Blog updates

As you can see the Blog now has a logo and search engine. Apologies if anyone couldn't access the site this morning

Steve

Lawyer.com - lifting the lid

"The introduction of the Freedom of Information Act is still months away, but it is already worrying those involved in public sector projects. Jon Robins reports.....the ICO anticipates around 2,500 complaints from the public concerning requests having been resisted by public authorities. Life is going to be hectic at the ICO, as there will be only 75 staff dealing with the FOIA caseload in January (presently there are 40). If either party is not happy with the decision of the ICO, they can appeal to the Information Tribunal and then possibly to the High Court on "

Also contains interesting insights into the commercial in confidence abolsute exemption: "Martin Soames, a media litigation partner at DLA, predicts “massive problems” with the confidence exemption, which he says is at odds with the courts’ view. An explicitly confidential agreement may not block a public interest claim, he points out. The Jockey Club discovered this last year when it tried to stop Panorama from broadcasting information contained in documents that it had obtained from the club’s former head of security. The court accepted that the information was confidential, but allowed publication because the exposure of the club’s failings was deemed in the public interest."



Full article: Lawyer.com 26.07/04

Friends of the Earth comment on Environmental Information Regulations

"Friends of the Earth today gave a cautious welcome to the publication today (Thursday 22nd July) of new laws on access to environmental information, but argued that the new legislation does not go far enough and may not meet the requirements laid down by European law"

Press release: FOE website

FOI newsletter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The FCO are being commendably open in their FOI preparations, the FOI newsletter they produce is available to people outside the FCO (email Jenny.Godfrey@fco.gov.uk)

The latest newsletter (issue 3) contains lots of interesting information about their preparations. Including information about the new OGLOs (Open Government Liaison Officers) appointed by the FCO to deal with FOI.

Also see the FCO website

Consultation paper on Code of Practice on Environmental Information Regulations

DEFRA has now issued consultation paper on Code of Practice on EIR. Closing date for responses to consultation is 20 October

The draft regs are included as an annex at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/envinfo/annexc.pdf

Main page for consultation, including draft Code of Practice is at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/envinfo/index.htm

Procedure for records of deceased people

Redcar and Cleveland Council have published this document on their webiste:

Deceased Procedure

Guardian uses Irish FOIA to investigate Sellafield Nuclear fuel factory


Guardian 26/07/04

"Mr Blair had repeatedly run into stiff opposition from the Irish government when he decided to go ahead with the plant, as shown in documents released to the Guardian under the Irish Freedom of Information Act. Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister, told Mr Blair of his government's "total opposition, dismay and disappointment" in a private meeting in October 2001"

Read the full document (pdf)



Inside IT: public domain

Michael Cross, Guardian 22/07/04
"In the run-up to freedom of information, the level of secrecy surrounding government IT projects seems to be increasing."

ADVISORY PANEL ON CROWN COPYRIGHT

A report was produced earlier this year about: Aligning the FOI and PSI Initiatives in the UK

"The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the overlaps, and to encourage closer collaboration, between two important government initiatives – the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the implementation of the European Directive on the re-use of public sector information (2003). The Advisory Panel on Crown Copyright believes that there is anurgent short term need for greater communication and collaboration between these two initiatives; and, in the longer term, that the overall management of public sector information should be subject to a single, coherent set of policies. Today, the approach across the public sector is too fragmented and piecemeal."

DEFRA press release

"NEW REGULATIONS PROPOSED TO REQUIRE AUTHORITIES TO RELEASE ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION ON REQUEST " 22 July 2004

Press release
Today the Government proposed an amendment to the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) to allow the public the right to request access to environmental information held by public authorities.

The new EIRs will strengthen the existing regulations and allow the public access to information on a variety of environmental information from air, water and land, to flora and fauna, natural sites, food, the built environment and health.

