The Freedom of Information Act came into force at the beginning of 2005. It deals with access to official information, while parallel regulations deal with environmental information.

The Act provides individuals or organisations with the right to request information held by The College as a public authority. They can do this by letter or email.

The College must tell the applicant whether it holds the information, and must normally supply it within 20 working days, in the format requested. However, the public authority does not have to confirm or deny the existence of the information or provide it if an exemption applies, the request is vexatious or similar to a previous request, or if the cost of compliance exceeds an appropriate limit.

If exemption applies, but is qualified, this means that the public authority must decide whether the public interest in using the exemption outweighs the public interest in releasing the information.

The College is currently updating its Publication Scheme based on the Model Publications Scheme below.  Freedom of Information enquiries should be sent to Mrs Diane Grannell, Vice Principal (Finance & Planning) at North Road, Parkstone, Poole, BH14 0LS, Tel. 01202 205917, e-mail grannelld@bpc.ac.uk 

A link to a Model Publications Scheme for FE Colleges is given below and full details can be obtained from the Information Commissioner's website: www.ico.gov.uk

FOI Model Publications Scheme