Design of the Publication Scheme

In producing this scheme, the Commissioner has tried to ensure that a wide range of information about his Office and work is made easily accessible to the public. Particular effort has been made to ensure that information that is in the public interest is included in the scheme. The Act highlights (in s.23 (3)) a number of categories of information that can be seen as being of particular importance to the public. These are:

Information relating to the provision of services by a public authority.
Information about the costs of providing those services.
Information about the standards achieved by those services.
Facts and analyses on the basis of which decisions of importance to the public are made.
The reasons for decisions made by the authority.

This scheme has been designed to ensure that information relating to each of these categories is made available wherever possible.

In Part II of this scheme, information that is published by the Commissioner has been grouped into a number of broad classes. The publication scheme describes information that he intends to publish as well as information already available.

To ensure that it is easy to use and contains information that people want to see, the Commissioner has consulted with a small number of organisations on the contents of this publication scheme. The comments received in response have been taken into account in its revision and development.