The amended regulations will:

mean information can only be withheld if the public interest in doing so clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure
give enforcement powers to the Information Commissioner
introduce a 20 working day deadline for responding to requests
make available a schedule of fees
apply rules not only to public authorities themselves but also to environmental information held by organisations under the control of a public authority, such as waste contractors.
Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said:

'One of the key principles of the UK Strategy on Sustainable Development is to make the opportunity to access environmental information available to everyone so that people can play an active role in decision-making.

More information on the EIRs

Information is Power: A guide to the rules on access to
information in local government

Useful document written by the The Local Government Information Unit, clearly explains all relevant legislation not just FOI.

http://www.steerbriefing.org.uk/lgiu/Infop.pdf

Foreign Office rapped

Interesting to see that local press are starting to pick on FOI and that the FCO dealt with the case with an FOI viewpoint in terms of disclosure.

The Western Mail (Wales):" Government officials have been rapped for refusing to provide The Western Mail with information about a high-profile murder case..... after appealing against the decision through the department's complaints officer identified in its Freedom of Information Publication Scheme, the Foreign Office has admitted they got it wrong"

More at ICWales

Schools guide to FOI

There hasn't been much coverage of FOI related to Schools, there is however a dedicated guide on the Teachernet website

Microsoft guide to FOI for the education sector

A 12 page PDF is avaialble to download.
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/foi/

Public information about FOI Management

An example of good practice from Barnet Council: they have published their Records Retention and Disposal Policy on their website

You want the truth?

The Freedom of Information Act brings new opportunities for journalists, writes Martin Soames in The Guardian Monday July 19, 2004

Masons : FOI training programme

Masons has extended its training on the Freedom of Information Act and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act to cover the Information Systems Examination Boar(ISEB) syllabus in Freedom of Information.


FOI Courses between September 2004 and April 2005 will be held at Masons' offices in London, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow.
The courses described in this brochure:
· provide introductory training and an overview of the FOI arena;
· offer a comprehensive and practical grounding in FOI;
· enable practitioners to focus on particular areas such as exemptions or the regulations which pertain to access to environmental information.


For more details: download brochure:
masons_foi.DOC

Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations
 
The Campaign for Freedom of Information has responded to the Scottish Executive's consultation on thedraft Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations, expressing concern at the potentially high fees and pointing out that it will be easier for authorities to withhold environmental information than other information.
 
http://www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/eir.pdf

FOI logo
 
DCA has provided an FOI logo as part of a suite of new FOI-related products for immediate use by central government departments and public authorities

Thanks!
 
The blog has reached 10,000 site visits since launch last year, many thanks to everyone for making it a success - the feedback, news and correspondence make it all worthwhile
 
Steve

Useful legal text
 
The text Information Rights by Philip Coppel published by Sweet and Maxwell is expensive but a very comprehensive and  detailed legal overview of the topic.  Worth having if heavily involved with FOIA.

You can also download a free PDF of these foreign FOIA on the companion website 

Appendix 11: Foreign Official Information Access Acts A/1

Freedom of Information Act 1966 (USA) A/1

Executive Order 12,958 (USA) A/11

Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Australia) A/32

Official Information Act 1982 (New Zealand) A/95

Access to Information Act 1985 (Canada) A/122

Access to Information Act Extension Order No.1, SOR/89-207 (Canada) A/158

Access to Information Regulations, SOR/83-507, (Canada) A/160

Freedom of Information Act 1997 (Ireland) A/167

"Increasing anxiety" on Code requests

News email from Alasdair Roberts, Syracuse University, NY
(http://www.foi.net)

"Following the Mirror's report of a UK Cabinet meeting last Thursday in which
(according to the Mirror) it was agreed that a "central clearing house" for
UK FOIA requests should be established, the following documents might be of
interest.

Released today following a Code request to the UK Department of
Constitutional Affairs, the minutes of a January meeting of the Freedom of
Information Practitioners' Group notes "an increasing level of anxiety at
permanent secretary level" about inconsistencies in responses to Code
requests sent to central government departments, and poor compliance with
restrictions on disclosure relating to ministerial decision-making.

