Freedom of Information complaints procedure

Somerset County Council aims to respond to all requests made under the FOI Act within 20 working days. We will provide information requested subject to any exemptions that may apply. Occasionally, the amount of work we would need to do to provide information may be above the cost limit set out in the Act. If this happens, we will let you know and will try to provide as much as possible.

This complaints procedure relates to situations where we have withheld information or where you do not feel we have responded appropriately or within the time limit.

When you make a complaint, we will acknowledge this within 10 working days. We will then carry out an internal review of your complaint. We will aim to do this within 20 working days. In some cases we may need more time to investigate and we will write to you and give you an estimate of when we will be able to respond.

The internal review will be carried out by Council officers who may include the department who initially dealt with your request, the Freedom of Information Officer and the County Solicitor. We will review our response to your request and the information we have released or withheld. If we have claimed any exemptions we will review our use of them in relation to your request.

If, following our internal review, we decide that information we have previously withheld should be disclosed, we will do this as soon as possible.
Where we find that our procedures have not been followed or where we have not responded to your request in a timely manner, we will tell you what we will do to make sure that our procedures are improved in future.
If, having received the results of our review, you are still not satisfied with the way your request was handled or the information you have received, you can appeal to the Information Commissioner at the following address. They will then carry out a review of your complaint:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF