The Office of the Information Commissioner oversees the operation of the Act. A second freedom of information law is in existence in the UK, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 13).

What is the FOIA? Since 1967, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has provided the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government.

Consultations, rather than referrals, are also appropriate when an agency locates records in its files that originated with an entity that is not itself subject to the FOIA. The agency may consult with that outside entity as part of its process of making a disclosure determination.

Where a company is wholly owned by a number of local authorities it is also now a public authority for the purposes of FOIA. Individual MPs, assembly members or councillors are not covered by the Act.

Types of records

• Correspondence records. Correspondence records may be created inside the office or may be received from outside the office.
• Accounting records. The records relating to financial transactions are known as financial records.
• Legal records.
• Personnel records.
• Progress records.
• Miscellaneous records.

Nonrecords are informational material that does not meet the definition of a record; e.g., extra copies of documents kept for convenience; reference stocks of publications; blank forms, formats, or form letters; documents that do not contain unique information or that were not circulated for formal approval, comment.

A written account of all the acts and proceedings in a lawsuit. A written memorial made by a public officer authorized by law to perform that function, and intended to serve as evidence of something written, said, or done.

Non-record means a thing that is not a record. Examples of non-records are spam emails, personal emails or texts sent to or from a Town electronic device, or duplicative or non-substantive materials.

A record is any document (paper or electronic) created or received by offices or employees that allows them to conduct business. This definition includes, but is not limited to: correspondence. forms. reports.

Official records include claim information, wage information, confidential information, and unemployment compensation information as defined in 20 C.F.R. 603.2, which is incorporated by reference, and includes subsequent amendments and editions of the referenced material.

A Canonical Name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that maps an alias name to a true or canonical domain name. CNAME records are typically used to map a subdomain such as www or mail to the domain hosting that subdomain’s content.

Examples of permanent records are the original process in a civil or criminal proceeding and the minutes of the city’s governing body. Some records, such as deeds, are kept permanently because the record continues to have legal significance in perpetuity.

These generally fall into two categories: policy records and operational records.

Record management is the management and control of records. Letters, invoices, cheques, vouchers, price lists, personnel records, tax records, costing records are the examples of records. Records can be collected from two sources i.e. internal and external sources.