The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 establishes a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities, sets out exemptions from that right and places a number of obligations on public authorities. The Act applies to all public authorities, including Government Departments. Full access rights under the Freedom of Information Act came into force on 1 January 2005.

The Mailtalk service is currently operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the Mailtalk service is included in the Science and Technology Facilities Council Publication Scheme at http://www.stfc.ac.uk/About/Pol/FoI/FoIRequests.aspx

Mailtalk is a conduit for the discussion and expression of opinions that the community choose to share across their respective forums. STFC servers receive and store postings made onto a Mailtalk group, and STFC is responsible as the data controller for this information under Freedom of Information legislation. However, where related discussions take place outside a group, the STFC does not hold the information and the institutions of those involved in the offline discussion would be the likely controllers of the information.

In addition,

The group owner is responsible for managing the group.

The original poster of the information is responsible for the content and owns the copyright of the messages posted by them.

Access rights to groups differ; on Public groups messages are visible to all via the group homepage (https://www.Mailtalk.ac.uk/nameofgroup), whereas on Private groups messages are visible to the membership only and are posted in confidence to those group members.

Freedom of Information requests should be sent by email to the Mailtalk helpline - helpline@Mailtalk.ac.uk or in writing to:

Institutions receiving an FOI request relating to Mailtalk postings: should inform STFC of the request

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/About/Pol/FOI/FoIPreamble.aspx