How to access information

Accessing Information

Information included in our Publication Scheme will be routinely available. The Scheme has been designed to highlight information and publications from sources other than those routinely distributed by the Department and to take account of the information typically requested from the Department.

How do I Request Information?

Some of the documents listed may be available on this website and links are provided to enable you to obtain them easily. These are electronic documents in, for example, Word or .pdf format, and can be downloaded free of charge. To read .pdf documents you will need Adobe Acrobat, which is free and can be downloaded from here -

If you do not have Internet access, a single printout of the information contained on our website is available on request from the DCAL Departmental Information Manager. You can also obtain additional information about our business by making a request in writing to:

The Departmental Information Manager
Information Management Branch
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Level 10
Causeway Exchange
1 -7 Bedford Street
Belfast
BT2 7EG

or by e-mailing us at: foi@dcalni.gov.uk  

In some instances, you may find that the information may have been deleted from a document. This is because the information falls within an exemption. Where this occurs, the document will be clearly marked to show where information has been removed and the exemption used.

Can I Obtain the Information in Other Formats?

The information detailed in this Scheme is usually available on our website and in paper form, and may also be available in other languages or formats on request.

Equality Obligations

The Department has considered its statutory equality obligations for the Publication Scheme under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Equality Commission’s screening criteria have been applied to the Publication Scheme and have indicated that there is no evidence of significant implications on the equality of opportunity or good relations duties within the terms of Section 75 of the Act. There is therefore no requirement to carry out an equality impact assessment on the Publication Scheme.

Copyright rules

The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is a Crown body and the information we produce is subject to Crown copyright, which is administered by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. The material listed in this Publication Scheme is Crown copyright unless stated otherwise.

The copyright in some of the material which may be found in this Publication Scheme has been waived, meaning you can reproduce this material freely. Categories of material for which copyright has been waved includes government news releases, legislation and explanatory notes on legislation, ministerial speeches, consultation documents, documents featured on official websites (except where expressly indicated otherwise) headline statistics and unpublished public records. More details of these and other categories can be found at

However, for other types of material the supply of documents under Freedom of Information does not give the person or organisation who receives them an automatic right to re-use the documents in a way that would infringe copyright, for example, by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public.

Brief extracts of any of the material included in this Publication Scheme may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. Details of the arrangements for reusing Crown copyright material can be found on OPSI website at www.opsi.gov.uk
or by contacting the Office of Puiblic Sector Information at:

Office of Public Sector Information

102 Petty France

London

SW1H9AJ

Telephone: 08706005522

Fax: 08706005533
e-mail: legislation.enquiries@opsi.gov.uk

Authorisation to re-use copyright material not owned by the Crown should be sought from the copyright holders concerned. If in doubt, users should contact the Office of Public Sector Information in the first instance.

How long will it take?

In general, we will have to respond to requests within 20 working days. We may charge a fee. If a fee is required, the 20 days will be extended by up to 3 months until the fee is paid. The target for response to straightforward requests is 20 working days from the date of receipt.