Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“Act”) provides a general right of public access to information held by public authorities. The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (“Regulations”) provide the public a general right of access to environmental information held by public authorities. This general right of access is subject to some procedural and substantive limitations. The Act and Regulations also impose obligations on public authorities to proactively publish certain information about their activities. The Royal Mint is a public authority for the purposes of the Act and the Regulations.

The Act and Regulations cover any recorded information that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland. Information held by Scottish public authorities is covered by Scotland’s own Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and by the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Recorded information includes printed documents, computer files, letters, emails, photographs, and sound or video recordings.

The Act and the Regulations do not give people access to their own Personal Data. Individuals have a right of access to information about them under the data protection laws and regulations applicable in the United Kingdom – please see our Privacy Policy for more information.

Access to information under the Act or Regulations does not affect any copyright, database rights, or intellectual property rights that give owners the right to protect their original work against commercial exploitation by others. Please see the Copyright and Re-use of Materials section of our website for further information.

Publication Scheme

The Information Commissioner has recognised that, since 2002, structured websites have come to perform much of the function that the Model Publication Scheme (required under section 19 of the Act) was originally intended to fulfil.

The model Publication Scheme defines seven classes of Information that public authorities should publish, as follows:

1. Who we are and what we do.
2. What we spend and how we spend it.
3. What our priorities are and how we are doing.
4. How we make decisions.
5. The services we offer.
6. Our policies and procedures.
7. Lists and Registers.

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The Royal Mint’s Annual Report is the principle source for strategic information under these five classes. Further information is contained in the About Us section of the website. Information about the United Kingdom coinage may be found in the UK Currency  and UK Coins sections of the website. This includes information relating to the and The Royal Mint’s commemorative coin sales figures. Information about The Royal Mint’s products currently on sale to members of the public may be found in the Shop section of the website. The Press Centre section of the website includes copies of recent press releases.

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The Policies and Guidelines section of the website includes guidelines on the use of United Kingdom coin designs in advertisements and our Legal Tender Guidelines. You can find the Terms of Reference for The Royal Mint’s Board of Directors and Executive Management Team within the Corporate Governance section of the website. Further information, including The Royal Mint’s Terms and Conditions and Privacy and Cookies Policy, can be found on the website.

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The Royal Mint does not have statutory responsibilities in this area.

For The Royal Mint, the public website is the source of the majority of information covered by the model Publication Scheme.

Where information covered by the model Publication Scheme is not available on The Royal Mint website (or The Royal Mint Museum website), please submit a request for the information.

How to make an information request?

The Royal Mint publishes a lot of information about how it operates and about its products and services on its website. It is possible that the information you seek may already be published and, before making a request, you should check whether we already publish the information you want on this website.

You should also check the website of as the information that you seek may be published there. 

Under the Freedom of Information Act

If you cannot find what you want on our website or that of The Royal Mint Museum, you can submit a request by e-mail or letter to:

• E-mail: FOI@royalmint.com
• Mail: Legal and Compliance, The Royal Mint, Llantrisant, Pontyclun, CF72 8YT.

In making a request you need to:

• provide your name and an address for replies; and
• describe as clearly as possible the information you are seeking.

It is also helpful if you:

• label the enquiry as 'Freedom of Information Request'; and
• give a telephone number, in case we need to discuss your request with you.

Please note that a request under the Act must be made in writing to constitute a valid request. Where a verbal request is received from applicants who by reason of a disability cannot make a written request, a written note of the request will be sent to the applicant and once verified and returned by the applicant, will constitute a written and therefore valid request for information. To make a verbal request due to reason of disability please call our customer services team on 0800 032 2154.

Under the Environmental Information Regulations.

A request for information under the Regulations can be made verbally or in writing, however the Regulations state that responses must be made in writing. You can submit a written request by e-mail or letter to:

• E-mail: FOI@royalmint.com
• Mail: Legal and Compliance, The Royal Mint, Llantrisant, Pontyclun, CF72 8YT.

To make a verbal request, please call our customer services team on 0800 032 2154. In making a request you need to:

• provide your name and an address for replies; and
• describe as clearly as possible the information you are seeking.

It is also helpful if you:

• label the enquiry as 'Environmental Information Regulations Request'; and
• give a telephone number, in case we need to discuss your request with you.

Whilst we request a name and address for replies, as we must supply a response in writing, a request remains valid if an applicant does not use their real name.

How we will handle information requests?

We will provide advice and assistance wherever that would be helpful. We reserve the right to request confirmation of an applicant’s identity, where a request is being made under the Act, and seek clarification from an applicant where a request is not clear.