A background paper for the Group suggests a range of options for dealing
with these issues, including the possibility of a required consultation with
the Department of Constitutional Affairs when constitutional conventions
could be harmed by disclosure of information.

The minutes of the January 24 meeting of the Practitioners' Group and the
background paper can be accessed through http://www.foi.net."

Information Commissioner Annual Report

"FOI commitment must be backed by action"

The Information Commissioner has published his annual report today.
It can be downloaded

associated press release is also available

Speakers required

We're looking for speakers for the ASLIB Northern Branch FOI event on Wednesday Oct 6th (pm) at Liverpool John Moores University, interested in speakers from range of perspectives - practioner, consultants, academics. The audience will be information managers looking for an overview of FOI issues in the run up to 2005 and best practice related to implementation. Expenses will be available.

Reply to me at: steve_wood62@hotmail.com

National Association for Information Management

A new emerging 'not for profit' information management group called the
National Association for Information Management may be of interest to Blog readers.

'naim' was formed in 2004 by a group of interested employees of public
sector organisations in the UK.

They believe there is a need for a fast moving, co-operative organisation
which would promote information handling within the public sector and
organisations working with the public sector.

In the past there have been organisations which have done some of this but
it was felt there was a need for an organisation that covered the whole
Information Management spectrum.

naim already has contacts in most sectors of public service and throughout
the country. It will principally be an information sharing portal,
steadily growing to become a lobbying body, a training and accreditation
organisation and a general voice for the public sector with regard to
Information Management issues.

They are currently running a beta site which can be found at
http://81.19.56.19/index.asp they also have the domain name www.naim.org.uk
registered and this will point to the new server soon.

At present there are no joining fees or restrictions on membership (save
certain commercial bodies), such decisions will be made by all members
once we have sufficient representation across the public sector.

CIPFA FOI workshops


The CIPFA Procurement and Commissioning Forum have been running a successful series of interactive workshops on Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Tendering - Are you Ready! Details of future workshops:

London - 15th July 2004 - 4 places remaining
Glasgow - 5th October 2004
Manchester - 30th November 2004
Edinburgh - 1st December 2004
Birmingham - 9th December 2004

For further details please contact: Julie LeMasurier on 020 8667 8598 or e-mail julie.lemasurier@ipf.co.uk. Alternatively you can book on-line - http://www.ipf.co.uk/procurement/pac/events/freedomofinformation04.htm

FOI in the news

Daily Telegraph - Cautious Whitehall keeps the secret state alive
"The Government's passion for secrecy while it talks about openness is revealed today after a study by The Daily Telegraph that raises serious concerns about the new Freedom of Information Act."

Daily Mirror - Cabinet fear freedom law
"Panicky Cabinet ministers held emergency discussions yesterday over how to deal with a new law which will give the public access to their emails. The Freedom of Information Act comes into force in January and ministers are desperate to limit embarrassing revelations that may emerge. As well as personal emails and letters, which until now had been kept secret, meetings between ministers and officials will be made public. During a heated debate in the Thursday Cabinet meeting, ministers agreed to create a central "clearing house" where all requests for data would go. A senior Government source said: "The full implications of this are really starting to hit home."

This news is interesting - will the creation of a central FOI database, create a situation of "traffic lights" tagging documents by sensitivity as described in Canada by Alasdair Roberts in his excellent paper: Spin control and freedom of information: Lessons for the United Kingdom from Canada. Roberts also hosts a database of requests for information filed with departments and agencies of the Canadian government under Canada's Access to Information Act

10 Downing St press briefing 8 July 2004

10 Downing Street website

Not sure why this question was asked or if there is any significant context.....

