Freedom of Information Act - LSC

On this page:

LSC's publication scheme
Making a request for information
Processing by the LSC
Costs of providing information
Internal review
Where to send your request?

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act came into force on 1 January 2005. It gives the public a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities and sets out exemptions from that right. For the purpose of the FOI Act, the government has designated the Legal Services Commission (LSC) as a public authority.

Any person is able to make a request for information we hold. The FOI Act is retrospective in nature and applies to any information we hold including that of our predecessor bodies.

We are also required to develop and maintain a Publication Scheme Guide about the information that we regularly publish or intend to publish in future.

LSC's publication scheme

We receive many information requests on a daily basis and we provide a wide range of information to those who contact us.

To help you find the information you are interested in please check that the information is not already available on our website before making your request:

our Annual Report covers how we funded services from the Community Legal Service and Criminal Defence Service and how we exercised our other functions. It also includes information on how we are performing against our priorities and targets and contains our financial reports.
we also publish a statistical analysis of our work
our national and local press releases
our Publication Scheme sets out the classes of information that we routinely publish or intend to publish in the future. It also indicates where you may obtain the information from and whether or not it will cost you anything to obtain it
our disclosure log includes details of selected requests and the information we have disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act.

Making a request for information

To make a request for information that is not readily available, you need to write to us by stating:

your full name
your contact address (either postal or e-mail).
a description of the information you require.

Please be as specific as possible about the information you would like to access. To assist us with our searches, please provide us with any additional information you think might be helpful such as: the subject matter, a time frame.

Processing by the LSC

The FOI Act allows 20 working days, from the date the request is received at the LSC to respond to requests. The exception to this is where:

a qualified exemption applies and the public interest test needs to be considered, or
clarification is required.

Under the Act, public authorities are entitled to withhold information when an appropriate exemption can be applied. The Access to Justice Act 1999 (AJA) also imposes restrictions on disclosure of information which receive in the course of carrying out our duties. Information received by the LSCin connection with an individual’s case cannot be disclosed under section 20 of AJA ad section 38 of the former Legal Aid Act 1988 (LAA). These provisions also place restrictions on the disclosure of individual funding details. The LSC regards the provision of individual legal aid as being akin to other state benefits and this approach has been supported by the ICO (Decision Notice FS50076855).

If you require personal information about yourself, it should be requested under the Data Protection Act 1998 as personal data is exempt under section 40 of the FOI Act.

If information requested is held by another Public Authority we will inform you of this.

Costs of providing information

The LSC will make no charge for finding information for requests which cost less than £450. However, if we estimate that it would cost more than £450 (18 hours working time) to retrieve the information, we are entitled to refuse your request. For further details please see the LSC's Freedom of Information Policy Statement.
Internal review

If you are not satisfied with our response, you are entitled to an internal review. We aim to handle all internal reviews in 20 working days. For further details, please see our Access to Information leaflet in the Documents panel on the right of this page.

If you require an internal review, please either email or write to the LSC's Legal Director at the address below.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also have a right of appeal to the ICO.

Where to send your request?

If you have been in contact with us before, you should write to the team or department that you have been dealing with.

Contact details for our regional offices are available on our regional network pages.

If you have not been in contact with us before, you can write to the CEO's Office and Governance Department.

By e-mail:

FOI.STAFF.CF@legalservices.gsi.gov.uk

By fax:

020 7783 7633

By DX:

DX: 328 London

By post:

Legal Services Commission
4 Abbey Orchard Street
London
SW1P 2BS

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Last updated: 09 July 2010