Policy paper

Consultation confidentiality information

The information you send us may be passed to colleagues within the Home Office, the government or related agencies. Information provided in…

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Documents

Code of practice on consultations

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Details

The information you send us may be passed to colleagues within the Home Office, the government or related agencies.

Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 [FOIA], the Data Protection Act 1998 [DPA] and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004).

If you want other information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the FOIA, there is a statutory code of practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, among other things, with obligations of confidence.

In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all
circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the department.

The department will process your personal data in accordance with the DPA and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.

Consultation criteria

Where possible our consultations follow the ‘Code of practice on consultations’ produced by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
The document explains the seven consultation criteria:

  • when to consult
  • duration of consultation exercises
  • clarity of scope and impact
  • accessibility of consultation exercises
  • the burden of consultation
  • responsiveness of consultation exercises
  • capacity to consult
Published 5 October 2011