You can request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Information you can request from us includes
- printed documents
- computer files
- letters
- emails
- photographs
- recordings
Make a request for information
Your request should describe the information you need and any time periods or departments it may relate to. Check the ICO guidance on 'What makes a valid request'.
This will help our officers to find the information quickly.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) gives guidance on how to access information from a public body.
Make an FOI request via our online form
You can also send a request for an FOI or EIR by:
Email: information.governance@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
Letter to:
Information Governance Team
Westmorland and Furness Council
South Lakeland House
Lowther Street
Kendal
Cumbria
LA9 4DQ
For any enquiries you can call us on 01539 637 437.
FOI complaints
If you need any help with a request you can contact our Information Governance Team.
If you are dissatisfied with the process or with our response you can make a complaint about by requesting an internal review of your request.
What you can request a review about
You can request that an internal review be carried out about:
- Our disclosure decision
- how a request was handled by our team
How to request a review
You can request an internal review:
By email: information.governance@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk
By letter to:
Information Governance Team
Westmorland and Furness Council
South Lakeland House
Lowther Street
Kendal
Cumbria
LA9 4DQ
What you can expect
When we receive your internal review request we will send you an email. It will say how long we expect it to take us to respond.
A request for an internal review should be sent to us in writing within 40 working days from receipt of our response.
There is no statutory deadline for undertaking internal reviews but the ICO states that internal reviews should take no longer than 20 working days.
If it isn’t possible to reach a decision in that time, we will let you know. We will also let you know how long it will; take us to respond.
What to do if you are not satisfied with our response
If you are not satisfied with the response to your internal review you have the option to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Generally, the ICO will not consider your complaint unless you have:
- followed up with us, if you have not received a response after 20 working days
- complained to us first, if you are not happy with our response
You can make an complaint to the ICO online.
Or write to:
The Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
How we are performing
For Q3 of the 2023/24 financial year the Council can report that all FOI/EIR requests are being responded to within the 20 day statutory deadline. This data has been confirmed using the ICO FOI self-assessment toolkit.
ICO Practice Recommendations
Summary
Westmorland and Furness Council (The Council) were evaluated by the Information Commissioners Officer (ICO) mid-way through the 2023/24 year (November 23) and this evaluation found that the timeliness of FOIA requests was below the expected standards for a multitude of reasons.
Further evaluations took place at the end of the 2023/24 year (March 24), and in the first month of the 2024/25 year (April 24). Performance in terms of responses to requests continued to fluctuate below an acceptable standard.
The ICO reached the view that the Council’s request handling practices did not conform to part 4 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice, issued by the Cabinet Office in July 2018 (the Code). Following this, the ICO issued a set of Practice Recommendations to help the Council improve its practices.
Practice Recommendation
Statistics provided to the ICO by the Council show the rate of responses to information requests within 20 working days of receipt for the last quarter of the 2023/24 financial year to be 52%. This reduced to 44% in April 2024, albeit the Council reported an improved draft timeliness figure for quarter one of the 2024/25 financial year. The Council’s statistics also recorded that of the 29 requests received in the last quarter of the 2023/24 financial year that had still not been responded to at the time those statistics were supplied, 25 were overdue by more than one month. 12 of those 25 requests were at least two months overdue with the oldest request overdue by 98 days.
This practice recommendation formalises the Commissioner’s concerns and holds the Council accountable for improving its freedom of information request handling practices.
Actions taken
Statistics provided to the ICO by the Council show the rate of responses to information requests within 20 working days of receipt for Q2 of the 2024/25 year to be 89%. This is an increase from 44% in April 2024, with statistics for Q3 showing a timeliness performance rate of 100% at the time of this update.
The Council’s statistics also show that of the 632 requests processed by the legacy Cumbria County Council Information Governance (IG) team in the calendar year, 0.3% (2 cases) are still open. This is a reduction of 27 cases from the final quarter of the 2023/24 financial year. Of the 834 FOI and EIR received since 1st April 2024, only 3% are open and over deadline
Publication scheme
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, all public authorities are required to:
- adopt and maintain a publication scheme
- publish information in accordance with the scheme.
The scheme commits Westmorland and Furness Council:
- to proactively publish, or otherwise make available as a matter of routine, information which is held by the council
- to specify the information which is held by the council and falls within the classes below
- to provide guidance on how the specified information can be identified and accessed
- to review and update the specified information
- to produce a schedule of any fees charged for access to information
How do I request information listed in the Publication Scheme?
If the information is available from our website this will be indicated in the Council's Publication Scheme. Information that is available by post can be requested by writing to:
Information Governance Team
Westmorland and Furness Council
South Lakeland House
Lowther Street
Kendal
Cumbria
LA9 4DQ
We aim to provide information listed in the publication scheme within 5 working days.
Section 36: Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs
FOIA Section 36 applies to information held by the council and provides an exemption if disclosure would or would be likely to inhibit the free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views or otherwise prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs.
The council's "qualified person" is required to give their reasonable opinion that disclosure would cause the type of prejudice or inhibition described above.
Section 36 is a qualified exemption meaning that where the exemption applies the council must disclose the information unless the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. The council's qualified person is appointed by the government and is:
- the chief executive
- the monitoring officer.
This note describes section 36 as it applies to the Council. It has wider application to government and further information can be found in the FOIA and in guidance published by the Information Commissioner.
Records relating to St Monica's, Kendal
Westmorland and Furness Council transferred any records held within its internal Records Management Service to the Diocese of Carlisle on Wednesday 28 February 2024. If anyone thinks they, or a relative, spent time at St Monica’s and would like to find out more, they can get in touch with Ali Ng, Head of Human Resources and Governance:
Email: ali.ng@carlislediocese.org.uk
Post: Church House, 19-24 Friargate, Penrith Cumbria, CA11 7XR