Useful Book

Blackstone's Guide to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Blackstone's Guides)
John Wadham, Jonathan Griffiths, Bethan Rigby. An excellent overview of the legalities of the Act.

Order from Amazon

(the small amount of money gained from these amazon links will fund improvements to the blog)

Monthly email update

I'm going to start a FOI monthly email incorporating my blog postings if there is sufficent interest.

If you would like to receive a monthly news update email on FOI please send an email to steve_wood62@hotmail.com with FOI News in the subject line.

FOIA log available on website for Irish Government Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.

A log of all their FOI requests is on the website, useful to see the types of information requested. Will be interesting to see if any UK authorities follow this model (they are not compelled to do so by the legislation)

http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/display.asp/pg=915

The Kennedy Assassination and US FOIA

40 Years have passed since the Kennedy assassination, the Free Internet Press website points towards the documents available at the Black Vault, an archive of material available under FOIA.

The black the vault is the type of website you can loose hours in - plenty of fascinating material, for example your can read the scanned images of the final diary pages of JFK

The Black vault also contains FOIA documents released related to Iraq

USA - FOIA requests increase by 7%

From GovExec.com:

"The (US) federal government received more than 2.4 million FOIA requests in fiscal 2002, a 7 percent increase over the previous year, according to a Justice Department report......In fiscal 2002, agencies spent just over $300 million complying with all aspects of the law"

The report also highlights FOIAexpress, a dedicated document managerment system for FOI

New website for the Information Commissioner

The new website is now online at http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk. Having had a quick look it appears to be a big improvement, FOI now has equal prominence on the site. The Overview and explanation of FOI is easier to follow. You can also sign up for emails alerts.

Freedom of Information TV programme

eGovernment-Vision.TV, the Internet television channel for local authority and public service modernisation is broadcasting a special programme : Freedom of Information, Act or Avalanche is available to all on the Internet at www.egovernment-vision.tv/link/hurst/foi. It will also remain available in a permanent on-line archive.

Full story at http://www.ukauthority.com/articles/story920.asp

Re-use and commercial exploitation of public sector information.

There is a Public Consultation document and accompanying Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment on the DTI website.

http://www.dti.gov.uk/industries/digital_content/downloads.html

The Directive will relate to re-use rather than access to information

COUNCIL attacked for secrecy over ex-leader's land sale

Source: IC Wales website

A PLAID CYMRU controlled council has been condemned by freedom of information campaigners for keeping secret details of a transaction in which the authority's former Labour leader sold a plot of land to the authority.

FOI e-learning

Masons Solicitors and Video Arts have launched an e-learning system to help public sector workers to understand and comply with the Freedom of Information Act 2000

http://www.videoarts.co.uk/foi

Times Law 11/11/03 p8

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-885452,00.html

Publication schemes in the NHS

Publication schemes for NHS went live on 31st October.

There is a list available for local practices at : http://www.foi.nhs.uk/practice/ 2650 are available at present.

From a local perspective. I checked and found my surgery, found the the information available did provide some insight into my surgery that previosuly would have been hard to find.

Full listing should appear on the information commissioner's pages soon at http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/psfw.html

Ark Consulting's 'FOI Readiness Review'

I have been approached by the Ark group to promote the 'FOI Readiness Review' tools they have developed. There are just 14 multi choice qeustions to complete.

You can access the Tool: http://www.ark-group.com/arkconsults/foi/foi.asp

I would highly recommend participation if you work in the public sector. The study is in depth and offers a wide ranging view of the issues related to FOI implementation. If you participate you have the opportunity to see the findings that can feed back into your FOI preparation.

Please use the link from this page as it will help promote the value of the blog and please email the blog address to people who may not use the blog if they may wish to fill out the survey

Steve