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The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) requires Scottish public authorities to produce and maintain a publication scheme. Authorities are under a legal obligation to:

• publish the classes of information that they make routinely available
• tell the public how to access the information and what it might cost.

We have adopted the Model Publication Scheme produced by the Scottish Information Commissioner.

The purpose of this Guide to Information is to:

• allow you to see what information is available (and what is not available) in relation to each class
• state what charges may be applied
• explain how you can find the information easily
• provide contact details for enquiries and to get help with accessing the information
• explain how to request information we hold that has not been published.

Availability and formats

The information we publish through the scheme is, wherever possible, available on our website. We offer alternative arrangements for people who do not want to, or cannot, access the information online or by inspection at our premises. For example, we can usually arrange to send information to you in paper copy (although there may be a charge for this). 

 
Exempt information

We will publish the information we hold that falls within the classes of information below. If a document contains information that is exempt under Scotland's freedom of information laws (for example sensitive personal information), we may remove or redact the information before publication but we will explain why.

Copyright

Where COPFS holds the copyright in its published information, the information may be copied or reproduced without formal permission, provided that:

• it is copied or reproduced accurately
• it is not used in a misleading context, and
• the source of the material is identified

Where COPFS does not hold the copyright in information we publish, we will make this clear. For more information on COPFS' copyright policy, see here.

Charges

This section explains when we may make a charge for our publications and how any charge will be calculated. There is no charge to view information on our website or at our premises.

We may charge for providing information to you e.g., photocopying and postage, but we will charge you no more than it actually costs us to do so. We will always tell you what the cost is before providing the information to you.

 Our photocopying charge per sheet of paper is shown in the tables below:

 Black and white photocopying

Size of paper	Pence per sheet of paper
A4	10p

Colour photocopying

Size of paper	Pence per sheet of paper
A4	20p

Please also note:

• Information provided on CD-Rom will be charged at 50p per computer disc.
• Postage costs will be recharged at the rate we paid to send the information to you.
• When providing copies of pre-printed publications, we will charge no more than the cost per copy of the total print run.
• We do not pass on any other costs to you in relation to our published information.
• COPFS does not print any commercial publications (see Class 8)

 

LAST UPDATED: 20 February 2019

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You can contact us for assistance with any aspect of this publication scheme or for advice on how to complaint if you are dissatisfied with any aspect of this publication scheme:

Crown Office Library
Crown Office
25 Chambers Street
Edinburgh
EH1 1LA

Tel:  0300 020 3000 

We also welcome calls through Text Relay. Please prefix our telephone number with 18001.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We will also be pleased to advise you how to ask for information that we do not publish.

Please contact:

FOI Team
Crown Office
25 Chambers Street
Edinburgh
EH1 1LA

Tel:  0300 020 3000

We also welcome calls through RNID Typetalk. Please prefix our telephone number with 18001.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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We publish information that we hold within the following classes. 

Once information is published under a class we will continue to make it available for the current and previous two financial years.

Class 1: About the authority provides information about COPFS, who we are, where to find us, how to contact us, how we are managed and our external relations.

Class 2: How we deliver our functions and services provides information about our work, our strategy and polices for delivering functions and services and information for our service users.

Class 3: How the authority takes decisions and what it has decided provides information about the decisions we take, how we make decisions and how we involve others.

Class 4: What the authority spends and how it spends it provides information about our strategy for and management of financial resources (in sufficient detail to explain how we plan to spend public money and what has actually been spent)

Class 5: How the authority manages its human, physical and information resources provides information about how we manage the human, physical and information resources of the authority.

Class 6: How the authority procures goods and services from external providers provides information about how we procure goods and services, and our contracts with external providers.

Class 7: How our authority is performing contains information about how the authority performs as an organisation and how well it delivers its functions and services.

Class 8: Our commercial publications contains information packaged and made available for sale on a commercial basis. Please note that we do not hold or publish any information under this class.

Class 9: Our open data contains information about open data made available by COPFS as described by the Scottish Government's Open Data Resource Pack and available under an open licence. 

Where information has been updated or superseded, only the current version will be available. If you would like to see previous versions, you can ask us for that information.