General right of access

The Freedom of Information Act gives a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities. Disclosures are subject to the application of relevant exemptions contained within the Act.

Under the Act, East Cheshire NHS Trust must consider all requests for recorded information it receives and must:

• Inform the applicant whether the information is held; and
• Supply the requested information subject to the application of relevant exemptions contained within the Act.

This general right of access is afforded to anybody anywhere in the world.

The FOIA is fully retrospective and covers all information held in a recorded format. The deadline for a public authority to respond to requests made under the Act is 20 working days, although there are some circumstances where this may be extended under the terms of the legislation.

Guide to information

We will routinely publish information about our trust, our spending, our priorities, our decision making, our policies and procedures, information in lists and registers, and about our services. We publish this information in accordance with the NHS model publication scheme issued by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Information can be searched using the A-Z facility, the search bar and under the freedom of information pages.

Information we make routinely available

A list of the Information we make routinely available can be found on the classes of information page.