Help page section on requests for material from datasets

[RichardTaylor]

The "dataset" provisions of FOI are powerful.

If anyone requests an element of a dataset that prompts a requirement for a public body to publish that dataset, and keep the published dataset up to date.

Under Section 19(2A) of the Freedom of Information Act public bodies are required to publish:

• (i)any dataset held by the authority in relation to which a person makes a request for information to the authority, and
• (ii)any up-dated version held by the authority of such a dataset

This is excellent as a FOI request can prompt ongoing proactive publication covering far more information than might have been initially requested.

[garethrees]

There's potentially some light "research" we could do here, using WDTK itself, to identify requests where this provision ought to have been enacted, as a means to flesh out a blog post to promote this fact.

[RichardTaylor]

The definition of a dataset in the FOI Act is

information comprising a collection of information held in electronic form where all or most of the information in the collection—

(a)has been obtained or recorded for the purpose of providing a public authority with information in connection with the provision of a service by the authority or the carrying out of any other function of the authority,

(b)is factual information which—

(i)is not the product of analysis or interpretation other than calculation, and

(ii)is not an official statistic (within the meaning given by section 6(1) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007), and

(c)remains presented in a way that (except for the purpose of forming part of the collection) has not been organised, adapted or otherwise materially altered since it was obtained or recorded.]

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36