Access to Information
Do you want to find out how to access any personal information we hold about you, the way we work, the services we provide and the decisions we make?
This webpage describes the Regulations we must comply with when you make a request for access to information – either personal or corporate information. It will explain how to submit a request, the relevant timescales, any applicable charges, your rights and how to appeal against our decisions.
Are you unsure what legislation covers your information request? Submit your request and we will advise you of the relevant legislation it comes under, its timescales, charges and your rights.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 you are entitled to find out what personal information we hold about you and request a copy of the personal data. You can exercise this right by submitting a Subject Access Request using the following contact details:
Contact: Verity Jerrit, Data Protection Officer
Email: dataprotection@bield.co.uk
Telephone: 0131 273 4000
Postal address: 79 Hopetoun Street, Edinburgh EH7 4QF
Upon receipt of a Subject Access Request, we will ask you to complete a form to ensure we have all the necessary information to be able to conduct a timely and efficient search. We will respond to all requests within one calendar month. We will not charge you for a Subject Access Request, unless we find the request to be manifestly unfounded or excessive.
More information about how to submit a Subject Access Request and your data protection rights can be found in our Privacy & Cookies Notice.
Anyone can submit a request to access any environmental information we hold under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIR). If you would like to access to any environmental information we hold, you can submit your request by using the following contact details:
Contact: Verity Jerrit, Data Protection Officer
Email: AccessToInfo@bield.co.uk
Telephone: 0131 273 4000
Postal address: 79 Hopetoun Street, Edinburgh EH7 4QF
We will respond to all requests for environmental information within 20 working days. After which we will either provide you with the requested information or issue a refusal notice if we decide to withhold the information. If we decide to withhold information, we will explain how we have made this decision in the refusal notice.
If the information requested is particularly voluminous or complex, we may extend the response period to 40 working days and will advise you of this in writing before the end of the initial 20 day period.
Schedule of Charges
The EIR allows us to recover costs associated with photocopying, printing and postage when responding to a request for information. We will not charge for time spent by employees when evaluating EIR requests to determine whether information should or should not be provided.
Our charges will be based on the following:
- Employee time: Average hourly rate of pay for the grade of the employee responding to the request, up to a maximum of £20 per hour per employee.
- A4 or A3 copies: 10p for black & white or 45p for colour.
- Postage: Charged at current Royal Mail cost for 2nd Class postage.
We will not charge for requests for information that takes us less than 4 hours to find and most requests for information will be responded to by email which will help to reduce the costs. If it takes us more than 4 hours to retrieve, we may ask you to pay the cost up to a maximum of £500.
Notice of Fees
If we intend to apply a charge for the information request we will issue you a Fees Notice as soon as possible. The fees notice will include a description of the charges, how they have been calculated and how you can make payment. If the charges exceed £500, we will advise you in the fees notice how you can reduce the charges by narrowing down your search.
You have up to 60 working days to decide whether to pay the fees notice or take up our offer of advice on how to reduce or avoid the charges. We will not be able to issue you the requested information until the fee has been paid.
If we do not receive a reply from you within 60 working days of the fees notice, we will assume that you have withdrawn your request.
How to appeal against our decision
If you are not satisfied with our response to your EIR request, you can appeal or challenge our decision within 40 days from receiving our decision. Upon receipt of your appeal, we will conduct an internal review to make sure we have responded correctly to your original request for information. We will inform you of the outcome of the review within 40 working days of receiving the complaint.
If, after the outcome of our review, you are still dissatisfied with our decision you can appeal directly to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
| Postal address: | The Scottish Information Commissioner, Kinburn Castle, Doubledykes Road, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9DS |
| Telephone number: | 01334 464610 |
| Email address: | enquiries@itspublicknowledge.info |
| Website: | www.itspublicknowledge.info/home/ScottishInformationCommissioner.aspx |
If you would like to request access to information that is not personal or environmental information, then your request is likely to fall under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA). At present, Bield Housing & Care are not subject to the FOISA. However, as we operate in an open and transparent manner, we will consider any such requests for information under our Openness and Confidentiality policy.
If you would like to submit an access to information request under the Freedom of Information Act, please send your request to the email address below. We will review your request and reply to you with our decision.
Contact: Verity Jerrit, Data Protection Officer
Email: AccessToInfo@bield.co.uk
Telephone: 0131 273 4000
Postal address: 79 Hopetoun Street, Edinburgh EH7 4QF
To find out how we handle your personal information when you request access to information, please read the section titled ‘How we manage your information when you request access to information’ in our Privacy & Cookies Notice.