Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) were introduced to provide you with a right of access to information held by us, subject to certain conditions and exemptions.

The Environmental Information Regulations apply only to environmental information whereas the Freedom of Information Act gives people access to most other types of information, apart from personal information, which is held by us.

Section 19 of the Freedom of Information Act obliges every public authority to adopt an approved Publication Scheme. The intention of a Publication Scheme is to require authorities to make certain kinds of information routinely available to the public. We have adopted the Information Commissioner’s Office Publication Scheme, which is available here.

As an example the Publication Scheme includes the following (click on links below to see information):

• Payments to creditors
• The Staff Pay and Grading Structure (including establishment and numbers of people in post),
• Expenses paid to Fire Authority Members and Senior Officers,
• A list of the current contracts with providers of products and services,
• Financial Reports and Statement of Accounts,
• Committee Reports for the Combined Fire Authority, Standards Committee and Audit and Performance Review Committee.

Please note that in the interest of national security North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service do not publish or provide call signs, or water hydrant locations. 

Freedom of Information request responses

We also publish responses to requests made to us under the Freedom of Information Act 2000; these can be viewed on the FOI Disclosure Log

Other useful sources of information include:

• National Response Times Statistics
• National Fire Statistics
• Operational Statistics

Making a Request for Information

If you cannot find the information you are seeking on our website (or through the links to the national statistics), then you can request it through a formal Freedom of Information or Environmental Information Regulation request.

EIR requests can be made verbally or in writing, unlike FOI requests which must be made in writing. If you wish to make a request for information you can do so by:

Completing; the online FOI and EIR Request Form

Emailing; cao.serviceinformation@northyorksfire.gov.uk

Writing to the following address;

Central Administration Office
North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters
Thurston Road
Northallerton
North Yorkshire
DL6 2ND
Phoning: 01609 780150

You can find out more about the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations at Policies and Procedures.