Article: The World Moves Toward Freedom of Information.

Journal article on FOI around the world:

Title: The World Moves Toward Freedom of Information
Author: Swartz, Nikki
Source: Information Management Journal; Nov/Dec2004, Vol. 38 Issue 6, p20-24

Subscription required: http://www.arma.org/

Activists Crawl Through Web to Untangle U.S. Secrecy

Inter Press Service News Agency

Interesting article giving an overview of the various US webistes focused on Government secrecy

"To combat the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy, U.S. citizens have been forced to unearth new sources for information they once read in their daily newspapers. But thanks to a few dedicated individuals and not-for-profit groups -- and the Internet -- such material is easier to come by than ever before."

Useful links:

Federation of American Scientists 'Project on Government Secrecy'

George Washington University 'National Security Archive'

OpenTheGovernment

Coalition of Journalists for Open Government

Evening Star praised by Lord Chancellor

From Ipswich Evening Star

"You need look no further than two weeks ago for evidence of how the Freedom of Information Act should work. The Evening Star in Ipswich approached Suffolk Constabulary for a look at files on a notorious but now decades old, unsolved murder.

"The police took the sensible decision to treat the Star's request as an FOI request. they opened their files. The information made a great splash for the newspaper. But it also went a good way to cementing the trust between paper and police."

Campaign highlights changes to S45 Code that contravane ministerial commitments

The Campaign for FOI has written to Lord Falconer expressing concern at the
revised s 45 code which, unlike its predecessor, now contravenes two
ministerial commitments to Parliament. See: http://www.cfoi.org.uk/

Main points from CFOI:

Time limits
The first edition of the code published in November 2002 did indeed reflect this commitment. It stated

Public authorities should aim to make all decisions within 20 working days, including incases where a public authority needs to consider where the public interest lies in respect of an application for exempt information. However, it is recognised there will be some instances where it will not be possible to deal with such an application within 20 working days.”

This passage has been omitted from the 2nd edition of the code published last week.

There is now no suggestion that authorities should attempt to deal with such requests within 20 working days where possible. Nor is this point reflected in the DCA’s guidance on requests, which merely states that where the public interest test is involved the 20 day limit is “is extended by a ‘reasonable period’.

Accepting information in confidence

The first edition of the code contained such a statement. It said:
“A public authority should only accept information from third parties in confidence if it is necessary to obtain that information in connection with the exercise of any of the authority’s functions and it would not otherwise be provided.”

This passage, which expressly reflected your commitment in Parliament, has now been
dropped from the code. The two tests contained in that passage - that the information should be necessary to for theauthority’s functions and would not be provided without confidentiality - discourage authorities from entering into casual commitments of confidentiality. They are helpful, reflect the spirit of the Act and encourage a more rigorous approach to confidentiality.

There is alo an article in the Scotsman "Revised Information Act Code 'Breaks Ministerial Pledges'"

Available from Actnow Training

http://www.actnowtraining.co.uk/

-FOI and Procurement in Scotland article

-New spring training programme

Training course

ASLIB FOI training Course 9th Dec.

260 plus VAT (£305.50) Aslib corporate members
£325 plus VAT (£381.88) Non members

More details at http://www.aslib.com/training/4/11.html

Commencement Order for FOI Signed/ Revised Section 45 CoP

Thanks to Andrew for pointing these out:

At the Law for Journalists Conference, 26th Nov. Lord Falconer stated: "This morning, I signed the Commencement Order which officially brings the Freedom of Information Act fully into force on 1 January 2005 - now barely a month away."

He also mentions: "Today, as well as signing the implementation order, my Department is publishing a revised Statutory Code of Practice showing what public authorities must do to make a success of the Act. (this now at available online)My Department has also established a Central Clearing House to assist officials in dealing with complex requests for information. This Clearing House will act as an expert advice centre from which advice on the appropriate application of these access regimes can be sought by officials in central government departments. It will be responsive to emerging case law as our practical experience develops."

The clearing house for central government is an interesting development which may improve consitentcy and case law development but could aslo be a system for monitoring the "dangerous" cases that require high level media management. See the example from Canadain research by Prof. Al Roberts from Univ of Syracuse that I have mentioned previously (see FOI.net)

Falconer rules out freedom of information 'free for all'

Speech by Lord Falconer to Press Gazette/Newspaper Society Law for Journalists conference at the Royal Society for the Arts.

