IHTM02071 - Communications: Open Government/Freedom of information: The Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act came into force on 1 January 2005. It gives any person the right to make a request, in writing, for the release of information held by public authorities. The individual does not need to mention the Act or say why the information is wanted. The Act covers all information whatever its classification, format, source or location. It does not give greater accessibility to taxpayer's affairs. The code does not effect the requirement that we keep information on individual taxpayers confidential.

Under the Freedom of Information Act all public authorities, including HMRC, are required to adopt and maintain a Publication Scheme. Under the Publication Scheme this office makes its internal operating instructions available to the public ( IHTM02072).

Operational responsibility for Freedom of Information (FOI) rests with the FOI team in Information Governance KAI Knowledge resources. They provide a central co-ordination function for FOI requests. Applicants are encouraged to send requests direct to the central team. However, a request can be sent to any HMRC office, so it is important that all staff are aware of what a request is and what to do if they get one. On receipt of a written request for information you must consider whether it is an FOI request .

• Does it fall under 'business as usual'; e.g. documents supplied to us by the applicant in the first place (e.g. IHT200). These requests should be dealt with as you would in your normal course of business. The FOI Unit do not need to know about these.
• Does it fall under a different 'disclosure regime', e.g. Data protection ( IHTM02022)
• Is it a 'Freedom of Information' request

Each business area is responsible for dealing with FOI requests. For Inheritance Tax, the FOI Representative is the Complaints Manager in Ferrers House, Nottingham (telephone 0115 974 2431, fax 0115 974 3041). If you have received, or think you may have received, an FOI request you must pass it to the Customer Service Team on the day of receipt either by hand or, for colleagues in Edinburgh and Belfast, by fax.

The Customer Service Team will take responsibility for advising the Central FOI team that a request has been received and contacting the "information owner" so that they can deal with the request.

FOI requests must be handles promptly as we must respond to requests within20 working days.