Our Publication Scheme – Information requests

We want to be open and clear with everyone. To help do this we like to share information people may need or want to know on our website or on paper.

The law, (Freedom of Information Act) says that organisations such as Llais must have a publication scheme. This is a written promise from us to make different types of information routinely available to you.

Our publication scheme below sets out:

what information we currently share or plan to share. We have grouped it under different headings to make it easier to read;
how we share this information;
what you have to do to access information that has not been routinely published (Freedom of Information Act);
how you can access personal information that Llais might hold about you (Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 2018);
how you can access Environmental Information held by Llais (Environmental Information Regulations 2004)

This guide provides all you need to know about how Llais will handle your Information request.

We get our money from the Welsh Government, and you can see how we use it. We share information about our money and what we spend it on in our annual accounts.

Funding
Our remit letter

Spending
Annual Accounts

Recruitment
Our non-executive Board members are public appointees. This means they are members of the public who apply for the role through a similar process to all Public Bodies. Public appointments are made by Welsh Ministers.

Details on our non-executive members pay and expenses is in our Annual Report and accounts.

If you are wondering how we hire people, we would be happy to explain it. Just email us with what you would like to know [email protected]

Any jobs we have will be advertised

Pay and benefits
The terms and conditions for non-senior members of staff match the terms of Agenda for Change. You can find more information on the Agenda for Change pay and benefits

You can view information on pay bands and the number of staff working at those bands in our Annual Report and Accounts

Procurement
Because we are a small organisation we don’t do all our buying ourselves. We use a service from NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership.

We have our own policy that is very similar to the All Wales Procurement policy used by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership. You can view our procurement policy

You can find a list of contracts awarded and names of the suppliers (for contracts over £25,000)

If you would like more information about our staff and board members’ allowances and expenses, or staff pay and grading structures then drop us an email at [email protected].

Shortly after we became operational on the 1 April 2023, we published a plan to talk about the things we wanted to do quickly to help make a real difference to people and communities in all parts of Wales.

You can find out how we did during the first 100 days

Our Strategic plan (ready in April 2024)
Our Annual plan (ready in October 2023)
Our National Standards
Our Annual Reports
Our equality plans and reports
Our information and data management policy
Our Remit Letter

Freedom of Information, publication and complaints

Accessibility statement

Responses to freedom of information requests (in archive after 3 years)
Our complaints procedure and complaints form

We use feedback that we get to help us to decide what we should do and how we should work. You can find out how to feedback

Our Board, Committees and delegation arrangements

Our ways of working

We want to act and behave in the right ways. That is why our standards of behaviour policy (our guide for the way we behave) is based on the ‘Seven Principles of Public Life’. You can view our standards of behaviour policy here. You can find out more about Seven Principles of Public Life.

Equity, diversity and inclusion policy
Welsh language policy and Welsh language standards
Complaints procedure and complaints form
Data retention policy and data retention schedule
Privacy notices
Dealing with challenging behaviours

You can find a list of our all our policies and procedures.

If you’d like to receive a copy of any of our policies or procedures you can request them by emailing [email protected].

List of main contractors/suppliers
Asset management plan and register
Register Board members interests
Register of Board members gifts and hospitality

You can find out more about what we do.

What is a Freedom of Information request?

Anyone has a right to request information from a public authority. Llais has two separate duties when responding to requests:

to tell you whether we hold any information falling within the scope of the request; and
to provide that information

We normally respond within 20 working days of your request. However, all requesters will receive an initial acknowledgement. This will provide you with a unique Llais reference number to quote in any future correspondence.

For your request to be valid under the Freedom of Information Act it must be in writing, e.g. via email or letter.

How can I access a Freedom of Information request?
Some Information and electronic documents are published on our website.

Llais routinely publishes all of our responses to previous Freedom of Information requests, and these can be accessed via the disclosure log below. Previous responses might be helpful in providing the information you are looking for. Freedom of Information Disclosure Log (link Disclosure Log)

If you can’t find what you are looking for on our website, please make a freedom of Information request via email or by post.

Can I ask for information in a different format?

All the information on our website is bilingual (in English and Welsh). Please advise if you would like your response to be provided in English or Welsh. If you need your information in a different format or language, please let us know and we will try our best to do so within the required time for response.

Email: [email protected]
Postal address: Welsh Government buildings, Cathay’s Park, King Edward VII Ave, Cardiff. CF10 3NQ

What is a Subject Access Request?

You have the right to access personal data or special category data that we may hold about you. Llais will have 1 calendar month to provide you with a clear, permanent copy of the data we hold about you. For your request to be valid under the Subject Access Request it must be in writing , e.g., via email or letter.

How can I make a Subject Access Request?

Please make a request via email or by post.

Email: [email protected]
Postal address: Welsh Government buildings, Cathay’s Park, King Edward VII Ave, Cardiff. CF10 3NQ

What is an Environmental Information Regulation Request?

The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 provide public access to environmental information held by public authorities such as Llais.

The Regulations do this in two ways:

we must make environmental information available proactively through our publication scheme, if any is held by Llais;
you are entitled to request environmental information from Llais, which you consider has not been routinely published.