"Governments of all political stripes need to be able to reflect upon policy options, to share their ideas and proposals candidly before collectively deciding on an official policy line."

Read article at Manchester online

Daily Telegraph: "Records being shredded before Information Act"

Based on figures from the Open Government Code, there is a series of articles in the Telegraph today about document destruction and FOI, the story is on page 1 - interesting see a paper other than the Guardian starting to pick up on FOI

The article comes in several parts:

Leader: Watching Big Brother

Records being shredded before Information Act

Will Sir Humphrey share those secrets?

System decides what goes in the bin

Official record of inconsistency

Figures are clouded by confusion

Transport for London forced to comply with publication scheme

Article in today's Guardain about the issue of publication of PPP contracts for the tube - TfL had listed these documents in their publication scheme, Heather Brooke asked for them in March but has still not received them. A complaint to the Information Commissioner has forced TfL to comply

Read the Guardian article
See Heather's web posting

You can also see the offending scheme at http://www.londontransport.co.uk/tfl/foi/downloadschemes.shtml

The class entry in the scheme is reproduced below:

Legal - PPP Contracts
The three Public Private Partnership (PPP) Contracts between London Underground Limited (LUL) and Tube Lines Limited and Metronet Rail (BCV) Limited, and LUL and Metronet Rail (SSL) Limited for the maintenance and renewal of the Underground Network.

This information is not currently available as it has not yet been prepared for publication. It is intended for publication in January 2004 and will be available on the Transport for London website.
No charge will be made for providing this information.

National Framework Agreement for FOIA IT Solutions

The Association of CHief Police Officers (ACPO) have selected 4 suppliers for the National Framework Agreement forsuppliers of approved IT solutions for the FOIA. The Ability to processrequests under other access regimes - DPA and EIR, for example - was also akey requirement of the Framework Agreement.

The 4 approved suppliers are:

Artemis Corporation - www.artemiscorp.com
BT Open Access
Valid
Geoff Smith Associates www.gsaltd.com

The Framework Agreement generated as a result of this process will permit
public bodies, including local authorities, emergency services, the Home
Office, police etc to select a system from one of the successful companies
with no other procurement process required, just the submission of an
individual requirement document.

Public organisations will benefit from pre-agreed bulk discounts on these
IT solutions. In addition, organisations can benefit from also being able
to then claim back the discount value from Government, effectively doubling
this cost reduction, making this the most cost effective means to purchase
rigourously approved IT solutions for the Freedom of Information Act.

A way through the smokescreen

Article from the online section of Guardian 25th Nov

Pressure is cetainly buidling up on this issue, it will be interesting to see how quickly the IC is called to make a decision on the gateway reviews if contested.

"Large government IT projects are likely to feel the heat once the Freedom of Information Act comes into force next month. Michael Cross looks at the battle against secrecy"

How will Public Bodies Cope With Freedom of Information ?

From the Publicnet website by Ian Quanstrom,ZyLAB UK

"In recent months some of the most respected observers and commentators of the IT industry have quite rightly thrown doubt on the ability of public sector institutions to prepare for compliance with the Freedom of Information Act in time for the 1st of January 2005 deadline..... Recent research suggests that only 17% of local authorities have set aside a percentage of their budget to implement electronic systems designed to help with the dawn of the FOIA. Many will be adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach to the ramifications of non-compliance with the Act, so that organisational decision making can be applied to any problems as and when they arise"

Scottish Prison Service can withhold Reliance contract details

PRESS RELEASE
Issued 24th November, 2004

Scottish Prison Service can withhold Reliance contract details

The Scottish Information Commissioner [1] today announced the outcome of his investigation into the complaint by Nicola Sturgeon MSP over the decision by the Scottish Prison Service not to publish its contract with Reliance, for prisoner escort services, in full.

He has determined that the presence of a confidentiality clause in the contract between the Scottish Prison Service (“SPS”) and Reliance Secure Task Management Ltd (“Reliance”) meant that the SPS did not breach the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information [2] (“the Code”) when it withheld details from the contract published on 20 May 2004.

