Access to Information Rules
- Scope
- Meetings
- Exclusion of Access by the Public to Meetings
- Additional Rights for Members
- Part II Reports and Confidential Information
Scope
1. These rules apply to all meetings of the Full Council, all committees of the Council including Overview and Scrutiny, Cabinet meetings and its committees, and also individual Cabinet Members.
2. They rules do not affect any more specific rights to information contained elsewhere in this Constitution or the law.
3. The County Council provides electronic access to the minutes, agendas and reports of its Council and committee meetings, as well as records of Key Decisions. This can be accessed via the website www.lancashire.gov.uk.
Meetings
4. The Council will give, wherever possible, at least five clear working days’ notice of any meeting by posting details of the meeting at County Hall, Preston and on its website.
5. Members of the public may attend all meetings subject only to the exceptions in these rules.
6. Public access to agendas, reports, background papers and minutes
7. Copies of agendas and reports to be considered at meetings, or by individual Cabinet Members or authorised officers (Key Decisions only) and which are open to the public will be made available for inspection at County Hall, Preston and on the Council’s website, wherever possible, at least five clear working days before the meeting or decision making session in the case of a Cabinet Member. If an item is subsequently added to the agenda, the revised agenda will be open to inspection from the time the item was added to the agenda.
8. A record of each decision taken at meetings, or by an individual Cabinet Member or authorised officer (Key Decisions only) shall be made available for inspection as soon as reasonably practicable after the meeting or the decision has been taken. The record will be placed on deposit at County Hall, Preston, and on the Council’s website.
9. Copies of the following documents will be made available for six years after a meeting:
a) The minutes of the meeting, together with reasons for excluding any part of the minutes of proceedings when the meeting was not open to the public or which disclose exempt or confidential information;
b) A summary of any proceedings not open to the public where the minutes open to inspection would not provide a reasonably fair and coherent record;
c) The agenda for the meeting; and
d) Reports relating to items which did not disclose exempt or confidential information.
10. Copies of the following documents will be made available for six years after a decision has been taken by an individual Cabinet Member or a Key Decision taken by an authorised Officer:
a) The record of the decision taken including a summary of any report containing exempt or confidential information;
b) The agenda; and
c) Reports relating to items which did not disclose exempt or confidential information.
11. Every report will list those documents (called background papers) which:
a) Disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based; and
b) Have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report;
but may not include published works or those which disclose confidential or exempt or information as defined below.
12. The Council will make available for public inspection five clear working days before the meeting or prior to a decision being taken by an individual Cabinet Member or Key Decision taken by an authorised officer, and for four years after the date of the meeting or decision a copy of each of the documents on the list of background papers. The Council may make a charge for processing requests for copies of these papers.
Exclusion of Access by the Public to Meetings
Confidential Information
13. The public must be excluded from meetings whenever it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that confidential information would be disclosed.
14. Confidential information means information given to the Council by a Government Department on terms which forbid its public disclosure or information which cannot be publicly disclosed by Court Order and as fully defined in Section 100A(3) of the Local Government Act 1972.
Exempt Information
15. The public may be excluded from meetings whenever it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that exempt information would be disclosed.
16. Exempt information means information falling within the following seven categories (subject to the qualifications below):
a) Information relating to any individual.
b) Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.
c) Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).
d) Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the authority.
e) Information in respect of which a claim to legal professional privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.
f) Information which reveals that the authority proposes:
(i) To give under any enactment a notice under or by virtue of which requirements are imposed on a person; or
(ii) To make an order or direction under any enactment.
g) Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.
Qualifications
17. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person is not exempt if it is required to be registered under: the Companies Act 1985; the Friendly Societies Act 1974; the Friendly Societies Act 1992; the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts 1965 to 1978; the Building Societies Act 1986; or the Charities Act 1993.
18. Information relating to proposed development for which the local planning authority may grant itself planning permission under regulation 3 of the Town and Country Planning General Regulations 1992 is not exempt.
19. Information in one of the seven categories of exempt information which is not prevented from being exempt by either of the two points described above is exempt if the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing it.
Public Interest Test
20. The seven categories of exempt information are subject to the public interest test. In determining whether this information should remain exempt, the report writer and the decision-maker must decide whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
21. In respect of all Council, Executive, committee, joint committee and sub-committee reports, writers will, therefore, need to give consideration to exempt information and the public interest test, and if they determine that the document should not be published, they will need to explain why they consider the public interest test is best served by the information remaining exempt. The fact that a document is exempt, together with reasons, will appear in the report and the agenda relating to that item. The Monitoring Officer will ultimately determine whether reports and related documents are exempt or not and their decision will be final.