"Asked if the Government was planning to go ahead with the various measures on freedom of information, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said yes. Implementation of the Act was due to begin next year. Asked if additional safeguards had been built into the start date, the PMOS said no. It was not necessary to do so. The Act would be implemented across Whitehall. Asked which Minister had responsibility for the Freedom of Information Act, the PMOS said that it was Lord Falconer."

IDeA Learning pool : FOI

IDeA Learning pool is a new e-learning service that brings local councils together to create, share and access targeted e-learning for local government.

Late July will see the launch of their FOI module
http://www.idea.gov.uk/learningpool/foi_june_update.pdf

Copyright and FOI article

This article from Mondaq summarises and debates some of the copyright issues raised a few weeks ago.

Freedom of Information - Will Public Authorities Be Able to Copy Copyright Documents When Responding to Requests?

Presentations to the North West Data Protection/Freedom of Information Group May 2004

The following power point slides may be of interest from the above meeting:



demos protocols Presentation.ppt

John Williams Wigan FOI.ppt

exemptions and PI test.PPT

thanks to Jane Corrin from NWDPFOIG for supplying

Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration Report

Full report (as previously mentioned in the Guardian):

Investigations Completed July 2003 - June 2004 : ACCESS TO OFFICIAL INFORMATION

Includes cases such as:

-Refusal to release the Attorney General's legal advice on the legality of military intervention in Iraq

-Refusal to provide information about the awarding of a contract to supply a stock of smallpox vaccine

Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB) FOI qualification

The ISEB are launching an FOI qualification, similar to the Data Protection qualification that has been available for some time. The courses would be "commonly available as a 40 hour course run over a minimum period of 5 days to include lectures, workshops, and other teaching and learning methods" and "Candidates will be required to complete a three hour examination, which will consist of multiple choice, short answer and essay style questions"

More details on the ISEB website , a syllabus can be downloaded in word or pdf

I would be interested to hear from anyone who takes this qualification - what value does it offer? does it help in your career path?

The law firm Masons is planning to offer pilot courses soon in London and Manchester

Article on FOI, Contracts and procurement

Ibrahim Hasan, from Actnow training has written this article discussing issues relating to FOI and public procurement

Download (PDF) http://www.actnow.org.uk/FOIandProcurement.pdf

Society of Editors' annual conference

Will discuss FOI this year, more details at

Hold the Front page.co.uk

Guardian FOI articles

Roundup of FOI related news from the Guardian newspaper:

FoE joy as Bayer drops legal action
Rob Evans June 30 2004

"Environmental campaigners have won a legal battle against a multinational company on the right to publicise the potential hazards of pesticides."

Pressure grows as deadline looms
Dan Jellinek June 30 2004
"Public bodies in Britain have just six months to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. The deadline is not causing much excitement."

Months' delay for secrecy queries
Rob Evans June 30, 2004

"The parliamentary ombudsman has criticised three departments for continuing to obstruct her investigations into official secrecy.
Ann Abraham "names and shames" the Cabinet Office, the Treasury and the Department of Health in a report today"

New awareness guidance from the Information Commissioner


Awareness guidance no 11 - Time for Compliance


Awareness guidance no 8 - Records Management FAQs

Early Day Motion No. 1269 :CHARGES FOR INFORMATION

The EDM continues to gather Parliamentary support:

Supported by 157 MPs as of 2 July 2004
http://www.cfoi.org.uk/edm1269.html

Countdown to FOI

Press release on the DCA website announcing the launch of the new website

http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi-countdown.htm

ActNow FOI Conference

100 Days to Freedom of Information
22nd September 2004: London

A major one day conference bringing together all the leading experts on Freedom of Information Act 2000. Attend and benchmark your departments compliance ready for 1st January 2005. Speakers include:
· The Irish Information Commissioner’s Office
· The Campaign for Freedom of Information
· The Department of Constitutional Affairs
· The Assistant Information Commissioner
· The Guardian Newspaper

Full Details: www.actnowtraining.co.uk