However, the Commissioner expressed his dissatisfaction with this type of confidentiality agreement, which required that any information in the contract be withheld solely at the request of Reliance. In a commentary on the case, he noted that this kind of clause would not comply with the good practice guidelines regarding confidentiality agreements to be followed by public authorities once the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 [3] (“the Act”) comes into force on 1 January 2005.

The Commissioner, Kevin Dunion concluded:

“In my view, the SPS did not make a compelling case that applying the exemptions of the Code of Practice alone justified the withholding of the information. Nor, even if the exemptions did apply, have they demonstrated to me that the public interest lay in withholding rather than releasing the information. However, as the information requested is subject to a contractual confidentiality agreement between SPS and Reliance and given that the Code of Practice does not set aside statutory or other legal restrictions on disclosure, the SPS is entitled to withhold the information.”

The full text of the Commissioner’s decision can be viewed on this website at www.itspublicknowledge.info/decision.htm.

Australian FOI: Leak exposed nuclear reactor staff to radiation

Daily Telegraph (Sydney)

"FIVE workers were exposed to radiation - one extensively - during a leak which forced the shutdown of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.The incident, caused by human error, occurred during routine maintenance at the plant which is run by the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO). An internal report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that so-called "heavy water" - contaminated with radioactive isotope tritium - leaked through the protective overalls of one of the workers and on to his arm and torso."

Records of deceased Patients

A guidance document "After the Hundred Year Rule" is available online for Society of Archivist members (www.archives.org.uk) and in hardcopy for £15 for non-SoA members (by emailing sales@dpmedia.co.uk)published by the Society of Archivists on behalf of the Health Archives Group

General comments from the group: "The conclusions we came to about the records of deceased patients were that s.41 (actionable breach of confidentiality) seemed the main exemption that was likely to apply to these records. However there are two issues which are still not clear and will only be resolved in time: a) whether releasing deceased patient information is really an actionable breach of confidence b) how long should the confidentiality last for."

"In the absence of any concrete answer to b), we recommended that generally speaking current best practice be followed, i.e. that Archivists assume a lifetime of 100 years and calculate the duration of s.41 (the closure period, in effect) from the date of birth of the patient (if known). Of course it has to be borne in mind that FOI is flexible and so many decisions will have to be made on a case by case basis"

London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority Selects Hummingbird to Meet Regulatory Demands

"The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) has selected Hummingbird Enterprise(TM) to help manage its electronic documents more effectively and assist with the compliance requirements of the Data Protection Act, Freedom of Information Act and changes to fire safety legislation (the Regulatory Reform Order)."

We also use Hummingbird here at JMU for teaching purposes - via a special sponsorship deal. More information

Isle of Man - lacks FOI

See article on "Isle of Man today" website

The IoM is the Isle of Man is a Dependency of the British Crown with a high degree of internal autonomy being responsible for its own internal legislation and tax matters, also the Isle of Man is an ancient Kingdom and has never been part of the United Kingdom and therefore does not elect an MP to Westminster.

I've written to them to find out more about their plans - will post more information if I get a reply

Tell us about the mould and rats

Observations on food by Heather Brooke
New Statesman
Monday 22nd November 2004

Interesting artcile highlights the current lack of information in the UK about food hygiene and how FOI may impact.

-Take up Heather's call for action and request this information from January. I'm interested to hear about your experiences.

"Greenwich council already plans to issue food hygiene certificates to restaurants that pass inspections. These will be posted and searchable on the council's website. But more needs to be done and once the Freedom of Information Act and new Environmental Information Regulations come into force in January, it will be difficult for councils to deny the public this vital information."

Office of Government Commerce
Freedom Of Information Act 2000 - Model Contract Clauses

Guidance I know many authorities have been waiting for:

"In order to help contracting authorities prepare for the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which comes into force on January 1, 2005, OGC has developed the attached set of model FOIA/Confidentiality terms and conditions."

http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?docid=1002400

Fees regulations

I understand that it will at least another two weeks before the fees regs are ready to be laid before Parliament. This needs to be before 10th December if they are to be legal by 1st Jan. The DCA are certainly cutting it fine!

