The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005 (the Regulations) encourages the re-use of public sector information.

What is public sector information?

Public sector information means information produced as part of the Council's public task. "Public task" means the Council's core role and functions, as defined in legislation or established through custom and practice. We have published a statement of our public task.

Statement of Public Task

Most of the information held by the Council is public sector information. However, there are certain exceptions. For example, the Regulations do not apply to information held by schools.

Open Government Licence

Where we hold the intellectual property rights (IPR) in information, we encourage you to use and re-use it (excluding logos and insignia), subject to acceptance of the Open Government Licence.

The licence allows the use and re-use of information with only a few conditions.

By using and re-using information in which we hold the IPR, you accept the terms and conditions of the licence. If you would like a paper copy of the licence, please contact us:

If someone else has IPR (such as copyright) in the information, you will need to get permission from them. If that is the case, we will tell you who to contact.

Asset list

We are required to keep a list of all the documents which are available for re-use. Our asset list is made up of those documents which are available in our publication scheme (excluding logos, insignia and those in which we do not own the IPR).

Formal request for re-use

Given that we encourage the use and re-use of our published information (subject to the Open Government Licence), we do not expect to receive any formal requests to re-use documents under the Regulations. However, if you do wish to make a formal request (for example, if your proposed re-use would contravene any of the conditions of the Open Government Licence or the information is not produced as part of our public task), please write to us using the details on this page.

You must tell us:

  • Your name and address
  • Which document you would like to re-use
  • The purpose the document will be used for

When we receive your request, we will deal with it within 20 working days, unless your request will take a long time to complete or is complicated.

Our response will tell you about any conditions for re-use and if you will be charged a fee to re-use the information.

Complaints

If you would like to make a complaint, you can do this through our complaints procedure:

Right to Complain leaflet

Further information

For more information about the regulations, you can visit the The National Archives (Office of Public Sector Information).