Second Annual Conference on Freedom of Information of the School of Law, Trinity College, Dublin

Opening Address by the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner,
Ms Emily O'Reilly 12 September 2003

Available on the Irish IC website: http://www.oic.gov.ie/25b6_3c2.htm

Details of conference also at: http://www.tcd.ie/Law/FOI2003.html

Research project : Information Commissioner

An Invitation to tender is available on the IC website bids must be made by 20th Nov. The methodolgy will look at decisions in FOI cases and overseas experience.

Great strides at the Hutton Inquiry - Telegraph.co.uk,

It will be harder for the Government to use national security as an excuse for not disclosing intelligence material when the Freedom of Information Act finally comes into force. Comment from Joshua Rosenberg

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/25/nlaw25.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/09/25/ixhome.html

FOI Publication schemes: schools

Model publication schemes are now available for Secondary and Primary Schools

Blog feedback

This blog has been up and running for nearly six months now -are you finding it useful? would you be interested in more international postings? Would it be beneficial to expand to a more developed UK FOIA website/gateway?

If you think the blog is useful please link to it or pass the link on : http://foia.blogspot.com

Please email me any of your FOI news or links you see related to FOI

steve_wood62@hotmail.com

Government officials warned over emails

Guardian Monday 15th Sept
"Government emails to be kept on record: Government departments and civil servants are to be warned to think twice before pressing the send button in the wake of the explosive email evidence that emerged at the Hutton inquiry.

Another wake up call.....More FOI research to be published

Research, commissioned by Documentum, with partners Fujitsu Consulting, BEA, Captiva and Sun Microsystems, included decision makers at central government departments and local authorities.

Key findings include: - 82% of respondents cited process change as a major impediment to achieving their objectives; - 67% highlighted the cost of implementation as a significant barrier; - 42% of respondents stated that they were confused about policy or regulations regarding the sharing of information; - 38% of respondents indicate that 'user training' is critical; - 30% of organisations believe they have a lack of in-house skills.

The research was carried out by IDL Strategic Services. The full research findings will be presented at Public Sector 2003 Benchmark Survey being hosted by Documentum and its partners on 25th September 2003 at the Cabinet War Rooms in London.

For more information visit www.documentum.co.uk/governmentforum

Silicon.com also has an article about the report : "Public sector fear over FOI IT costs"

Guardian UK : US FOIA Rules Not Seen Affecting Information

Tuesday September 16,

"Attorney General John Ashcroft's tightening of Freedom of Information Act guidelines has had no effect on the amount of information released, said nearly half of the government FOIA officials surveyed in a report issued Monday. Forty-eight percent of surveyed government officials who handle FOIA requests said they noticed no changes in what their agencies release to the general public since Ashcroft changed the Justice Department's FOIA memorandum. Only a third of the officials - 31 percent - said their agencies release less information to the public because of Ashcroft's 2001 directive, according to the General Accounting Office, Congress's watchdog arm. "

The FE and HE model publication schemes together with explanatory information are now available on the UK Information Comissioner's web site

This article from Australia poses an interesting question about UK FOI, unclear as to which exemption (if any) might be used in similar cases here. Some Universities presumably hold records of offensine sites for research purposes.

OFFENSIVE websites banned under FOI changes - The Age, Australia ... highly offensive online content and website addresses containing illegal material can no longer be reached through the use of the freedom of information Act. ...

Financial Times: Time for Whitehall to play by a new set of rules

FT.com (need to regsiter)
Interesting article disussing the need for more open governement, compares the Uk FOI regime with new Zealand