The Freedom of Information Act Conference:Under starter's orders

Thursday 16 December 2004
9.30am - 5pm

Masons, 30 Aylesbury Street, London, EC1R 0ER

Organised by JUSTICE and Sweet & Maxwell

CPD: 6 hours
Standard fee: £295 + VAT

Your chance to clarify the key issues as the Act comes into force

Furthe details: Justice website

Freedom of Information Act Q&A

Taken from The Scotsman

NHS Managers Concerned Over Freedom of Information Act

NHS managers are concerned that they may be forced to reveal commercially sensitive information, leaving them open to litigation after the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act comes into force on 1 January 2005, according to leading law firm and FOI specialists Morgan Cole

Managing Information

Further awareness guidance

From the IC website: Awareness Guidance 19- Section 38 Health and Safety

Opening the Gateway

Government Computing 18 November 2004

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee wants the Gateway Reviews for UK government IT projects to be made public

Office of Government Commerce (OGC) reviews of UK government IT procurement should be open to scrutiny, an influential parliamentary committee has recommended.

Birmingham Mail article

Some comments on the article in the Birmingham mail by Prof Alasdair Roberts from Syracuse (see previous posting)

Comments produced from his letter with permission:

Dear Editor,

I write in response to David Bell's November 11 article, "£1m bill to reveal secrets," which predicts that FOI requests could cost between £1,400 and £4,000 to answer, based on Canadian experience.

I have studied the Canadian FOI law for many years and do not know where these figures come from. I do know that such estimates are irrelevant to the UK, for a very simple reason: Under the UK law, authorities are not required to respond to a request that would cost so much to process. There is no cost limit under Canadian law.

Concern about cost should also be balanced against the millions of dollars saved in Canada as a result of FOI disclosures, and against the millions spent by government on advertising and other promotional activities intended to highlight their own priorities.

Sincerely,

Alasdair Roberts
The Maxwell School of Syracuse University
United States

and my letter:

Dear Editor

Re: Article in Birmingham Mail 11 Nov: £1m bill to reveal secrets

As an academic who researches and teaches Freedomm of Information I write with reference to the above article which I find to be sensationalist and misleading. The figures of £1m you quote as a total bill for Freedom of Information compliance for Birminham Council appear based on evidence which is not clearly explained or based on research I recognise. The Canadian data you mention is not very relevant to the UK examples as the Canadain fee system is different, in the UK there is £450 cost limit compared to none in Canada. The source of this data is also unclear.

Your article makes little mention of the information requests all councils will have to deal with on a daily basis as part of a normal democtratic framework. The Act puts in place a legimate right of access to information, essential for any open society. For example The Act will allow parents to learn more about school admission policies and patients more about hospital invetsigations.

Your article also makes no mention of the issue of central goverment funding available:
To qoute Lord Falconer: "For local government we will reimburse councils for any additional costs, in 2005-06 and beyond, falling on them as a result of the Freedom of Information Act. This is the right approach, and it confirms our commitment to making open government available to all."
Further details from the Guardian

Regards

Steve

DFeS guidance for schools conflicts with IC guidance

Someone on an email discussion list has pointed out: From the Teachernet website, in DFeS guidance for schools the following appears in Annex C as a factor agains disclosure:

"Is disclosure likely to distort public reporting or be misleading because
it is incomplete? "

However IC Awareness note No 3 states that

"It may sometimes be argued that information is too complicated for the
applicant to understand or that disclosure might misinform the public
because it is incomplete (for instance because the information consists of
a policy recommendation that was not followed). Neither of these are good
grounds for refusal of a request. If an authority fears that information
disclosed may be misleading, the solution is to give some explanation or
to put the information into a proper context rather than to withhold it."

I am very on which on the side of the IC guidance- the DFES guidance would appear not to follow the premise of a public interest test - any information could be witheld with the possible worry of misreporting, the presumption should be to disclose and only withold when the public interest in withholding cleary outweights the PI in disclosing.

The issue of conlicting guidance is important, indeed speaking at the Select Committee last month a DCA offical admitted that all guidance was not tracked. Surely there is need for single website briging this togther and a system of monitoring?

UK data protection laws are 'chaotic'

The Register

"The report, by law firm Rowe Cohen, claims the Government's Data Protection Working Party has agreed that the terms of the Data Protection Act must be tightened in order to punish people who break the law. Problems such as a perceived low risk of getting caught, public ignorance over individual rights as well as a lack of enforcement by authorities, are causing many industry insiders to brand the current data protection system as 'chaotic'....The group believes little will be done to improve the situation over the coming months with much of the Information Commissioner's time taken up by the Freedom of Information Act."

