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PUBLICATIONS SCHEME

CONTENTS

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Role of ICR's Office

The ICR's office was opened in February 1998 to provide an independent stage to Land Registry's internal complaints procedure. Since then, the ICR's office has taken on the same role for The National Archives, the Charity Commission, the Housing Corporation and Land Registers Northern Ireland, the Audit Commission and the Youth Justice Agency (Northern Ireland).

The ICR acts as an honest broker in reviewing complaints made about the above bodies where the internal complaints procedure has not resolved matters for complainants. The ICR aims to resolve complaints without recourse to review if that is possible, but if this is not possible a detailed investigation is carried out followed by a report to the complainant and to the organisations concerned. The ICR has the power to make any recommendations that are considered appropriate following review, and these can include specific recommendations aimed at resolving particular complaints (such as an apology or a consolatory payment) or systemic recommendations aimed at addressing problems with current practice and procedure.

The ICR's overriding objective is to seek a fair resolution for both complainants and the organisations complained about and to act as a catalyst for change to improve the public services for which the above organisations are responsible.

1.2 The Freedom of Information Act 2000

The Freedom of Information Act (the Act) aims to make information held by public bodies more widely available. The Act came fully into force on 1 January 2005. The Act requires public bodies to adopt and maintain a Publications Scheme. Such schemes must specify the following:

• the classes of information published or intended to be published;
• the manner in which this information is (or is intended to be published) or made available when requested; and
• whether the information is available free of charge or on payment of a fee.

Individuals already have the right to access any of their personal data, which may be held by the ICR's office, under the Data Protection Act 1988.

1.3 Introduction to the Publications Scheme

The ICR's Publications Scheme sets out what information is available from the ICR's office and also what information it is expected will become available during the course of the ICR's business throughout the year. It is also designed to help facilitate the location and acquisition of any information that might be required. This information includes printed material (leaflets, reports etc), electronic material that can be downloaded from the ICR's website or printed off from the ICR's internal network and management information of various kinds.

The ICR's Publications Scheme is not intended to provide information that is held or maintained by any of the bodies with which the ICR's office is associated. Each of these has its own Publications Scheme that can be accessed directly. The relevant contact details and website addressed are contained in the Appendix to this Scheme.

1.4 How the ICR's Office is affected

The following sets out how the Act affects the ICR's Office:

• The ICR's office is not currently listed in either the initial schedules of affected public authorities in the Act, nor in any of the Statutory Commencement Orders. The ICR's office is not therefore obliged to adopt a Publications Scheme. However, the ICR's office will be included in a future Order issued by the Department for Constitutional Affairs. In the meantime, the ICR's office has adopted this Publications Scheme in advance of the legal requirement to do so.
• Until such time as the ICR's office becomes an affected public authority, the Information Commissioner has no powers to regulate the Scheme, but the Commissioner has indicated that the Scheme as it stands matches the legal requirements of the Act and would have been approved had there been a legal obligation to adopt it.
• You will be told in writing whether the ICR's Office holds the information specified in your request and have that information provided if it is held by the ICR's Office and is not exempted from disclosure by one or more of the exemptions set out in the Act.
• The Act also applies to individual requests for information that is not available under the Publications Scheme. The ICR's Office will have procedures in place for making decisions on these types of request. Some types of information will always be exempt from disclosure. Other types of exempt information may be disclosed if the ICR considers that the public interest in disclosing it outweighs the public interest in non-disclosure.

1.5 How information will be provided and what charges may apply

In Part II of this Scheme, the different classes of information that are available are set out. As much information as is possible about the information in question is provided in these lists. Details of how the information will be made available and any charges that are applicable will be provided. Each item will be set out as in the example shown below.

Where access via website is indicated, this can be found on the ICR's website at http://www.icrev.demon.co.uk/

The ICR's policy is not to charge for any information that is covered by the Publications Scheme. Any information provided that is not covered by the Scheme may be subject to a nominal charge at the ICR's discretion to cover photocopying or other associated costs.

The ICR's Office will supply the information requested within twenty working days of the receipt of the request.

1.6 Accessibility

The ICR seeks to ensure that, wherever possible, any published material will be made available on request in other languages or formats. In most cases, there will be no charge for this service, but the ICR's Office reserves the right to levy a charge if there are particular difficulties or disproportionate expense in any given case. If there is going to be a charge, the ICR's Office will inform the applicants of this beforehand.

1.7 Responsibility for the Publications Scheme

The ICR's Service Manager has overall responsibility for the Publications Scheme. Her details are as follows:

Any comments about the Publication Scheme will be welcomed as useful feedback, and will form part of our ongoing review of this part of our service. Comments should be directed to the ICR's Service Manager.

1.8 Complaints about the Publications Scheme

Any complaints about the operation of the Publications Scheme or how the ICR's office has dealt with a request for information will be considered in the first instance by the appropriate ICR. Their details are as follows:

PART TWO: CLASSES OF INFORMATION

2.1 Annual Reports (this class contains the ICR's published annual reports from 1998-1999 onwards)

2.2 Information Leaflets

2.3 Management Documents