We will respond as soon as possible and in any event normally within 20 working days, counting the first working day after the request is received as the first day. This time period may be extended by a further 20 working days, for example, where a request is particularly complex in nature. However, should we need to extend the time period within which to comply with a request, we will inform the applicant within 20 working days.

In responding to a request we will normally tell you whether or not we hold the information requested and provide you that information. It is important to note however that the general right of access to information under the Act and Regulations is subject to some procedural and substantive limitations. For example, we will normally provide the information unless:

• the information is otherwise reasonably accessible to you.
• the request is vexatious, repeated or otherwise manifestly unreasonable. We are also not obliged to comply with a request under the Act if extracting the requested information would take more than 18 hours, the cost limit under section 12 of the Act.
• the information is covered by an absolute exemption under the Act, e.g. disclosure would be against the law. The information is covered by a qualified exemption under the Act or an Exception under the Regulations and, where applicable, we argue that in all the circumstances it is against the public interest to disclose the information. For example, the information requested is a trade secret or otherwise might be prejudicial to or otherwise adversely affect the commercial interests of any person, and we determine the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs that of disclosing it.

If the last judgement is complex, it is likely that we will need to extend the time period in which to comply with your request. If extra time is needed though, we would notify you of this.

We will keep you notified of progress where appropriate, and justify any refusal to you.

How we will use your Personal Data?

Personal Data is any information identifying you or information relating to you that allows us to identify you. This can be either directly or indirectly from that data alone or in combination with other identifiers we possess or can reasonably access. For further information, please see ‘What is Personal Data?’ within our Privacy Policy.

Our primary purpose for using your data is so that we can process your information request.

In addition, we will use your Personal Data for secondary reasons to co-ordinate your information request and even to request advice and support. For example:

• We’ll record the details of your request in our request logging database. This will normally include your contact details and other information you have given us. We’ll also store a copy of the information that falls within the scope of your request. We will also record the types of applicant making requests to us by broad category (private individual, business, media, charity, campaign group etc.). This information helps us to process your information request and check on the level of service that we provide. We may also use this information to compile and publish statistics showing information such as the number of requests we receive, but not in a form that identifies anyone.
• Notifying our press office that you have made a request, particularly if you are a journalist or from a media organisation, so that they are aware of any potential forthcoming news coverage to which they may need to respond. Note that this will not affect the information that you receive. We will also notify HM Treasury, as our shareholder, so that they too are aware of any potential forthcoming news coverage to which they may also need to respond.
• Discussing requests that have been received with other public authorities in order to seek advice. Although we never deliberately share the identity of applicants in these circumstances, if you have submitted the same request to a number of authorities, your identity may be obvious to those who have received the request.

Our legal basis for processing your information request, and your personal data in this context, is the fulfilment of a legal obligation. In this case the legal obligations contained within the Act and Regulations.

In relation to the secondary reasons listed above, the legal basis is processing that is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us.

How long do we keep hold of your Personal Data?

We keep your Personal Data about information requests for as long as we need it to satisfy our business and legal requirements. Once Personal Data is no longer required, it is either deleted or anonymised.

It is important to note that all employees at The Royal Mint follow an organisation-wide security policy. Only employees authorised are provided access to Personal Data and these employees will have agreed to ensure confidentiality of this information.

What rights do I have in relation to the Personal Data you hold about me?

For more information on your rights, please see our main Privacy Policy - especially the following sections:

• What rights do I have in relation to the Personal Data you hold about me?
• How can I access or correct my Personal Data, request that it be deleted, ask for it to be transferred to another organisation or exercise any of my other rights?
• How can I make a complaint about how you have handled my Personal Data or responded to a request to exercise my data subject rights?

Complaints

If you are dissatisfied with the handling or outcome of your information request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. An internal review will consider whether or not the handling or outcome of your request was appropriate, in line with the Act and/or the Regulations.

Internal review requests should be submitted to the Freedom of Information Officer by using the contact information above. Internal reviews will be carried out by a member of our Executive Management Team. We aim to respond within 20 working days of the receipt of the request for an internal review.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the review, then you may seek a review by the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”), which has the powers to uphold or overturn the decision. Please see ICO contact information below. The Royal Mint will abide by the decisions of the ICO, unless it considers itself to have grounds for an appeal to the First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights).

• Website: https://ico.org.uk/
• E-mail: casework@ico.org.uk
• Telephone: 03031231113
• Mail: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Please be aware that the ICO will be unlikely to make a decision until you have been through our internal complaints procedure first.

 

Last updated: 9^th March 2021