The British Council Publication Scheme

What is the British Council Publication Scheme?

It is our response to the UK Government’s Freedom of Information Act, the first phase of which comes into force in November 2002. This obliges public bodies to draw up a Publication Scheme of material they will make publicly available.

Here you will find much previously unpublished information as well as help in finding other information that is not listed.

The Scheme sets out the broad classes of information that the British Council is making available and guides you toward the items containing this information.

Director Knowledge Services is the senior manager responsible for Freedom of Information at the British Council. The FOI Officer is responsible for the publication scheme on a day-to-day basis.

What is in the Publication Scheme?
We have concentrated upon documents containing information about the British Council, how it is run and the work it does. You could categorise these, broadly-speaking, as policy documents.

How do I use the Publication Scheme?
The easiest and quickest way of getting hold of most of the information it contains is by downloading it from this site.

A few items cannot be downloaded and we do appreciate that not all enquirers have good access to information technology. There is a printed version of the Publication Scheme that includes a list of publications. To obtain any of these publications in hard copy, please address your request to:

Freedom of Information Unit
British Council
10 Spring Gardens
London SW1A 2BN
Tel (+44) 020 7389 4172

Foi@britishcouncil.org

There is also an enquiry form within the list of publications

We will acknowledge your enquiry immediately and respond fully as soon as possible.

How much do publications cost?
Wherever possible, the documents available in the Publication Scheme will be free. Where there is a charge, the cost will be shown against each item.

What kind of information is being published?
We publish as much information as possible about how we are funded, our policies and how we measure results and evaluate ourselves.

The British Council already publishes a great deal of information via its website (www.britishcouncil.org) and its many printed publications. This Scheme is not intended to duplicate that information or to be a guide to those resources. However, it will contain addresses for the British Council website, other websites or its printed publications where appropriate.

Classes of information we commit ourselves to publishing 1
Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act (2000), we have made a commitment to the UK’s Information Commissioner to publish information under the following headings:

British Council corporate governance
Material defining the British Council's legal status in the United Kingdom, overall purpose and top-level governance and details of current members of the Board of Trustees.

Strategic planning material
Internal documents, both universal and sector-specific, establishing British Council strategic objectives including prioritisation and the allocation of resources.

Accounts
Financial records published in accordance with the British Council's charitable status.

Reports and evaluations of British Council activities
The research and reports by which we measure our own success and communicate our achievements.

Guidance
Rules according to which we operate. Internal guidance relating to our public functions and external guidance specific to the British Council.

External communications
British Council press releases, speeches and responses to Freedom of Information enquiries.

Partnerships
Formal agreements with other organisations.

Current activities and significant contracts worldwide
Basic details of current significant contracts awarded to or by the British Council; items listing and describing current projects.

Working for the British Council
Policies that govern the creation of and recruitment to British Council posts and the rights and responsibilities of post-holders.

Research
Research papers produced by the British Council primarily for external consumption.

Environmental information
Information about the British Council's environmental policies and records of the environmental impact of British Council activities. This class comprises items that would be appropriate to several other classes, but are grouped together because they cover an area of particular interest.

What kind of information will not be published?
The information you are looking for may not be available within the Publication Scheme. This may be because the information did not meet public interest criteria or because it is not currently appropriate for publication. Disclosure of information under Freedom of Information legislation is restricted by exemptions. These are described in detail in the Act . The following is a summary of British Council policy.

We will not publish or disclose information if to do so would compromise:

• our commercial interests - part of the British Council operates as a business and consequently the disclosure of business documents or internal business planning information will be subject to restrictions
• international relations – the British Council must be sensitive to international and cultural relations; some information we hold must remain confidential
• the formulation of government policy - the British Council works closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department for International Development and other government agencies; again, some of this information must remain confidential
• an individual’s right to privacy. We will not disclose anything if to do so would infringe either the Data Protection Act or our Privacy Policy
• the security of a building or its occupants.
• ongoing contract or tender negotiations.

We will not publish:

• information intended for future publication – most information we hold can be released at some stage; however, we will not publish or disclose items prematurely - where items will be published in the future, the Publication Scheme will indicate the date at which we intend to publish them
• ephemeral material – information that relates to trivial items of internal administration and other things in which there is little public interest • information reasonably accessible to the public by other means – the British Council makes much information available on the internet and in its printed publications, so there is no benefit in duplicating it here.

Further:

• some publications will have been edited or redacted for publication; we have made this clear in cases where information has been removed and have explained the decision
• if you have consulted the Scheme and have not been able to find what you want, you should consider making a written request for the information you require under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

[1] Occasionally, some of the documents listed under these classes of information may contain sensitive details that it is not in the public interest for us to disclose. In such cases we warn you in the description that a document has been edited and, in the version of the document that we publish, indicate where details have been removed and why this has been done.