Telephone 0141 332 4101 (General Enquiries) or 0141 332 5057 (Box Office)
Categories
Freedom of Information
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Publication SchemeIntroduction3. Accessing Information under the Scheme 4. Information that we may withhold |
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1. Introduction |
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The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) provides individuals with a
right of access to all recorded information held by Scotland’s public authorities. Anyone can use
this right, and information can only be withheld where FOISA expressly permits it.
Section 23 of FOISA also requires that all Scottish public authorities maintain a
publication scheme. A publication scheme sets out the types of information that a public
authority routinely makes available. This scheme has been approved by the Scottish Information Commissioner, who is
responsible for enforcing FOISA. We are also obliged to review this scheme from time to
time.
The purpose of the scheme is to provide you with details of the range of information
that we routinely publish. The scheme also provides details of how you can access this
information, and tells you whether it is available free, or if there is a charge for the
information.
Alongside FOISA, the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (the
EI(S)Rs) provide a separate right of access to the environmental information that we
hold. This publication scheme also contains details of the environmental information that we
routinely make available.
Where information is not published under this scheme, you can request
it from us under FOISA or, in the case of environmental information, the EI(S)Rs. For further
information on accessing information not covered by this scheme, refer to Section 10 – How to
access information not available under the scheme.
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2. Preparing the Publication Scheme |
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When preparing or reviewing our publication scheme, we are obliged by FOISA to have
due regard to the public interest in providing access to the information that we hold which relates
to:
• the services we
provide;
• the costs of those
services;
• the standard of those
services;
• the facts that inform the
important decisions we take; and
• the reasoning that informs our
decisions.
This Model Publication Scheme (MPS) was prepared under
the auspices of Universities Scotland's Secretaries’ Group. Its subgroup consulted the public
authorities to be covered by the MPS, and stakeholders, to assess what information should be
included in the MPS. The subgroup also made a consultation draft available to all Universities
Scotland member institutions.
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3. Accessing information under the scheme |
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Information available under our publication scheme will normally be available
through the routes described below.
Online:
Most information listed in our publication scheme is available to download from our
website. In many cases a link within the appropriate section will direct you to the relevant
page or document. Where no such link is present, you can use our website’s “Search” facility
at
http://www.rcs.ac.uk/
. If you are still having trouble finding any document
listed under our scheme, then please contact us for further assistance.
By email:
foi@rcs.ac.uk
If the information you seek is listed in our publication scheme but is not published
on our website, we can send it to you by email, wherever possible. When requesting information
from us, please provide a telephone number so that we can telephone you to clarify details, if
necessary.
By phone:
Information can also be requested from us over the telephone. Please call
Caroline Cochrane, 0141 270 8269
to request information available under this
scheme.
By post:
All information under the scheme will normally be available in paper copy
form. Please address your request to:
FOI Officer, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew
Street, Glasgow, G2 3DB
When writing to us to request information, please include your name and address,
full details of the information or documents you would like to receive, and any fee applicable (see
Section 5: Our Charging Policy for further information on fees). Please also include a
telephone number so we can telephone you to clarify any details, if necessary.
Advice and assistance:
If you have any difficulty identifying the information you want to access, then please contact Caroline Cochrane, 0141 270 8269 who will be happy to help. |
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4. Information that we may withhold |
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All information covered by our publication scheme can either be accessed through our
website, or will be provided promptly following our receipt of your request.
Our aim in maintaining this publication scheme is to be as open as
possible. You should note, however, that there may be limited circumstances where information
will be withheld from one of the classes of information listed. Information will only be
withheld, however, where FOISA (or, in the case of environmental information, the Environmental
Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004) expressly permits it.
Information may be withheld, for example, where its disclosure would breach the law
of confidentiality, harm an organisation’s commercial interests, or endanger the protection of the
environment. Information may also be withheld if it is another person’s personal information,
and its release would breach the data protection legislation.
Whenever information is withheld we will inform you of this, and will set out why
that information cannot be released. Even where information is withheld it may, in many cases, be
possible to provide copies with the withheld information edited out.
If you wish to complain about any information which has been withheld
from you, please refer to Section 9 – Complaints.
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5. Our charging policy |
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Unless otherwise stated, all information contained within our scheme is available
from us free of charge where it can be downloaded from our website or where it can be sent to you
electronically by email.
We reserve the right to impose charges for providing information in paper copy or on
computer disc. Charges will reflect the actual costs of reproduction and postage to the
authority, as set out below.
In the event that a charge is to be levied, you will be advised of the charge and
how it has been calculated. Information will not be provided to you until payment has been
received.
Reproduction costs:
Where charges are applied, photocopied information will be charged at a standard
rate of 10p per A4 side of paper (black and white copy) and 30p per A4 side of paper (colour
copy).
Computer discs will be charged at the rate of £1.00 per CD-Rom.
Postage cost:
We will pass on postage charges to the requester at the cost to the authority of
sending the information by first class post.
