The Freedom of Information Act is about making information available to the public to increase accountability and transparency in the decisions we make and about the services we provide. The Act places two main duties on us:

•  To adopt and maintain a publication scheme

• To deal with individual requests for information

Requesting Information

Our publication scheme provides links to all information that we publish, which is available on our website. If you would like to make a request for information that is not on our publication scheme please send your request to the Corporate Information Manager.

By Email - foi@dorsetfire.gov.uk.

By Post - Dorset Fire and Rescue Service, Peverall Avenue West, Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 3SU

Telephone for further information - 01305 252640/41

Your request must clearly state: 

• What information you are seeking
• What format you require the information
• Your name and address or email

We will aim to respond to your request within 20 working days. If we are unable to meet this deadline we will let you know when we expect to respond to you. You only have a right to information and not necessarily to documents.

Witholding Information

The Freedom of Information Act sets out exemptions which, in some circumstances, allow us to withold requested information. If we decide we want to rely on an exemption to withold the information that you have requested we tell you which exemption has been applied and explain the reason why it is applicable. 

Charging for Information

Some information is already available via our publication scheme, but there may be some information that you might need to pay for.  When you make a request for information which is currently not already available, we may charge you administrative costs. We will not charge you where the total cost is less than £10.  Where the cost is more than £10, you will be given a fees notice as quickly as possible, requesting payment of the fee.  The information you have requested will only be provided to you once the full fee is received (and if by cheque, once the cheque has cleared). You will also be given advice on whether we can provide the information to you in a way to avoid paying the fee.

Transferring Requests

When we receive a request for information that we do not hold or own, we will help you, as far as reasonable, to transfer your request to the relevant organisation. If we transfer your request, we'll ask for your permission first.   

Staff Costs

We may make a charge for the staff time in responding to your request for information. We will only charge if we estimate that the staff time will cost more than £450 in total; if it does then we may charge the full staff costs.  This will be based on a calculation of £25 per hour, per person.   

We reserve the right to refuse to respond to a request for information where the staff costs exceed £450. If we decide to do this you will be informed and we will give you the reason for this decision. Generally speaking we may refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of doing so would be disproportionate or where there is some other means available to the applicant to access the information.  

If you want to make any comments about this publication scheme or if you require further assistance or need to make a complaint, initially these should be addressed to the Authority's COrporate Infomation Assistant (01305) 252640 or e-mailcia@dorsetfire.gov.uk.

If you are not satisfied with the assistance that you get from the Authority or if we were not been able to resolve your complaint and you feel a formal complaint needs to be made, this should be addressed to the office of the Information Commissioner. This is the organisation that ensure compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and that deals with formal complaints. They can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF or

Enquiry/Information Line: 01625 545 745 e-mail: data@dataprotection.gov.uk.

2012/13 - 6 monthly 1 April - 30 September 2012

i) We have received 31 requests to date

ii) 30 of these have been handled withing 20 working days

2011/12 - 1 April 2010 - 31 March 2012

i) We received 73 requests

ii) 65 of these were handled within 20 working days

2010/11 - 1 April 2010 - 31 March 2011

i) We received 75 requests 

ii) 71 of these were handled within 20 working days

2009/10

i) We received 41 requests 

ii) 40 of these were handled within 20 working days

2008/09

i) We received 41 requests

ii) 39 of these were handled within 20 working days

We have listed below all of the requests that we have received under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 from January 2009.

1 April 2012 - 30 September 2012

1 April 2011 - 31 March 2012

2009 January - December (95.2KB pdf)