English Nature is committed to promoting and actively developing, a culture of openness, transparency and customer focus.

These principles are defined in English Nature's Access to Information Statement. This statement sets out our commitment to our staff, stakeholders and the wider public about how we set about creating a more open and transparent public service organisation.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

Access Rights - FOIA gives any person of any nationality the right to request information held by English Nature, or other public bodies. The information can be requested for any purpose. The Act is fully retrospective. All English Nature information is covered by the Act, in every format: requests apply to emails, personal notebooks, miscellaneous collections of papers, as well as our registered paper and electronic files.

Publication Schemes - As well as providing information when asked to do so, FOIA also requires public bodies to be proactive in the release of official information. As a result, each organisation covered by the Act must produce a Publication Scheme, giving details of what information it already makes available or intends to publish as a matter of course. The English Nature Publication Scheme has been available since November 2002.

The publication scheme is a guide to key information routinely published by or available from English Nature. It focuses on information relating to our key executive, advisory and promotional duties and also on the standards and guidance by which we make decisions.

Exemptions to this commitment to proactive publication are clearly defined in the Scheme. But this is not the full extent of what we will make available. We will release information on request wherever possible. Further information about English Nature is available by contacting our Enquiry Service, via our website, or our suite of publications.

Records Management Requirements - FOIA introduces new standards for records management and changes the basis on which historical records are withheld from The National Archives (TNA). The 30 year rule means that English Nature's records that were transferred to TNA are closed to public scrutiny until, they are 30 years old. However, from January 2005 this rule will no longer apply. All the records at the TNA which were closed under the 30 year rule will now be open, subject to any identified exemption(s). Newly created records from January will be open and those records that we hold will also be open unless an exemption has been identified.

Requests for information

Rights of access to environmental information exist under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Requests for other types of information are dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

If the information you want to see is not held within our Publication Scheme you can contact our Enquiry Service, requesting the information and, providing it is not covered by one of the exemptions in the Legislation, we will endeavour to provide you with that information in line with our Service Standards. Alternatively, you can fill in our on-line request form.

We will treat all requests fairly and without prejudice taking into account the public interest.

If we cannot provide the information to you for any reason (eg exemptions apply), or we do not have the information you request, we will let you know as soon as we are aware.

When making a request for information please include the following details:

• Your name and address
• The information or documents you would like to access
• The format you would prefer - e.g. printed leaflet, e-mail, floppy disk

You may find it interesting to see what will happen to your request once it is received by English Nature. If you would like to see the processes that we will use to find and provide the information you have requested, we have produced a key processes flowchart (PDF, 105KB).

We release wildlife information in line with our Access to Wildlife Information Policy.

Charging

English Nature will continue not to charge for requests for information, unless the charge is set out in our Publication Scheme. We may charge for the cost of media/transit, photocopying etc where these are exceptionally high.

Personal Data

We follow the Public Service Guarantee on Data Handling (PDF, 136KB), which informs you of your rights when you supply personal information to us.

We will ensure that individuals can easily exercise their rights of access to their personal data held by English Nature under the Data Protection Act. To request access to your personal data contact our Enquiries Service

We have to provide you with a readable copy of the personal data that we keep about you within English Nature's service standards under the Charter Mark of 15 working days. There is no charge. Evidence of proof of your identity will be required eg copy of driving licence

Complaints and Suggestions

Despite our commitment to giving high-quality services, sometimes things will go wrong. When this happens we want to know about it, and to put things right where we can.

If you do have a problem, contact the person who provided the service in the first place. We hope to sort out most problems on the spot. To find out more about our complaints procedure see our website or contact any English Nature office or our Enquiry Service and ask them to send you a copy of our leaflet How to comment or complain.