Freedom of Information

Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA)

The FOISA promotes openness and accountability across the public sector by ensuring that people have the right to access information held by Scottish public authorities.

The Act allows anyone to request information from NHS Orkney. If this information is held by NHS Orkney it shall be released, providing an exemption does not apply.

Freedom of Information requests must be made in writing, or by another form which has some permanency, containing valid contact information. On receiving such a request a public authority must acknowledge receipt and then communicate a response to the applicant, promptly, but not later than 20 working days after receipt of the request.

Publication scheme

FOISA requires NHS Boards to develop and maintain a publication scheme which lists all information published on a regular basis. NHS Orkney has adopted the Scottish Information Commissioner's Model Publication Scheme. The Guide to Information held within the publication scheme can be viewed following the links below:

• Scottish Information Commissioner's Model Publication Scheme 2021
• NHS Orkney Guide to Information Publication Scheme 2022

For published meeting minutes, etc please follow link: NHS Orkney Corporate Documents (Annual Reports etc)

Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs)

Alongside FOISA, the EIRs provide a separate right of access to the environmental information that NHS Orkney holds, again please follow the instructions above to make a request for environmental information.

Health Records

Health records are exempt from FOISA legislation, please see Access to Personal Information for further details.

Making a new FOI request

After looking through the information published NHS Orkney’s website, including board papers and responses to previous FOI requests you have not found the information you require please make a new request.
Requests can be:

• emailed to: ORK.FOIrequests@nhs.scot
• Or sent to the following address:

  Freedom of Information Officer

  NHS Orkney

  The Balfour

  Foreland Road

  Kirkwall

  KW15 1NZ

For further information and tips on how to make a new FOI request please see the Scottish Information Commissioner's website.

Useful links and Documents:

• Scottish Information Commissioner
• Legislation
• ISD
• Freedom of Information Policy
• NHS Orkney data, statistics