Parish Council Freedom of Information: Responding to Requests and Meeting Your Publication Duties

Parish councils are public authorities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. That means anyone — a resident, a journalist, a competitor — can ask for any recorded information the council holds, and the council must respond within 20 working days. There is no requirement to explain why they want it, no minimum connection to the council's area, and no minimum size threshold — councils of all sizes are covered.

Most clerks encounter FOI requests rarely. When they do arrive, they tend to arrive at awkward moments — mid-AGAR, during a contentious planning consultation, or after a difficult council meeting. Knowing the process in advance is what prevents a manageable request from becoming a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office.

The 20-working-day deadline

The response must be sent within 20 working days of receiving the request. The Act says "working days" — Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays do not count.

If the request is complex, ambiguous, or requires substantial retrieval work, the clock still runs. You cannot pause it unless you need to clarify the scope of the request with the requester — in which case the 20 days restart from when they provide clarification.

The ICO takes this deadline seriously. A first breach typically results in a Decision Notice requiring the council to comply. Repeated failures can result in an Enforcement Notice.

What information is covered

The Act covers all recorded information the council holds, regardless of its format. This includes:

• Written documents, reports, and correspondence
• Emails (including emails sent from personal accounts if they relate to council business)
• Meeting minutes, agendas, and supporting papers
• Financial records — payments, contracts, bank statements
• Photographs and recordings if held by the council
• Digital records including spreadsheets and databases

Information that is already publicly available — published in the minutes, on the website, or available under the Transparency Code — can be directed to the requester without further cost. This is one of the reasons a proactive publication scheme reduces the volume of individual FOI requests.

The response options

When you receive an FOI request, you must:

1. Confirm or deny whether you hold the information — you do not have to disclose it, but you must say whether you hold it (unless even confirming or denying would engage an exemption)
2. Provide the information within 20 working days — or explain why you are applying an exemption

If you provide the information, decide in what format. Where reasonable, you should provide it in the format requested.

Exemptions — what you can withhold

The Act contains a list of exemptions. Most are qualified, meaning you must also conduct a public interest test — weigh the public interest in disclosure against the public interest in maintaining the exemption. The exemptions most relevant to parish councils:

Section 21 — information already accessible. If the information is reasonably accessible elsewhere (your website, a published document), you can direct the requester there without providing a copy. This does not apply if the website is hard to navigate or the information is not easy to find.

Section 40 — personal data. Information about an identifiable living individual is exempt if disclosing it would breach the data protection principles. Names and contact details of third parties who have written to the council privately are typically exempt. Names of councillors acting in their public role are not.

Section 41 — information provided in confidence. This is an absolute exemption — it does not require a public interest test in the usual sense. It applies if the information was provided to the council with a reasonable expectation of confidentiality and disclosure would constitute an actionable breach of confidence. Commercial contracts often qualify; this must be assessed case by case.

Section 36 — prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs. A qualified exemption that requires a reasonable opinion from the "qualified person" (as defined in s.36(5) of the Act) and a public interest test. For parish councils, who qualifies as the "qualified person" under s.36 is narrowly drawn — a clerk or ordinary officer is not automatically a qualified person. Take advice before relying on this exemption, as it is difficult to apply correctly for smaller authorities.

There is no blanket exemption for "sensitive" or "uncomfortable" information. The council cannot refuse a request simply because it is inconvenient.

When to apply an exemption

The decision to apply an exemption must be recorded. For qualified exemptions, you need to document the public interest test — what factors weigh in favour of disclosure and what factors weigh against. This document protects the council if the requester complains to the ICO.

If you decide to withhold information, your refusal notice must:

• Explain which exemption applies
• For qualified exemptions, explain the public interest reasoning
• Tell the requester they have the right to ask the council to review the decision (internal review), and after that to complain to the ICO

The publication scheme: reducing FOI requests proactively

Under section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, every public authority must "adopt and maintain a scheme which relates to the publication of information." The scheme specifies what categories of information the council publishes routinely, how it is made available, and whether it is free.

Most parish councils adopt the model publication scheme published by the Information Commissioner's Office for local councils. This scheme covers seven classes of information:

1. Who we are and what we do
2. What we spend and how we spend it
3. What our priorities are and how we are doing
4. How we make decisions
5. Our policies and procedures
6. Lists and registers
7. The services we offer

For each class, the scheme specifies what information is included and where to find it. Meeting the publication scheme obligations means much of the most commonly-requested information is already available without an FOI request being needed.

For the detail on what to include in the publication scheme and how it relates to the Transparency Code, see our parish council publication scheme guide.

What the ICO expects of smaller councils

The ICO provides specific guidance for smaller public authorities. Three recurring issues:

Late responses. If you miss the 20-day deadline, contact the requester immediately, apologise, and provide the information or refusal as quickly as possible. A late response with an apology is treated more leniently than a late response with no acknowledgement.

Inadequate refusal notices. A refusal that simply says "we cannot share this" without citing an exemption or offering the right to internal review is procedurally wrong.

Treating FOI as optional. Some smaller councils believe they are too small to be subject to the Act. They are not. The Act applies to all parish councils without exception.

Connecting FOI to the annual governance statement

FOI compliance is part of the wider proper-practices framework the AGAR governance statement asks councils to attest to. Assertion 3 requires the council to assure itself there are "no matters of actual or potential non-compliance with laws, regulations and Proper Practices that could have a significant financial effect on the ability of this authority to conduct its business or manage its finances." Persistent failure to maintain a publication scheme or respond to FOI requests within the statutory timeframe is a compliance failure that should be considered when the council answers the governance statement.

Use the compliance checklist tool to track your council's FOI obligations alongside the full AGAR cycle.

Sources

• Freedom of Information Act 2000
• Freedom of Information Act 2000, section 19 — publication schemes
• ICO — Advice for small organisations including local councils

This article is for general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. FOI requests can raise complex issues of law and policy — consult the ICO's guidance or your county association if you are unsure.