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6. Copyright |
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Information obtained from this publication scheme can be copied or reproduced without formal permission provided it is copied or reproduced accurately, is not used in a misleading context and provided that the source of the material is identified and the copyright status acknowledged. |
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7. Records management and archiving policy |
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To follow |
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8. FeedbackFOISA requires that we review our publication scheme from time to time. As a result, we welcome feedback on how we can develop our scheme further. If you would like to comment on any aspect of this publication scheme, then please contact us. You may, for example wish to tell us about:
• other information that you would like to see
included in the scheme;
• whether you found the scheme easy to
use;
• whether you found the publication scheme
useful;
• whether our staff were
helpful;
• other ways in which our publication scheme
can be improved.
Please send any comments or suggestions to: FOI Officer, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, 100 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G2 3DB |
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9. Complaints |
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Our aim is to make our publication scheme as user-friendly as possible, and we hope that you can access all the information we publish with ease. If you do wish to complain about any aspect of the publication scheme, however, then please contact us, and we will try to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible. You can contact:
Caroline Cochrane
Telephone: +44 (0) 141 270 8269 E-mail: foi@rcs.ac.uk We will respond to any complaint in full within twenty working days.
You have legal rights to access information under this scheme and a right of appeal
to the Scottish Information Commissioner if you are dissatisfied with our response. These
rights apply only to information requests made in writing* or another recordable format. If
you are unhappy with our responses to your request you can ask us to review it and if you are still
unhappy, you can make an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
The Commissioner’s website has a guide to this three step process, and he operates
an enquiry service on Monday to Friday from 9:00am to 5:00pm. His office can be contacted as
follows:
Scottish Information Commissioner
Kinburn Castle
Doubledykes Road
St Andrews
Fife
KY16 9DS
Tel:
01334 464610
Website:
www.itspublicknowledge.info
*verbal requests for environmental information carry similar rights. |
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10. How to access information which is not available under this scheme |
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If the information you are seeking is not available under this publication scheme,
then you may wish to request it from us. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)
provides you with a right of access to the information we hold, subject to certain
exemptions. The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EI(S)Rs) separately
provide a right of access to the environmental information we hold, while the Data Protection Act
1998 (DPA) provides a right of access to any personal information about you that we hold. Again,
these rights are subject to certain exceptions or exemptions.
Should you wish to request a copy of any information that we hold that is not
available under this scheme, please write to:
Caroline Cochrane
Head of Information Services Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
100 Renfrew Street
Glasgow G2 3DB Charges for information which is not available under the scheme: Telephone: +44 (0) 141 270 8269 E-mail: foi@rcs .ac.uk
The charges for information which is available under this scheme are set out under
section 6 – Our Charging Policy. If you submit a request to us for information which is not
available under the scheme the charges will be based on the following calculations:
General information requests:
• There will be no charge for information
requests which cost us £100 or less to process.
• Where information costs between £100 and
£600 to provide you may be asked to pay 10% of the cost. That is, if you were to ask for
information that cost us £600 to provide, you would be asked to pay £50, calculated on the basis of
a waiver for the first £100 and 10% of the remaining £500.
• We are not obliged to respond to requests
which will cost us over £600 to process.
• In calculating any fee, staff time will be
calculated at actual cost per staff member hourly salary rate to a maximum of £15 per person per
hour.
• We do not charge for the time to determine
whether we hold the information requested, nor for the time it takes to decide whether the
information can be released. Charges may be made for locating, retrieving and providing information
to you.
• In the event that we decide to
impose a charge, we will issue you with notification of the charge (a fees notice) and how it has
been calculated. You will have three months from the date of issue of the fees notice in which to
decide whether to pay the charge. The information will be provided to you on payment of the charge.
If you decide not to proceed with the request there will be no charge to you.
Charges for environmental information:
We do not charge for the time to determine whether we hold the information
requested, nor for the time it takes to decide whether the information can be released. Charges may
be made for locating, retrieving and providing information to you.
In the event that we decide to impose a charge we will issue you with notification
of the charge and how it has been calculated. The information will be provided to you on payment of
the charge. If you decide not to proceed with the request there will be no charge to you.
Charges are calculated on the basis of the actual cost to the authority of providing
the information.
• Photocopying is charged at 10p per A4 sheet
for black and white copying, 30p per A4 sheet for colour copying.
• Postage is charged at actual rate for first
class mail.
• Staff time is calculated at actual cost per
staff member hourly salary rate to a maximum of £15 per person per hour.
The first £100 worth of information will be provided to you without charge.
Where information costs between £100 and £600 to provide you will be asked to pay
10% of the cost. That is, if you were to ask for information that cost us £600 to provide, you
would be asked to pay £50, that calculated on the basis of a waiver for the first £100 and 10% of
the remaining £500.
Where it would cost more than £600 to provide the information to you, however, we
will ask you to pay the full cost of providing the information, with no waiver for any portion of
the cost.
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Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Formerly known as the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
100 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G2 3DB
Tel 0141 332 4101 Fax 0141 332 8901
Box Office 0141 332 5057
