The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 give everyone the right to request information held by any Scottish public authority.
Citizens Advice Scotland, insofar as it undertakes duties and powers relating to the following services is subject to the requirements of the Act and the Regulations:
- the Extra Help Unit
All information on our website www.cas.org.uk is available to download for free.
If you would like us to print off information from the website, or publish information which isn’t yet on our website, we may charge for providing information. However we will charge you no more than it actually costs CAS to provide it to you.
Charges
Where charges are made, they are as follows:
- Photocopying per double-sided sheet at 10p per black and white A4 sheet and 20p per colour A4 sheet.
- CD Roms are charged at 50p per disc.
- Postage costs are recharged at the rate we pay to send the information to you by Royal Mail First Class.
When providing copies of pre-printed publications we will charge no more than what it cost CAS, per copy, to have the publication printed. Please note that this charging schedule does not apply to our commercial publications.
Charges for information available only by request.
This applies to information which we do not routinely publish, but which anyone can request from us. It applies to all requests, whether for environmental or non-environmental information.
What may we charge for?
We do not charge for the time taken to determine whether we hold the requested information, nor for the time it takes us to decide whether the information can be released. Charges may, however, be made for the staff time taken to locate and retrieve the information and for providing it to you.
Calculating charges
Charges are calculated on the basis of the actual cost to CAS of providing the information. Staff time is charged at the average hourly rate of pay for the grade(s) of the staff responding to the request, up to a maximum of £15 per hour per member of staff.
Charge waiver
- We do not charge for information which costs less than £100 to provide to you.
- Where information costs between £100 and £600 to provide to you, we may ask you to pay 10% of the cost of providing it.
- Where information costs over £600 to provide to you, we may ask you to pay the additional cost over that amount in full.
- Please note that CAS may refuse to deal with requests for non-environmental information which would cost more than £600 to provide.
Requests for your own personal data
Requests for your own personal data should be made via a Subject Access Request. Please see the relevant page on our website with details on Privacy and Data Protection for details on how to make a Subject Access Request.
Fees Notice
If we intend to make a charge we will contact you before we send any information. We will issue you a Fees Notice which sets out the charge and how it has been calculated. The notice will tell you how to pay the fee to us. It will also offer advice and assistance to help you narrow your request to reduce or avoid charges altogether. If you receive a Fees Notice you can decide whether to pay for the information or to take up our offer of advice and assistance. If we do not hear from you within 20 working days of issue of a fees notice, we will assume that you have withdrawn your request.
Contact Us
We are pleased to provide advice and assistance to anyone who would like to request information from Citizens Advice Scotland.
- Our office - Broadside, Powderhall Road, Edinburgh, EH7 4GB - is open 9.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Frida
- You can email us on info@cas.org.uk
- You can call us on 0131 550 1000.