Code of Practice - FOI
Code of Practice on Freedom of Information for North/South Implementation Bodies and Tourism Ireland Ltd.
The British-Irish Agreement provides that a Code of Practice on Freedom of Information be drawn up by the Irish and Northern Ireland Ministers with responsibility for freedom of information for the North/South Bodies for approval by the NSMC. A draft of this Code has now been prepared and can be accessed below. The Code is non-statutory and has been drafted with regard to the Freedom of Information Acts, 1997 and 2003 in Ireland and the Freedom of Information Act, 2000 in the United Kingdom.
The Code facilitates public access to information held by the six North South Implementation Bodies and Tourism Ireland Ltd in a number of ways. It provides that each body should publish certain types of information relating to its functions, structures, organisation and services, together with a general description of the type of information held by that body. It sets out the process under which a member of the public can request information held by a body, the steps that a body must take in handling such a request and the time period within which a body should normally respond to a request. The Code also contains the facility for members of the public to obtain a statement of the reasons for an act of a body affecting the person.
The Annex to the Code sets out the categories of exempt information, if the information requested falls into a category listed in Part 1 of the Annex, the body is not obliged to release the information. If the information requested falls into a category listed in Part 2, the body must carry out a public interest test in deciding whether or not to release the information.
The Code provides for an internal review mechanism of decisions taken by the body under the Code.
Before submitting the Code to the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) for formal approval, the Code will be open to the public for comment. It is intended that this consultation period will run for sixteen weeks and end on the 7 October 2005. Once the consultation period has ended, all comments received will be considered and a final version will then be placed before NSMC for approval.
During the period of consultation, the North/South Bodies and Tourism Ireland Ltd. will operate the Code on a pilot basis. Information requests received by the Bodies during this time will be handled within the framework of the draft Code. As the Bodies will be using the pilot period to prepare for the full operation of the Code later this year, some flexibility may be applied to the timings and other provisions associated with the handling of requests contained in the Code.
If you or your organisation wishes to offer any comments on the Code of Practice, please send your comments to either:
code.secretariat@dfa.ie or
execomm.secretariat@ofmdfmni.gov.uk