The following fees are charged by Nottingham City Council for the provision of information.

Data Protection Act 1998.

Requests for personal data are charged at £10 which is the fee for the search per person. There is no charge for reproduction costs or postage.

Requests for access to CCTV footage are charged at £10 per search per person.

There is no charge for the search or the information in the following circumstances;

• Anyone who has been or is in the care of the Local Authority is not charged for access to their Social Services records.
• Former or current employees of Nottingham City Council are not charged for access to their personnel records
• Foster carers are not charged for access to records concerning their role as a foster carer.
• Educational records are charged on a sliding scale. Please see below for information.

If the request is for educational records the sliding scale detailed in the Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 191 The Data Protection (Subject Access) (Fees and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2000 is adopted. This ranges from £1 for fewer than 20 pages to a maximum of £50 for 500 or more pages.

Freedom of Information Act 2000

The fee scales for requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are laid down in statutory instrument and case law. The Statutory Instrument 2004 No. 324 The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 states that there is an ‘appropriate limit’ to the costs an authority may incur in locating and retrieving the information required to answer a Freedom of Information request before we pass those costs on to the requester. This appropriate limit is £450, which roughly equates to 2.5 days’ work.

Once a request exceeds the appropriate limit all costs incurred in locating and retrieving the information can become chargeable to the requester.  This charge is calculated at £25 per person per hour plus reproduction and postage costs.

Please note that where possible information is provided electronically to limit any reproduction charges being made to a customer. However where reproduction costs are less than £10, no charge will be made.

If the costs involved in reproducing the material are over £10 then a charge will be made at;

• 10p per A4 side (20p for double sided sheet
• Any other sheets e.g. colour, A3 etc. are charged at the cost this authority has incurred to reproduce them.

There is no charge for viewing files at Council premises.

Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

The law states that the fee scale used for requests made under the Environmental Information Regulations has to be reasonable as stated in Regulation 8(3) of these Regulations, and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has suggested that the fee scale be the same as that adopted for Freedom of Information requests. This authority has therefore adopted this recommendation. Please therefore refer to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Charging Regime for our current fee scales.

Please note that where possible information is provided electronically to limit any reproduction charges being made to a customer.

There is no charge for viewing files at Council premises.