The time of year is approaching when I am asked by schools what would happen if they were to receive a Freedom of Information request just before the summer holidays. I've always advised them on what to do but this has been beautifully summarised by the ICO and I feel the information needs to be made available to as many people as possible. I stress this is ICO guidance, not my own work and it is their view that matters anyway!
This variation applies to all schools covered by FOIA, including maintained schools, academies, pupil referral units and state-funded nurseries.
The Regulations state that the time for compliance will be whichever of these is the shorter period:
20 working days following the date of receipt, excluding any day that is not a school day (this effectively equates to a period of 20 school days).
60 working days following the date of receipt.
A “school” day will be any day on which there is a session and the pupils are in attendance.
“Working” days exclude school holidays and “inset” or training days where the pupils are not present.
The following example illustrates how this variation works in practice:-
A school receives a request on Wednesday 26 July. The school is scheduled to close for the summer holidays on Friday 28 July and will reopen on Monday 11 September.
When calculating the time for compliance, the school recognises that it will not have to count any of the days between 26 July and 11 September, as these are non-school days for the purposes of the Regulations.
After taking this into account, it determines that a period of 20 school days will end on Wednesday 4 October. It then calculates the date on which 60 working days would end, finding that this will fall on Friday 20 October.
This means that, if the school cannot respond more promptly, the time for compliance in this case will be 20 school days because this period will end before an interval of 60 working days has passed.
The ICO's website is one of the few government websites that provides clear, concise and easy to read material, and I feel that praise should be given for that in age when so much unintelligible material is thrust at us!
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