Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 provides important rights of access to information held by Scottish public authorities, including UWS.

The Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 provide access to environmental information which is held by Scottish public authorities.

What is the information covered?

The Act gives a general statutory right of access to all types of recorded information, in all formats and of any age, held by Scottish public authorities.

All Scottish higher education institutions are defined as public authorities under the Act. The Act also applies to companies that we own, either wholly or in partnership with other public authorities.

You can find out more about FOI on the Scottish Information Commissioner's website.

Under the Act we must adopt and maintain publication schemes. These set out the classes of information that we commit to publish routinely, and explain how you can access this information.

How to request information

Please email requests for information to foi@uws.ac.uk, or post to Legal Services, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley Campus, Paisley PA1 2BE.

If you would like advice to identify the information you want, or other help in making a request, you can contact us via foi@uws.ac.uk

If you request information from us we must provide it, or a valid reason for not doing so, within 20 working days.

Accessibility

When you make your request for information, you should tell us what method you would prefer the information to be provided. If you do not include this information within your request and your request is received via email we will respond to that email address. Please therefore let us know if you would prefer the response to be posted to you (please provide a postal address). We will make every effort to meet your needs, by arranging for information to be available in a particular format e.g. large print or by making other arrangements for you to obtain information in a way which is acceptable to you. We will not make any additional charge for this service.

Exemptions

Some information is exempt from disclosure – for instance, if its release would seriously prejudice the commercial interests of any person or organisation, or breach the Data Protection Act 2018.

Complaints

To make a complaint about the publication scheme or the University's response to a request for information, please contact us by email at Legal Services or by post at Legal Services, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley Campus, Paisley PA1 2BE.

Publication Scheme

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 obliges every public authority in Scotland to produce a publication scheme which explains what information it routinely puts into the public domain and how to access that information.

Model Publication Scheme: Guide for Scottish Public Authorities (pdf)

University of West of Scotland has adopted the Model Publication Scheme: Guide for Scottish Public Authorities (updated March 2021) produced by the Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner.

The University has made a commitment to publish the information which it holds falling within the classes of information in the scheme. The Guide to Information linked above describes the information which is published in accordance with the scheme.

If you have any problems accessing information linked in the Guide or would like to suggest other information that could also be included, please let us know by emailing foi@uws.ac.uk. We are happy to consider any suggestions.