22. Where the public may be excluded from a meeting or part of a meeting due to an exempt report being considered, the Members of the meeting will need to consider the public interest test, having given due consideration to any legal advice provided.
23. There is no legal definition of ‘public interest’, but the following should be considered relevant considerations in favour of disclosure:
a) The information would assist public understanding of an issue that is subject to current public debate;
b) Proper debate cannot take place without wide availability of all the relevant information;
c) The issue affects a wide range of individuals or companies;
d) Facts, analysis and costings behind major policy decisions;
e) Allowing individuals to understand decisions made by public authorities affecting their lives and, in some cases, assisting individuals in challenging those decisions;
f) Accountability for proceeds of sale of assets in public ownership;
g) Openness and accountability for tender processes and prices;
h) Public interest in public bodies obtaining value for money;
i) Public health or public safety;
j) Damage to the environment;
k) Contingency plans in an emergency; and
l) Promoting accountability and transparency for decisions taken by public authorities and the spending of public money.
24. A practice of applying ‘exempt’ status to a report without reasons being set out and consideration of the public interest is not acceptable.
Private Meetings of Cabinet or a Cabinet Committee
25. If Cabinet or a Cabinet committee intends to hold a meeting in private in order to consider confidential or exempt information, it may do so only in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order C17.
Key Decisions
26. A Key Decision means an Executive decision which is likely:
a) To result in the Council incurring expenditure which is, or the making of savings which are, significant having regard to the Council's budget for the service or function which the decision relates; or
b) To be significant in terms of its effects on communities living or working in an area comprising two or more electoral divisions in the area of the Council.
As set out in Part 5 of the Constitution.
27. Where a decision maker intends to make a Key Decision, a notice will be made available at County Hall, Preston and published on the Council's website at least 28 clear days in advance of the date of the decision, in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order C18.
General Exception
28. Where the publication of the intention to make a Key Decision in accordance with the above is impracticable and the matter would be a Key Decision, that decision shall only be made in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order C19.
Urgent Key Decisions
29. Where a Key Decision must be made urgently, making publication 28 days in advance impracticable, the decision shall only be made in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order C20.
Additional Rights for Members
Overview and Scrutiny Committee Members
30. Subject to paragraph 32, a member of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee (including its sub-committees or task groups) will be entitled to a copy of any document which is in the possession or control of the Executive and which contains material relating to:
a) Any business transacted at a private or public Cabinet meeting or a Cabinet committee meeting; or
b) Any decision taken by an individual Cabinet Member in accordance with Executive arrangements; or
c) Any decision made by an officer in accordance with Executive arrangements.
31. Where a member of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee requests a document in accordance with paragraph 30, the Cabinet or Cabinet committee must provide that document as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case no later than ten clear working days after the Executive receives the request.
32. A member of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee will not be entitled to any document or part of a document:
a) That is in draft form; or
b) That contains exempt or confidential information, unless that information is relevant to an action or decision they are reviewing or scrutinising or any review contained in any programme of work; or
c) Containing advice provided by a political advisor or assistant.
33. Where the Cabinet or Cabinet committee determines that a member of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee is not entitled to a copy of a document or part of a document for a reason set out above, it will provide the Overview and Scrutiny Committee with a written statement of its reasons for that decision.
All Members
34. Subject to paragraph 36, any document which is in the possession of or under the control of the Executive, the Full Council and its committees and contains material relating to any business to be transacted at a public meeting must be available for inspection by any member of the Council.
35. Subject to paragraph 36, any document which is in the possession of or under the control of the Executive and contains material relating to any business transacted at a private meeting, any decision made by an individual member in accordance with Executive arrangements, or any decision made by an officer in accordance with Executive arrangements must be available for inspection by any member of the Council within 24 hours of the meeting or the decision being made.
36. The rights at paragraphs 34 and 35 do not apply to any document or part of a document that contains exempt information unless it is only exempt by virtue of paragraph 16(c) (except to the extent that the information relates to any terms proposed or to be proposed by or to the authority in the case of negotiations for a contract) or paragraph 16(f).
37. Councillors as elected representatives have a right to inspect documents in the Council’s possession subject to such documents being necessary for the performance of their Council duties. A councillor may be required to demonstrate why access to a particular document is required where the document in question is not already in the public domain.
Part II Reports and Confidential Information
38. Councillors must only use confidential information (including information contained in Part II reports) in accordance with the County Council’s Protocol on the Disclosure of Confidential Information, as set out in Part 8 of the Constitution.