The Regulations apply only to the environmental information held by Llais. As outlined above, the Freedom of Information Act gives you access to most other types of information held by us. You also have the right to access information held about you under the UK General Data Protection Regulations (the UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (the DPA2018) via a Subject Access Request.

How can I make an Environmental information Regulation Request?
Information and electronic documents may be on our website.

Email: [email protected]
Postal address: Welsh Government buildings, Cathay’s Park, King Edward VII Ave, Cardiff. CF10 3NQ

We have also published below a range of further information about how we will handle your requests. This includes definitions, whether any exemptions might apply to releasing information, how you can reproduce and use our information and whether in providing printed documentation any charges might apply.

Our Publication Scheme Categories

Our publication scheme has 7 groups of information. These are:

Who we are and what we do
What we spend and how we spend it
What’s important to us and how we are doing
How we make decisions
Our ways of working

Lists and registers

List of main contractors/suppliers
Asset management plan and register
Register Board members interests
Register of Board members gifts and hospitality

Further information about how we will handle your information request.

There are some things we might not be able to share. These are things that it might be against the law to share, or information that we can’t easily provide for you. We may also not share things we are currently working on.

Charging for information
We try to freely share most of our information and will make every effort to provide reasonable requests at no cost to you. But sometimes, it does cost us to provide information. We may charge for photocopying, postage, staff time, or creating special datasets if there is a lot of costs involved. We will tell you if there is going to be a charge. The information below sets out where costs may apply and how much they might be.

Cost incurred

Fee

Photocopying / Printing 10p per sheet
Postage and Packing Standard postage rate – capped at £15
Costs directly incurred as a Staff time calculated at basic rate
result of viewing the
information e.g. retrieving it
from storage
Redaction Staff time calculated at basic rate
Creating a dataset Relevant copyright works available for reuse

If there is a charge, we will need to collect the money before the information is provided to you.

If the cost to us ends up being less than you paid, we will refund the difference.

Can you copy our publications
You can copy or share our publications without charge, but please let people know you have got the information from us. We ask that if you share our information, you do it in line with the re-use of public sector information regulations (2015).

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/re-using-public-sector-information/regulations/

Open Government License
If you want to know more about reusing our information, you can find out more information about publishing and copyright from the National Archives on the UK Government licensing framework:

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/re-using-public-sector-information/uk-government-licensing-framework/open-government-licence/

Publishing datasets for re-use
We can provide you information in a dataset that we hold as long as this does not break information governance rules.

We use the Freedom of Information Act (Section 11 (5) to describe what we mean by a dataset:

“Information comprising a collection of information held in electronic form where all or most of the information in the collection: -

has been obtained or recorded for the purpose of providing a public authority with information in connection with the provision of a service by the authority or the carrying out of any other function of the authority,
is factual information which:
- is not the product of analysis or interpretation other than calculation, and
- is not an official statistic (within the meaning given by section

6(1) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007), and

remains presented in a way that (except for the purpose of forming part of the collection) has not been organised, adapted or otherwise materially altered since it was obtained or recorded”

Information that is exempt
We will do our best to make information available. We will not share information if there is a legal reason not to or if we think it may cause harm.

There are some exemptions which mean that we are not able to share all the information we hold. We will decide what information can be shared through applying what is called the public interest test.

There are some ‘absolute exemptions’ where we do not have to provide the information at all.

For example:

information relating to government policy
if sharing the information would cause harm.

Our Data Protection Officer will decide if an exemption applies.

What happens when I ask for information?

When we receive a request, we will respond initially with an acknowledgement of receiving your request. For Freedom of Information and Environmental Regulation Requests we will respond to you within 20 working days. For Subject Access Requests we will respond to you within 1 calendar month. If we need more information from you to enable us to respond to your request, we will contact you. Until this information is received the response time will be paused.

Can I ask for information in a different format?
All the information on our website is bilingual (in English and Welsh). Please advise if you would like your response to be provide in English or Welsh. If you need your information in a different format or language, please let us know and we will try our best to accommodate your request within the required time for response.

Can requests for information be refused?
We share as much information as we can, but there are limits to what we can share. We will also consider if we can share information if it's too costly to produce it, or if exemptions apply, or requests repeat previous information requests we have already published.

If we can't share something, we will provide you with an explanation as to why the information cannot be shared.

What can you do if you are not satisfied with our response?
If you are not happy with the information that has been provided or the ways in which your request has been handled, you can ask the person in charge of our information, called the Data Protection Officer to undertake a review.

You can reach our Data Protection Officer through one of the following ways to request a review. Please include the unique reference number allocated to your request. You will receive an acknowledgement of your request for a review and an indication of the time it will take to complete the review.

Email: [email protected]
Postal address: Welsh Government buildings, Cathay’s Park, King Edward VII Ave, Cardiff. CF10 3NQ

If you are still not happy with the response following the review, you can ask the Information Commissioner to look at the organisation’s decision. However, you can contact the Information Commissioner Wales Office at any time during the process if you are dissatisfied or wish to obtain further advice.

You can get more information and advice from the Information Commissioner Wales at the following address:

Information Commissioner’s Office – Wales
2nd Floor
Churchill House
Churchill Way
Cardiff
CF10 2HH

Telephone: 029 2067 8400
Fax: 029 2067 8399

Email: [email protected]
Web address: Wales office | ICO