List of Publications | Latest Content | What's Important | Frequently Asked Questions

Publication Schemes

One of the obligations on North Lanarkshire Council under Section 23 of the Act is to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme listing the types of information which the Council makes available, as a matter of course, to the public. North Lanarkshire Council takes the view that the creation of this Publication Scheme is a good opportunity – not only to bring together, in an easily accessible form, a list of all the information the Council already provides but, also, to identify any other information which the Council could usefully publish and to include that information in the Publication Scheme. This Publication Scheme aims to show clearly

  • the classes of information the Council publishes or intends to publish;
  • the way in which the various pieces of information are published; and
  • whether any particular piece of information is available to the public free of charge or on payment of a fee and, in the limited number of cases in which fees are payable, details of those charges.

The Scottish Information Commissioner, who is appointed by Her Majesty the Queen on the nomination of the Scottish Parliament, has, among his responsibilities, the duty to promote the observance of the provisions of the Act by Scottish public authorities. In doing so he has published guidance on preparing Publication Schemes and, in formulating this Publication Scheme, North Lanarkshire Council has taken full account of that guidance. North Lanarkshire Council has, also, reviewed the information it already publishes and expanded that information to provide as full information as possible about

  • the services provided by the Council
  • the cost of those services
  • the standard attained by those services; and
  • the facts which form the basis of decisions taken by the Council which are of importance to the public

and to explain as fully as possible the Council's internal structures, how the Council decision processes work and how key appointments are made.

North Lanarkshire Council has also taken account of current requests for information from the public and has invited members of the public to identify any further information which might usefully be published.

Under the Act, local authorities must regularly review their Publication Schemes. North Lanarkshire Council plans to do this and the Council hopes to be able to add more classes of information on an ongoing basis. The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 also provides that each Publication Scheme must be submitted, for approval, to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

All information covered by the Publication Scheme is readily available and the Publication Scheme shows how any member of the public can obtain each piece of information. For any information not contained in the Publication Scheme, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act gives all members of the public a right to request that information and, except for the very limited exemptions set out in the Act, these requests will be complied with.

[Back to Contents] [Forward to Next Section]

A to Z of Content | Help | Site Map