Event: Freedom of Information and Copyright – What Information Professionals Need to Know

UKeIG - UK eInformation Group have released full details of their January, Freedom on Information Meeting, Two Pillars of Wisdom: Freedom of Information and Copyright – What Information Professionals Need to Know. This will be held at CILIP Headquarters on Wednesday, 12th January 2005. Costs (including lunch and refreshments): UKeIG members £130 + VAT (£152.75); others £160 + VAT (£188.00)

This event is aimed at information professionals, for whom both freedom of information and copyright are fundamental areas and it deals with access to and use of information with Freedom of information. Pertinent to all as the legislation expected to be fully in force in the UK for 1st January 2005. Half of this one day meeting will provide a thorough overview of the FOI framework (including the right of access to information, exemptions, publications schemes etc.). It will also consider its application in a number of specific areas such as unpublished materials and archives, FOI and contracts/procurement issues, third party intellectual property rights, managing FOI requirements in the organisation and more. The second main area to be covered by the meeting is copyright. Major changes have occurred in UK copyright law in the last 18 months and taking stock of these changes and providing a detailed overview of the current copyright framework in the UK will be an important part of this event.

This course will be presented by Laurence Bebbington, Law Librarian and Information Services Copyright Officer at the University of Nottingham and Tim Padfield, Copyright Officer, Curator of Photographs and Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on National Records and Archives at the National Archives, Kew.

Interest can be registered in this meeting, or a place reserved by emailing meetings@ukolug.org.uk. Further details are also available via the UKeIG website

Section 36 Consultation

The DFES is currently in the process of defining who can be classified as a
'qualified person' when considering the Section 36 'Prejudice to the
Effective Conduct of Public Affairs' exemption within the FE and HE sectors.

Their current thinking is that for HE institutions this person will be the
Vice Chancellor / Chief Executive or equivalent, whereas for FE
institutions this person will be the Principal or equivalent. This would
seem a logical and proportionate view which will ensure consistency of
approach across the sectors.

If anyone has strong views as to why this would not be appropriate for
their institution you are asked to contact Collin Crooks at the DFES
collin.crooks@dfes.gsi.gov.uk by December 17th at the latest.

Blog readers may be interested in the information auditing report I've written for freepint

http://www.freepint.com/press/infoaudit-2004.htm

There is a brief article at http://www.freepint.com/issues/111104.htm#feature as well

Steve

Release of human and veterinary medicines regulatory information

"With the impending changes to legislation governing the release of information received by the MHRA and the VMD (Veterinary Medicines Directorate) as part of the medicines regulatory process, the regulatory agencies have met with industry representatives (ABPI (Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry) and NOAH (National Office of Animal Health)) to consider how requests for information should be handled.

These discussions have resulted in a memorandum of understanding and a paper listing the likely decisions should requests for particular information be received.

This paper has become known as the 'Traffic Light Document' because of the coding system used to differentiate different groups of information.

This document is being published on the MHRA, VMD, ABPI and NOAH websites and we would welcome your comments....The purpose of the document is to provide guidance for those involved in making and receiving requests to release information. The changes to legislation mean that the blanket restrictions on the release of information under Section 118 of the Medicines Act and Regulation 14 of the Marketing Authorisation for Veterinary Medicinal Products Regulations 1994 will be removed.

New requests for information will be considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which comes into force on 1 January 2005. For requests for information on veterinary medicines, the Environmental Information Regulations 1992, which are due to be revised early in 2005, are also relevant"

Please send comments to:

martin.bagwell@mhra.gsi.gov.uk (for medicinal product interests)
http://www.mhra.gov.uk/news/2004/releaseinformation.htm

Consultation on a draft Code of Practice to accompany the updated Environmental Information Regulations

This consultation closed on 4 November 2004.

N.B. Consultation on the draft guidance is continuing until 31 December 2004 for Chapters 1-6 and 12 February 2005 for the remainder. The draft guidance consultation is at www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/eir-guidance/index.htm

The final chapter of the guidance on refusals is available

New Guidance documents available

Further awareness guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office:

Awareness Guidance 17 - Law Enforcement

Awareness Guidance 18 - Public Audit

Awareness Guidance 20 - Prejudice

Awareness Guidance 23 - Advice and Assistance

Awareness Guidance 24 - Formulation of government policy

CIPFA workshops

CIPFA Procurement and Commissioning Forum have three more workshops on FOI and Tendering - Are You Ready?

