Request information about our work

This page explains how you can ask for information about our work. There is a different way to make a request if you want information that we may hold about you.

Information about our work

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR) give you the right to request any written or recorded information we hold.

What we publish

Before you make an FOI or EIR request you should check what information we have published on our website. See our Guide to Information to find out about information we routinely publish. Download our Open Data reports for statistical information about the complaints we receive.

Charges

You can download information from our website free of charge. You will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader to open PDF documents.

If you want us to print the information for you rather than downloading them yourself from our website, we may charge for this. The charge will depend on how much you ask us to print. We will charge £2.50 per document for 5 or more documents. You will need to pay the full charge before we send the information to you.

How to make a request

If you cannot find what you are looking for on our website, you can write to us and ask for information we hold. You can email your request to

information.request@ombudsman.wales

You can also write to us at:

Information Governance Manager

Public Services Ombudsman for Wales

1 Ffordd yr Hen Gae

Pencoed

Bridgend

CF35 5LJ

Make sure you include an email or postal address so we can respond to your request.

Before you send your request, you may want to read the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) advice about how to request information from a public authority. Go to the ICO’s website.

After you have made your request

We will send you a confirmation that we have received your request. If we need to clarify your request, we will let you know.

We will write and let you know within 20 working days if we hold the information and will:

Give you the information if we can.
Tell you where you can find it on our website.
Tell you if we don’t hold the information.
Explain why we cannot give you the information.

If we give you the information you have asked for it means we are happy to share this information with anyone who may ask to see it.

When we cannot give information

We are committed to working in an open and transparent way and want to share information when we can. However, we must balance this with our duty to protect the personal and confidential information we hold. We will not give information if we think it would cause someone harm or hinder our ability to carry out our functions.

We are also unable to give information from individual complaint records to the general public unless the laws we work to allow us to do so. We consider complaints under the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2019 and the Local Government Act 2000. We are prevented from sharing information from complaints unless it is for a reason set out in one of the Acts.

We can also turn down a request if it would cost too much time for us to gather the information. The law sets a cost limit of £450 for considering information requests, which is based on a flat rate of £25 per hour. If we estimate that it will take more than 18 hours to gather the information, we may choose to refuse the request.

If you are unhappy with our response

If you are not happy with the way we have dealt with your request you can ask for a review.

Our Chief Legal Advisor usually carries out information request reviews. They will respond within 20 working days from the date you ask for an internal review. We may sometimes need to extend this to 40 working days.

You can email your internal review request to information.request@ombudsman.wales.

You can also write to:

Chief Legal Adviser