Freedom of Information

Under their 31 year old manifesto commitment to give people a legal 'right to know', the Labour Government passed the Freedom of Information act in 2005, giving people the right to access information from public bodies.

There are now approximately 100,000 requests made every year, which costs £34m of tax payers money. This means that the public are paying for this information to be produced by civil servants, and to be disclosed on demand. These bodies are required to publish a schedule of all information, and requests should be responded to in a reasonable amount of time (20 working days). Charges apply if it requires over 4 hours of labour to retrieve information.

130,000 bodies are covered by this act, and out of the 100,000 requests per year, only 12% of these are made by journalist.

Kingsnorth Climate Protest -

In Aug 2008 climate change protesters sat a 4 week climate camp at Kingnorth power station in Kent. It was claimed in the house of commons that 70 were injures, however, when the Liberal Democrats put in a FOI request it was revealed that only 12 were injured, and only 4 out of the 12 need medical treatment.

The BBC published:

'And the then police minister, Vernon Coaker, apologised in the House of Commons for telling parliament that 70 officers were injured dealing with the protests. His comments came after it was revealed that injuries Kent Police claimed during the climate camp included insect stings, toothache and heat exhaustion.'

Although in the case, it was politicians that used the Freedom of Information Act to their advantage, most politicians hate FOI requests as it causes the 'chilling effect'. The FOI Act has resulted in politicians feeling like they can't discuss things openly which could later be revealed in a FOI request.

Politicians hate FOI requests

In his biography, Tony Blair regards the FOI act a bigger mistake than the war in Iraq

Journalists believe we are in the golden age for FOI requests. Before the act was published in 2005, everything was documented. However, because of the 'chilling effect', nothing is now being documented by civil servants.

Matthew Davis-

Matthew Davis makes a living out of FOI requests. He constantly puts in requests for all different bodies, trying to find something interesting to sell to a newspaper. His work includes an FOI request into the NHS worst hospitals based on suing statistics. This is called FOI farming. This is also an effective technique for journalists trying to find stories. In order to farm FOI effectively, it is essential to plan ahead. For example, in the run up to winter it might be advisable to plan a request about the gritting of the roads.

MP's Expenses -

The recent MP's expenses scandal was revealed by an FOI request put in by Heather Brookes. It took just over a year and half to reveal the facts. However, instead of releasing all the facts at once and allowing a bomb to go off, the Government decided to leak them so that they had control over the situation.

How to put in a FOI request -

To put in a FOI request, you need to write to the council's nominated FOI officer. An easier option is to use www.whatdotheyknow.com - a website dedicated to making and browsing FOI requests. The website list all the bodies covered by the act. The latest they can leave it to reply is 20 working days.

If they say no you can take it to internal review, then to an information commissioner, then a information tribunal, and if they still say no to releasing the information it can finally be taken to the High Court.

FOI exemptions -

There are some exemptions to the FOI Act. There are 23 qualified exemptions and these include such things as the Ministry of Defence, national security, and information the government intends to release in the future.

Confidentiality restricts FOI. For example, it would not be possible to make a request for information about a patient's health, as that information is confidential between the patient and the doctor.

Employees that earn under £100,000 per annum are also exempt from requests made about them.

If an FOI request costs too much to process, it will also be exempt.

The only defence available to these exemptions is public interest.