Successive UK Governments have always been slow to let The People know more about what is going inside government and until the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 we were pretty much kept in the dark. However since the Acts introduction, progress has been made in many areas which allow the general public gain access to information about the way the Government (both central and local) does its business – at the end of the day, they, governments work for us don’t they?
However, all is not well with Freedom of Information (FOI) now managed by the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA). It would seem that it has been working too well and we are starting to ask too many questions and probably finding out too much information and this is causing the Government concern!
Following a review (Seventh Report) of the Acts performance by the Constitutional Affairs Committee (CAC), the Government, in the form of the head of the DCA Lord Falconer, has announced via its response to the CACs review that it is minded to accept two of the reviews recommendations.
What does this mean for you and me? Lets look at the two items.
- Currently a FOI request to main government department can be refused if the cost of providing the response is over £600 (£400 for other departments). The DCA in its response (page 16 (13), para 50.i) will now include reading time, consideration time and consultation time in the calculation of the appropriate limit (£600) above which requests could be refused on cost grounds!
- Currently there are a few restrictions on how many requests individuals or organisations can summit. The DCA, in its response (page 16 (13), para 50.ii), will aggregate requests made by any legal person, (or persons apparently acting in concert, to each public authority (e.g. Government Department) for the purposes of calculating the appropriate limit.
Surprisingly, the DCA does not accept the CAC’s recommendations to introduce a flat fee for all FOI requests (although this might not be ruled out permanently) or reduce the FOI cost threshold to £400.
If the items above are enacted into law, they can only mean a restriction of the FOI. For example, if the cost to the government is to include the reading time, consideration time and consultation time, it can only mean that the £600 threshold will be reached sooner thereby excluding many requests due to increased cost. If the government aggregate requests, that means that individuals and organisations like media company’s (Radio, TV or Newspapers) can only make one request every three months!
Sir Christopher Meyer, former UK Ambassador to the US and now the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission commented in the Guardian yesterday “In 2006 it is harder to find out what is going on in government than it was 10 years ago,” . These proposed changes will surely make even harder.
Interestingly, Lord Falconer appears to be a non-executive director of Frontier Economics, the company that the DCA appointed to review the performance of the FOI. Its report (download and read, it contains many interesting facts), to the DCA seems to have been used by the CAC as the basis for its suggestions to the DCA (headed by the same person as the non-executive director of Frontier Economics) for changes to the FOI.
I might be a bit dim; but how come a government department is using a private company to influence what an independent committee offers up as guidance to the CAC? Or is this lobbying at it worst? Various stories have circulated the impending FOI changes and what seems to me a very big conflict of interest. [1], [2], [3], [4]
Yes, there have been a number of frivolous FOI requests (there’s even a DCA ‘toolkit‘ showing how departments can deal with them), for example “how many bachelors there are in the Hampshire police constabulary”, but I cannot believe that these stupid requests are at heart of the reason for the DCA wanting to restrict access to information via the FOI.
It can only be because as more of us (mainly journalists) have become better at understanding how to use the FOI act to obtain the hidden info that the government doesn’t want us to see.
Restricting the FOI will be a step backwards and will do nothing to the already tarnished reputation of this government. Somehow this change must not be allowed to happen.
Tags: Freedom Of Information, DCA, CAC
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