Guide to Information

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) requires that all housing associations/co-operatives in Scotland must produce and maintain a publication scheme. This must detail all of the key information that we publish and how you can access it. This Guide to Information is our publication scheme, and contains links to where you can find all of the information listed online.

CLOCH HOUSING ASSOCIATION has adopted the Scottish Information Commissioner’s (SIC) Model Publication Scheme (MPS), and this Guide has been approved by the SIC

All of the information listed is available on our website (unless stated), and completely free to access online. However, we understand that not everyone will have online access and where this is the case you can contact us to view this in our office (where this would be convenient). If you would like a printed copy of any of the information listed, we will provide this free unless you require 10 copies or more. This fee will never exceed the cost of photocopying and postage – and we will let you know any total cost before we forward this to you. Our charges for providing any information detailed in this guide are summarised below:

If you would like to request information that we publish in a format other than online, or arrange a visit to our office to view information, please contact our offices.

Whilst we will try to make all of the information we have detailed available, in rare cases there may be some information that we cannot make available. For example, sometimes if we were to publish certain Board minutes, it could reveal personal details about an individual. This would be a breach of Data Protection legislation if we were to do so. When this is the case, we will remove any personal details before publication and highlight where and why we have done so.

We aim, where possible, to publish information for at least the current and previous two financial years. When we review any document – e.g. our policies – to avoid confusion we will only publish the current version once it has been updated. As Cloch is new to FOI, we have taken a “day one” approach to many documents and will build up a current year plus two previous years as we progress. However, archive documents we hold may be available on request.

Where we hold the copyright on our published information, the information may be copied or reproduced without formal permission, provided that:

• It is copied accurately
• It is not used in a misleading context
• The source of the material is identified

If you have any queries about anything contained within this Guide to Information, or if there is some information that you cannot find that you would like to access, please contact us by calling 01475 783637 or by emailing office@clochhousing.org.uk.

Under the Model Publication Scheme (MPS), the information we provide must be listed under certain “classes” of information. These are the categories of information that are detailed below. As FOI applies to other bodies and sectors across Scotland – such as Scottish Government and Councils for example –this means that not all of the categories in the MPS apply to housing associations/co-operatives.1

The details of all the information we hold under each of the classes that apply to our organisation, and hyperlinks to access this information when available online, are outlined below