Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 the Council is required to produce a publication scheme, setting out what information we routinely make available to the public, how it can be obtained and whether there is a charge for it. Under the Act, the Information Commissioner has to approve councils’ publication schemes, but the Commissioner can also produce a ‘model scheme’ which can be adopted wholesale by councils without further approval.

Swale Borough Council has previously adopted the model scheme, but this has recently been updated by the Information Commissioner and now needs to be re-adopted in its revised format by the Council. The changes are intended to provide a harmonised approach to data transparency for local authorities, avoiding unnecessary duplication.