Warning over New Information Access Laws
The Scotsman 12th Oct
Reports from the Constitutional Affairs Committee:
"The Government’s lack of preparation for the new Freedom of Information Act couldlead to a “catastrophe”, MPs heard today......Asked if the Government had been right to bring in the Act in a “big bang” approach, CFOI director Maurice Frankel told the all-party Constitutional Affairs Select Committee: “No, that’s bad and verging on potential catastrophe.
“Every single authority in every single sector is confronting the same problems simultaneously.”
The result could be that complaints about failure to reveal requested information could arrive at the office of the Act’s watchdog – the Information Commissioner –“by the pantechnicon” a few weeks later, added Mr Frankel."
1 comment:
How can this be called the 'big bang' approach? Authorities have had four years to prepare - the longest prep time of any country! If authorities have all decided to leave everything to the last minute than that is hardly the fault of the legislation. What it does show, though, is that the four years were nothing more than a time-waster, as critics pointed out at the time. They are now proved correct. If we were truly going to have a 'big bang' approach, why not right after the act was passed?
H. Brooke
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