Dates are as follows:

Manchester - 30 November 2004
Edinburgh - 1st December 2004
Birmingham - 9th December 2004

Further details are available at www.ipf.co.uk/procurement/pac.

Companies not ready for public information law change

"Eduardo Ustaran, partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse, said: "The lack of awareness about the impact of FoI among the majority of providers of services to the public sector is staggering."

Financial Times 15th November

No open and shut case for confidentiality

"Lawyers are advising clients, especially large private finance initiative contractors, to review urgently the information they have supplied to public authorities and consider how to structure contracts to protect their interests. Since the law is “fully retrospective”, contracts already signed or being finalised now will be subject to the new regime."


Financial Times 15th November

Companies not ready for public information law change

"Eduardo Ustaran, partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse, said: "The lack of awareness about the impact of FoI among the majority of providers of services to the public sector is staggering."

Financial Times 15th November

£1m bill to reveal secrets Nov 11 2004

By David Bell, Evening Mail (Birmingham)

A poor article - badly written and poorly informed, see the text below, the figures appear based on research from IDEA that I commented on previously and IDEA sent this response. There is a real problem about clarity here between actual and marginal costs, the article makes no mention of requests for information the council already deals with that could then be classed as FOI request. IDEA have also have not relvealed the source of the £1,400 and £4,000 figure.


"Based on experience in Canada, each request will cost between £1,400 and £4,000 to answer depending on its complexity."There are some pretty serious implications because , as the largest local authority in England, Birmingham could be deluged with information requests," said Coun Wilkes."I estimate the likely bill for this is around £1 million. It is really alarming." Researchers have found that local authorities currently get between 72 and 360 requests a year for information, depending on their size. But if the trend follows that in other countries who have opened Freedom of Information floodgates, the numbers could soar into the thousands."

Website for "Your Right to Know"

Heather Brooke is also running a webisite to complement her newly published book.
http://www.yrtk.org Contains many useful links and background FOI material

FOI courses

The Campaign for Freedom of Information is running a further training course on the FOI Act in London. The course will be on the morning of 17 January 2004. Please let us know if you would be interested in attending.
http://www.cfoi.org.uk

NUJ training course

30 November 2004
18 January 2005
more information and to book

Using the Freedom of Information Act and open records laws

Reporters who know how to use the act will have access to many exclusive stories. This course will teach you the basics of the FOIA and the other major access laws, how to file requests and challenge refusals. It will also give you a thorough grounding in how to use the many existing public records sources. The course will cover:

-The Freedom of Information Act. What it is and how to use it. Exemptions, appeals and charges.
-The new Environmental Information Regulations. What they are and how to use them.
-How the EIR differ from FOIA.
-Local government information and access to meetings
-Using access requests to produce investigative stories – an American and UK perspective.
-An overview of all the major public registers, online databases, and internet resources
-Integrating public records and public information requests into day-to-day reporting

Draft legislation on DCA website

Freedom of Information (Time for Compliance with Request) Regulations 2004 (draft)
This Order extends the deadline for answering a request for information in certain limited circumstances.
http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi/foi-section10draft.pdf

- Covers the previously trailed extensions for schools, armed forces and information held overseas

Freedom of Information (Removal and Relaxation of Statutory Prohibitions on Disclosure) Order 2004 (draft)
This Order amends or repeals eight items of legislation which could have prevented information being released under the Freedom of Information Act
http://www.dca.gov.uk/foi/foi-section75draft.pdf

Environmental Information Regulations - Conference

A one-day conference, 22nd November 2004

Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh

More details at Holyrood.com

FOI fees -Scotland

Whilst we await the the fees for FOIA (2000) the Scottish regs are now available: The Freedom of Information (Fees for Required Disclosure) (Scotland)
Regulations 2004 were made by the Scottish Ministers on 26 October 2004
and may now be viewed on the HMSO website

"Your Right to Know" Published

Heather Brooke's book "Your right to know" is now available to order from Amazon and other booksellers (a good price at £12.99). Well done Heather for getting it published! I'm receiving a copy in the next few days and am looking forward to reading it, Heather has worked hard at researching the book and has an excellent knowleddge of FOI issues here in the UK and abroad. I'll post a review on the blog once I've read the book, hopefully next week

NEW EXTENSIONS TO FREEDOM OF INFORMATION DEADLINES

From: list@publicnet.co.uk

Schools are to get more time to respond to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act when it comes into force in the New Year. An order laid before Parliament will also give extensions to the armed forces in some circumstances.

