Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act gives the public a general right of access to information held by colleges (and other public authorities).

The new Model Publication Scheme and definition document provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for colleges of Further Education has been adopted by Harrogate College.

The College is obliged to respond in writing within 20 working days to specific requests from any individual. You can expect the College, in its response, to:  state whether it holds information of the type requested, and, if so, then, subject to certain exemptions (including Data Protection principles), communicate it to you.

You may make a request for information regarding Harrogate College in writing to:

Melanie Halstead
t: 0113 235 4498
e: governance@luminate.ac.uk

The Model Publication Scheme provides a list of the information routinely published by colleges which the ICO expects them to make available unless:

  • They do not hold the information
  • The information is exempt under one of the FOI exemptions or Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) exceptions, or its release is prohibited under another statute
  • The information is archived, out of date or otherwise inaccessible; or, it would be impractical or resource-intensive to prepare the material for routine release

The Model Publication Scheme and definition document for Further Education Colleges can be downloaded by following the links from https://ico.org.uk/

Information to be made available by the College

The information colleges routinely publish falls into the following categories – these have been determined by the ICO:

  • Who we are and what we do
  • What we spend and how we spend it
  • What our priorities are and how we are doing
  • How we make decisions
  • Our policies and procedures
  • Lists and registers
  • The Services we offer

Charges for information


The College may make a reasonable charge for information which is not available on its website. Where a charge is to be made this will be notified in advance.