From the Stationery Office as was. This has the key points. The whole thing is on line and fairly up to date.
QUOTE
1.
General right of access to information held by public authorities.
(1) Any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled
(a)
to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request, and
(b)
if that is the case, to have that information communicated to him.10.
Time for compliance with request.
(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a public authority must comply with section 1(1) promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth working day following the date of receipt.12.
Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit. —
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.14.
Vexatious or repeated requests.
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the request is vexatious.
(2) Where a public authority has previously complied with a request for information which was made by any person, it is not obliged to comply with a subsequent identical or substantially similar request from that person unless a reasonable interval has elapsed between compliance with the previous request and the making of the current request.16.
Duty to provide advice and assistance.
(1) It shall be the duty of a public authority to provide advice and assistance, so far as it would be reasonable to expect the authority to do so, to persons who propose to make, or have made, requests for information to it.
(2) Any public authority which, in relation to the provision of advice or assistance in any case, conforms with the code of practice under section 45 is to be taken to comply with the duty imposed by subsection (1) in relation to that case.17.
Refusal of request.
(1) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is to any extent relying on a claim that any provision of Part II relating to the duty to confirm or deny is relevant to the request or on a claim that information is exempt information must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice which—
(a)
states that fact,
(b)
specifies the exemption in question, and
(c)
states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.18.
The Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal.
(1) The Data Protection Commissioner shall be known instead as the Information Commissioner.
(2) The Data Protection Tribunal shall be known instead as the Information Tribunal.21.
Information accessible to applicant by other means.
(1) Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.22.
Information intended for future publication.
(1) Information is exempt information if
(a)
the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not),23.
Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters.
(1) Information held by a public authority is exempt information if it was directly or indirectly supplied to the public authority by, or relates to, any of the bodies specified in subsection (3).
(2) A certificate signed by a Minister of the Crown certifying that the information to which it applies was directly or indirectly supplied by, or relates to, any of the bodies specified in subsection (3) shall, subject to section 60, be conclusive evidence of that fact.
(3) The bodies referred to in subsections (1) and (2) are
(a)
the Security Service,
(b)
the Secret Intelligence Service,
the National Criminal Intelligence Service,24.
National security.
(1) Information which does not fall within section 23(1) is exempt information if exemption from section 1(1)(b) is required for the purpose of safeguarding national security.27.
International relations.
(1) Information is exempt information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice
(a)
relations between the United Kingdom and any other State,
(3) For the purposes of this section, any information obtained from a State, organisation or court is confidential at any time while the terms on which it was obtained require it to be held in confidence or while the circumstances in which it was obtained make it reasonable for the State, organisation or court to expect that it will be so held................47.
General functions of Commissioner.
(1) It shall be the duty of the Commissioner to promote the following of good practice by public authorities and, in particular, so to perform his functions under this Act as to promote the observance by public authorities of
(a)
the requirements of this Act, and
(b)
the provisions of the codes of practice under sections 45 and 46.
(2) The Commissioner shall arrange for the dissemination in such form and manner as he considers appropriate of such information as it may appear to him expedient to give to the public
(a)
about the operation of this Act,
(b)
about good practice, and
(c)
about other matters within the scope of his functions under this Act, and may give advice to any person as to any of those matters.
(3) The Commissioner may, with the consent of any public authority, assess whether that authority is following good practice.50.
Application for decision by Commissioner.
(1) Any person (in this section referred to as “the complainant”) may apply to the Commissioner for a decision whether, in any specified respect, a request for information made by the complainant to a public authority has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of Part I.
(2) On receiving an application under this section, the Commissioner shall make a decision unless it appears to him
(a)
that the complainant has not exhausted any complaints procedure which is provided by the public authority in conformity with the code of practice under section 45,
(b)
that there has been undue delay in making the application,
(c)
that the application is frivolous or vexatious, or
(d)
that the application has been withdrawn or abandoned.
(3) Where the Commissioner has received an application under this section, he shall either
(a)
notify the complainant that he has not made any decision under this section as a result of the application and of his grounds for not doing so, or
(b)
serve notice of his decision (in this Act referred to as a “decision notice”) on the complainant and the public authority.
(4) Where the Commissioner decides that a public authority
(a) has failed to communicate information, or to provide confirmation or denial, in a case where it is required to do so by section 1(1), or
(b)
has failed to comply with any of the requirements of sections 11 and 17,
the decision notice must specify the steps which must be taken by the authority for complying with that requirement and the period within which they must be taken.
(5) A decision notice must contain particulars of the right of appeal conferred by section 57.
(6) Where a decision notice requires steps to be taken by the public authority within a specified period, the time specified in the notice must not expire before the end of the period within which an appeal can be brought against the notice and, if such an appeal is brought, no step which is affected by the appeal need be taken pending the determination or withdrawal of the appeal.
(7) This section has effect subject to section 53.52.
Enforcement notices.
(1) If the Commissioner is satisfied that a public authority has failed to comply with any of the requirements of Part I, the Commissioner may serve the authority with a notice (in this Act referred to as “an enforcement notice”) requiring the authority to take, within such time as may be specified in the notice, such steps as may be so specified for complying with those requirements.54.
Failure to comply with notice.
(1) If a public authority has failed to comply with
(a)
so much of a decision notice as requires steps to be taken,
(b)
an information notice, or
(c)
an enforcement notice, the Commissioner may certify in writing to the court that the public authority has failed to comply with that notice.
(2)
For the purposes of this section, a public authority which, in purported compliance with an information notice
(a)
makes a statement which it knows to be false in a material respect, or
(b)
recklessly makes a statement which is false in a material respect, is to be taken to have failed to comply with the notice.
(3) Where a failure to comply is certified under subsection (1), the court may inquire into the matter and, after hearing any witness who may be produced against or on behalf of the public authority, and after hearing any statement that may be offered in defence, deal with the authority as if it had committed a contempt of court.
(4) In this section “the court” means the High Court or, in Scotland, the Court of Session.77.
Offence of altering etc. records with intent to prevent disclosure.
(1) Where
(a)
a request for information has been made to a public authority, and
(b)
under section 1 of this Act or section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998, the applicant would have been entitled (subject to payment of any fee) to communication of any information in accordance with that section, any person to whom this subsection applies is guilty of an offence if he alters, defaces, blocks, erases, destroys or conceals any record held by the public authority, with the intention of preventing the disclosure by that authority of all, or any part, of the information to the communication of which the applicant would have been entitled.
(2) Subsection (1) applies to the public authority and to any person who is employed by, is an officer of, or is subject to the direction of, the public authority.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
(4) No proceedings for an offence under this section shall be instituted
(a)
in England or Wales, except by the Commissioner or by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions;
(b)
in Northern Ireland, except by the Commissioner or by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland.
UNQUOTE
There is rather a lot of it but then Acts of Parliament are like that. The full text is even longer. You just might want to go there and see for yourself.
Errors & omissions, broken links,
cock ups, over-emphasis, malice [ real or imaginary ] or whatever; if
you find any I am open to comment.
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me at Mike Emery. All
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Updated on 13/10/2017 00:07