Individuals already have the right of access to information about themselves under the Data Protection Act 1998. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 ("the Act") builds on this by giving a general right of access to all types of information held by public authorities, whether personal or non-personal. "Information" is defined in the Act as being information which is recorded in any form.
Any person who makes a written, statutory request to a public authority for information must be informed whether the public authority holds that information and to be supplied with that information. This right of access will be brought into force for all public authorities in January 2005, and further details are set out in paragraph 3.4 below.
For the purposes of the Act, the term "public authority" includes all government departments and public bodies. S4C is defined as a public authority in the Act, together with the BBC and Channel 4.
Significantly, the Act does not apply to S4C in the same way that it applies to other public authorities. S4C is defined as a public authority "in respect of information held for purposes other than those of journalism, art or literature" (as are the BBC and Channel 4). The Act, therefore, does not apply to information held for the purposes of creating S4C's output, whether programme-related, multimedia or interactive. For example, all programme-related material (including programme submissions) is excluded from the S4C publication scheme.
It is important to note, however, that S4C will continue to make available a great deal of information relating to S4C's programming and programme-related output elsewhere. For example, full information relating to S4C's Development and Commissioning Process is available by consulting the S4C Producer's Site (www.s4c.co.uk/production).
This website sets out information including: -
S4C will also continue to publish comprehensive information about its programmes in its Annual Report.