The Act comes into effect on January 1st and will impose on all Government departments and more than 100,000 other public authorities, including local councils, police forces and NHS Trusts, a duty to respond within 20 working days to requests made for information about their decisions and how they are reached.

This new order, though, effectively allows extensions to the 20 day limit in permitting schools not to count school holidays when calculating their response times. This will apply to governing bodies of all maintained schools and nursery schools and schools maintained by the Ministry of Defence.

The Information Commissioner will also have discretion to extend the time-limit to up to 60 working days if a public authority is unable to meet the normal deadline because it needs to get information from someone involved in a military operation, or in preparations for a military operation or in cases where the authorty needs to ask for information from abroad, including from foreign governments or its own staff.

In a further easing of the strict time limit, the National Archives, based at Kew, will be given up to 30 days to respond to a request in cases involving a transferred public record that has not been designated as open information and where it needs to determine whether the information being asked for is exempt from the provisions of the new legisaltion.

The Information Rights Minister, Baroness Cathy Ashton, said it was right that schools should be allowed to take account of holidays as there would not be staff around around to pick up requests, especially during the long summer break. "The military will also need some leeway, as retrieving information from the armed forces on operations around the world will not always be straightforward," she added.

But she said the government did not expect the extension to be used in every case involving the armed forces, or where there was a need to consult abroad, it was simply recognisng that on occasions it would not be practical to meet the 20-day deadline.

Access to employee records denied, Scottish Parliament sidelined

Outlaw.com 04/11/2004

About the DPA 1998, may have some implications for FOI overlap

"The Government has stated that it will not change data protection law to give employees in the UK the right of access to their own employee records irrespective of whether the employer holds them on computer or not.

The Government has also decided neither to extend the protection of the data protection principles to all manual employee records nor to give the Scottish Parliament a say in whether or not employees of Scottish public authorities should be treated differently."

Crank calls fear over freedom act

Daily Telegraph 8/11/04

"Academics are becoming increasingly concerned that their work will be hampered rather than helped by the Freedom of Information Act.

Fears are growing that a flood of requests from cranks and obsessives seeking information about subjects such as UFOs and the Royal Family will prevent civil servants from dealing with normal inquiries from historians and other academics trying to pursue their studies."

Metropolitan Police Public Access Office

On Wednesday night I attended the opening of the Metropolitan Police Public Access Office at New Scotland Yard, the office will form a key part of their strategy towards complying with the FOI Act. The Met has made extensive preparations for FOI and already manages approx 84,000 Data Protection requests a year. Their publication scheme is growing at an average rate of 102 documents submitted for publication per month, with an average 8,000 hits and 5,500 documents downloaded per week. At the reception I also saw a demo of the Met's MetRIC system for handling DPA, FOI and EIR requests. The MPS publication is available at http://www.met.police.uk/foi/

Irish Case- Mr. John Burns and the North Eastern Health Board

This complex case posted on the Irish IC site today may be of interest in showing a complex exemption case relating to duty of confidence under the Irish Act, whilst there are some differences in the exemption wording to our Act and the DP interface is under one umbrella in Ireland it does serve as a useful example of how exemptions can be applied and appealed. The Irish IC makes the following statement relating to use of the duty of confidence exemption: "it will not amount to a general conclusion that public bodies cannot expect to have confidentiality clauses upheld where records are sought under the FOI Act." the decision was "The Commissioner annulled the decision of the Board and directed instead that all of the records identified as within the scope of the request should be released to the requester"..... will be interesting to see if the IC here takes a similar line.

