Councillor access to documents and information
Officers will follow the Access to Information Procedure Rules as set out in Part 4 of the Constitution and will make available to Elected Members any information to which a statutory right of access exists as soon as practicable.
Elected Members will also be provided with non-statutory information in accordance with the agreed policy.
Where there is uncertainty as to the statutory position, the matter will be referred to the Council’s Monitoring Officer for determination.
Non-statutory information requests from Elected Members will be met within a reasonable timescale taking into account the scale of the request, providing that the information is not confidential, does not constitute party political research or require an unreasonable amount of officer time. Where an Officer considers the request is likely to require an unreasonable amount of Officer time, and the matter cannot be resolved informally, it should be referred to the Chief Executive (or Monitoring Officer).
Elected Members are entitled as of right to a wide range of information but not to everything that they may wish to see. All Elected Members have rights of access to documentation relating to business transacted at meetings of the Council, Committees etc. The statutory provisions entitle Elected Members to access documents such as reports, files and accounts, which are relevant to the business in question and are identifiable. They do not entitle an individual Member to require an Officer to undertake research on the Member’s behalf or to extract information from records – though in some circumstances an Officer may judge that extraction of information is more efficient than providing access to documents. Beyond those statutory rights, Elected Members’ entitlement to information is determined to some degree by the particular role which they carry out. A Member who is on a particular Committee will have access rights which are different from a non-decision making Councillor, owing to the matter being categorised either as being ‘exempt’ under statute or being otherwise confidential.
Officers who are asked for information will sometimes need to take advice from colleagues, in particular the Monitoring Officer, as to whether or not the Member concerned is entitled to see information which they have asked for. Sometimes they will need to explore whether the information is available at all. It is important to bear in mind that if a Member is not automatically entitled to information, then equally, the Officer is not at liberty to provide it unless satisfied that there is some valid justification for doing so and that disclosure does not infringe any law (e.g. Data Protection Act), Council policy or confidentiality. Where Officers seek further information from Elected Members before making a response to a request for information, this is in order that the position can be checked. Elected Members should not see this as Officers being unhelpful. Where Elected Members feel they have not been given the correct response to a request, they are encouraged to refer the matter to the Monitoring Officer for determination as the Statutory Officer responsible.