Disclosure logs

Written Answers to PQs by Norman Baker MP show that government departments only include a tiny percentage of FOI responses in their disclosure logs:

25 Jan 2008 : Column 2271W
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of Freedom of Information requests received by his Department have given rise to responses that have been published by his Department. [180214]

Mrs. McGuire: This Department has adopted a selective disclosure log whereby only the most interesting and high profile pieces of information released in response to Freedom of Information requests are published. In 2005 and 2006 around 1 per cent. of such responses were published on the Department's web-based Freedom of Information disclosure log. The Department does however routinely publish large amounts of information on its website including policy documents and research, analysis and statistics.

25 Jan 2008 : Column 2308W
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what percentage of Freedom of Information requests received by his Department have given rise to responses that have been published by his Department. [180222]

Meg Munn: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has published 5 per cent. (165) of responses to 3,125 Freedom of Information Act requests received between January 2005, when the Act came into force, and the end of September 2007. The FCO has adopted a selective disclosure log whereby only the most interesting and high profile pieces of information are published.

23 Jan 2008 : Column 2045W
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what percentage of freedom of information requests received by her Department have given rise to responses that have been published by her Department. [180211]

Mr. Dhanda: Communities and Local Government has adopted a selective disclosure policy whereby only the most high profile pieces of information and those of wider public interest are published as a matter of course on the disclosure log on its website at:

•http://www.communities.gov.uk/coporate/about/freedom-of-information/disclosure-log/

To date, 5 per cent. of responses to requests made to Communities and its predecessor Department, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004 since 1 January 2005 have been published.

21 Jan 2008 : Column 1564W
Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of Freedom of Information requests received by his Department have given rise to responses that have been published by his Department. [180223]

Angela Eagle: The number of requests to HM Treasury, along with those of other central Government bodies, is published by the Ministry of Justice in quarterly and annual reports. Information has so far been published up to September 2007 and shows that HM Treasury had received 3,260 requests.

HM Treasury website includes a disclosure log which publishes those disclosures judged to be of wider public interest. For the aforementioned period, the Treasury has published 78 disclosures on their website—2.4 per cent. of all requests received.

14 Jan 2008 : Column 883W
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of Freedom of Information requests received by his Department have given rise to responses that have been published by his Department. [175708]

Derek Twigg: The following table details the number of requests received, and the number and percentage of these which have been published via the online Disclosure Log in each of the last three years since the FOI Act came into force. Figures for 2007 are currently available only up until the end of September of that year.



The Disclosure Log is available at the MOD's website at:

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/DisclosureLog

and is easily accessible from the main FOI website, www.foi.mod.uk


14 Jan 2008 : Column 884W
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what criteria are used to decide which of his Department’s responses to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are published on the Department’s website; and if he will make a statement. [175715]

Derek Twigg [holding answer 7 January 2008]: Where responses to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act are judged to be of wider public interest, the Ministry of Defence publishes them through the Department’s online Disclosure Log. In determining which responses are of wider public interest, the Ministry of Defence assesses whether responses meet one or more of the following criteria:

• response to a request received from parliamentarians, businesses and academics;
• response to a request received from the media;
• response containing information relating to topical or high-profile subjects or judged to be of interest to the wider public, or that promote the transparency or accountability of MOD;
• response to a repeated or common request; and
• response to a request that asks for a copy of a response to a previous request.
  

These criteria are broadly in line with the “Best Practice Guidance on Disclosure Logs” issued by the then Department for Constitutional Affairs in 2005. However, these criteria are neither prescriptive nor exhaustive, and other responses are considered for publication if they are identified as potentially being of wider public interest.