This statement recognises the support and commitment to the requirements of the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (RoPSIR) by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.
The RoPSIR has been introduced to enable the use of Public Sector information held, to be re-used lawfully outside the public sector arena.
Public sector information is information which we produce as part of our public task. Our public task is defined by legislation and regulations. Information on our public task, such as the services we provide and our key functions, can be found in the Council Plan on our website.
Information which is not within the scope of our public task is not covered by RoPSIR. Information is not covered by RoPSIR if it would be exempt from disclosure under information access legislation like the Freedom of Information Act or the Data Protection Act or where a Third Party holds the copyright for the information.
Reuse means the use of public sector information for a purpose other than the initial purpose for which it was produced, held, collected or disseminated.
ThePublication Schemeis a guide to the information Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council routinely publishes or intends to publish. By outlining the types of information the Council holds, the scheme will assist the public’s understanding of what the Council does and the services it provides.
We encourage organisations and individuals to use and re-use the Information that is made available under theOpen Government Licence, freely and flexibly, subject to the following conditions:
Dudley Metropolitan Council has no objection to organisations and individuals downloading its copyright-protected Material from the site and reproducing them in their own publications, or on their internal computer networks.
Use of copyright and database right Material expressly made available under this licence (the ‘Information’) indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions. Please read our full conditions available on theCopyright Statement
The Material is licensed ‘as is’ and Dudley Metropolitan Council excludes all representations, warranties, obligations and liabilities in relation to the Material to the maximum extent permitted by law.
Dudley Metropolitan Council is not liable for any errors or omissions in the Material and shall not be liable for any loss, injury or damage of any kind caused by its use. Dudley Metropolitan Council does not guarantee the continued supply of the Material.
Unless otherwise stated there is no charge for the reproduction of Materials made in accordance with these conditions.
We can only charge for the marginal costs of reproducing, providing and disseminating the information. For example, if we provide a copy of a dataset on disk for re-use, we could charge for the cost of the disk and postage.
In many cases, these costs will be negligible, and if we are publishing the information on our website, it is unlikely we will make a charge.
Making a request for re-use of public sector information
To make a request for Re-use of Public Sector Information to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, you must submit the request in writing including:
your name
your address for correspondence
the information that you want to re-use and the purpose you intend to use it for
Be specific about the information you want:
is it from a particular location or body
what period of time
level of detail (e.g., a summary or all information)
preferred format of information (e.g., XML, CSV, Shapefile, etc)
be specific on how you intend to re-use the information.
You do not need to make a request if we have already made the information available under theOpen Government Licence (OGL).
The Data Protection Officer Dudley MBC Finance Department Council House Dudley West Midlands DY1 1HF
Once we receive your request to re-use information, we will respond within 20 working days, in accordance with the Re-use of Public Sector Regulations 2015. This time limit can be extended if the information is extensive or the request raises complex issues, but we will inform you of this within the 20 day period.
We must permit re-use in response to a request, making the requested document available for re-use or where conditions are attached to the re-use, finalising the offer to you of the conditions on which re-use will be permitted.
However, the RoPSIR does not apply to information that would be exempt from disclosure under information access legislation, such as Freedom of Information. We do not have to permit re-use of exempt information and information we have withheld. Under these conditions the request for re-use would be refused.
If the council receives a request for re-use regarding information that has not previously been disclosed, then we will deal with this as an access request under the appropriate legislation. Once responded to, we will then consider the re-use element of the request.
We will make the information for re-use available in the format and language in which it is held by us. If we don’t already hold it in an open and machine readable format but it is possible and appropriate to make it available in this way, then we will do so. This means open formats, such as CSV, which are preferable to proprietary formats such as XLS.
Complaints
If you are dissatisfied with the response you have received to your request for re-use, or the conditions applied, you can make a formal complaint.
Please ensure that you submit any complaints in writing, state the nature of the complaint in detail, and explain what you hope the outcome of your complaint will be. Please ensure you send these to the address above.
Your complaint will be reviewed and a response sent to you within 20 working days of submission.
If your complaint is not resolved to your complete satisfaction, you have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner’s Office can be contacted by way of letter addressed to:
Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow SK9 5AF
Further guidance on the RoPSIR has been created by the ICO and the National Archives: