Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act was passed in 2000 to:

• promote a culture of openness and accountability amongst public authorities by providing people with rights of access to the information held by them
• facilitate better public understanding of how public authorities carry out their duties, why they make the decisions they do and how they spend public money.

Ards and North Down Borough Council is committed to openness and transparency, and proactively publishes information on this website.  We will also respond to requests for information in accordance with legal requirements.

Not all information requested may be released as there are various exemptions within the legislation that we must consider, such as an exemption that protects personal information or the confidentiality of the information. In some cases, we must consider the public interest in releasing the information against the public interest in disclosure.

If we hold your personal information and you would like access to this, you must request this through a Subject Access Request. Find out more here - Data Subject Requests.

How you can access information: 

• Consider the information available on this website.  You can browse through the pages or use the search tool in the banner (header of each web page) to search for a particular topic.  If you are unsure where to find the information you need please contact enquiries@ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk who will be able to help.
• Browse our Publication Scheme which sets out the information we routinely make available, and provides links to the relevant section on our website.  Please note that the Council is not required to provide information under a freedom of information request if that information is already easily accessible by other means including on this website.
• Submit a freedom of information request. See Making a Freedom of Information Request for further information.

To find out more about how we handle your personal data please view our privacy notice.