying and postage.

Standard charges for printing and photocopying

Non-Standard & Statutory charges

Copies of some official publications are available on payment of a fixed charge or fee. For example, some publications held by Development Services fall into this category.  A list of such publications and charges will be published in due course. In the meantime, please contact the relevant service provider within the Council for details of any such charges.

Where the Council sets non-standard charges or fees (as opposed to charges set by statute), it will do so only where it can demonstrate that there is good reason for it to do so, and in considering whether any such reason exists, it will:

(i)                  take due regard of government guidance; and

(ii)                disregard any costs, including staff costs, associated with the maintenance of the information in question or its identification or extraction from storage; and

(iii)               disregard any factors beyond the number and size of sheets to be copied.

Access to unpublished information under Freedom of Information Act, Environmental Information Regulations & Data Protection Act

Any printing or copying charges associated with access requests for unpublished information under the above legislation shall be charged in accordance with that legislation and official government guidance.  Please refer to the Council’s Freedom of Information Policy & Procedure Guide.

Public access charges for material should be justified, clear and transparent, and a regularly updated schedule of charges in the authority’s Publication Scheme should make clear that, where charges apply, what the charge is for and the amount.  Failing to include a charging policy in the Publication Scheme was considered to be unsustainable in law and open to legal challenge.

Cabinet AGREED to adopt the following Charging Policy and that it be included in the Council’s Publication Scheme:

PUBLICATION SCHEME

CHARGING POLICY

A vast amount of information that the Council publishes can be downloaded from the website free of charge. Where a printed copy is requested, the information will normally be supplied free or at a nominal cost to cover printing, photocopying and postage.

Standard charges for printing and photocopying

Non-Standard & Statutory charges

Copies of some official publications are available on payment of a fixed charge or fee. For example, some publications held by Development Services fall into this category.  A list of such publications and charges will be published in due course. In the meantime, please contact the relevant service provider within the Council for details of any such charges.

Where the Council sets non-standard charges or fees (as opposed to charges set by statute), it will do so only where it can demonstrate that there is good reason for it to do so, and in considering whether any such reason exists, it will:

(i)                  take due regard of government guidance; and

(ii)                disregard any costs, including staff costs, associated with the maintenance of the information in question or its identification or extraction from storage; and

(iii)               disregard any factors beyond the number and size of sheets to be copied.

Access to unpublished information under Freedom of Information Act, Environmental Information Regulations & Data Protection Act

Any printing or copying charges associated with access requests for unpublished information under the above legislation shall be charged in accordance with that legislation and official government guidance.  Please refer to the Council’s Freedom of Information Policy & Procedure Guide.