http://www.oic.gov.ie/265e_3c2.htm

Mr. John Burns and the North Eastern Health Board
Request for details of out-of-court settlement of an employment dispute involving Board and senior hospital consultant - whether release would have adverse effect on functions relating to management - section 21(1)(b) - whether release would disclose positions taken for the purposes of negotiations - section 21(1)(c) - whether records protected by legal professional privilege - section 22(1)(a) - whether release would constitute a contempt of court - section 22(1)(b) - whether release would prejudice or impair the enforcement of, compliance with, or administration of any law - section 23(1)(a)(ii) - whether release would constitute a breach of a contractual duty of confidence - section 26(1)(b) - whether release could result in a material financial loss or prejudice the competitive position of a person in conduct of business - section 27(1)(b) - whether release could prejudice contractual or other negotiations - section 27(1)(c) - whether release would involve disclosure of personal information - section 28(1) - whether public interest better served by release than by refusal - section 21(2), section 27(3) and section 28(5)(a).

Government of Canada Introduces Legislation to Enable Access to Historical Census Records

OTTAWA, November 2, 2004 — An Act to amend the Statistics Act was introduced in the Senate of Canada today. The proposed bill would enable access to both past and future census records.

The bill has two key provisions.

Personal census records for censuses taken between 1911 and 2001 inclusive would be released 92 years after each census.

Starting with the 2006 Census, Canadians will be able to decide if they will allow their personal census information to be released publicly after 92 years. Individual census records would be released only when consent is given.

Full details

Welsh Local Government Association procurement toolkit for FOI

Available for download (PDF) Looks useful as there is not an equivalent for England at present

Contents:

Guidance & Implementation
• FOIA Overview
• FOIA & Procurement
• Exemptions
• Model Action Plan (MAP) & Section 45 Access Code
• Risks
• Records Management
• Organisational Risks
• Procurement Checklist
• Further Information & Key FOI Web Links
APPENDIX II – FOIA Specimen Clauses
• Clause A
• Clause B
APPENDIX III – FOIA List of Exemptions

APPENDIX IV - An analysis of Contractual Information and
its Pathway through the Organisation

APPENDIX V – FOIA Case Issues

APPENDIX VI – EC Procurement & FOIA

Select Committee evidence

Evidence from BARONESS ASHTON OF UPHOLLAND and DR ANDREW McDONALD is now
on the Parliament website

One of many interesting sections in the report:

- still vague on S36

Q322 Dr Whitehead: In terms of implementation, one of the problems that
has been, I think, identified with both costs and the speed of
implementation has been the slow progress of some key areas of guidance
from the Department. Indeed, it is suggested, well, it is known that in
one area the decision on the section 36 "nominated person" has yet to be
issued and therefore a number of local authorities, for example, are
still not clear who is the nominated person and therefore who should
receive training and therefore how that person then implements the
process. Why has that still not been issued?

As for the qualified person, the qualified person who may be making
decisions under section 36, I think the important issue with section 36
"qualified person" is that there is somebody in place come January of
next year, and we are now moving to make sure that through the
respective departments ? so ODPM for local government ? the
identification of "qualified persons" happens. That will be happening
over the next few weeks, but that is something that really is only
needed come January of next year. There is no specific training that is
needed for "qualified person".

Public Finanace Magazine article - "Free at last?"

Article By Paul Gosling 29th Oct, contains some quotes from myself and Heather Brooke.

Consultation on a draft Code of Practice to accompany the updated Environmental Information Regulations and consultation on draft guidance on the Regulations

There have been some changes to the Regulations since they were originally laid in July. DEFRA states: "The changes are of a legal and technical nature, intended primarily to achieve clarification."

http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/envinfo/annexc.pdf

Plus this futher guidance:

Chapter 8: Complaints, Reconsideration, and Appeals (45 KB)
[http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/envinfo/guidance-8.pdf]

Scotland : Anger at £1.2m price of freedom

"Set up to police the revolutionary new laws, which come into force this January, the commissioner, Kevin Dunion, has set up office in an impressive mansion in St Andrews, along with 13 members of staff.

New papers, which were published last week by the Scottish Parliament as a result of the new freedom of information laws, reveal that Dunion is asking for an increase of 76% - £532,000 - on his original £700,000 a year budget, claiming that the requirements of his office are "significantly greater" than first thought."

Scotland on Sunday

US FOIA : Groups raise concerns about increased classification of documents

"But some observers believe that the issues surrounding the classification of documents, Freedom of Information requests, and access to basic, everyday information will, in the long run, turn out to be more significant.

Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, describes it this way: "What I'm most concerned about are not the front-page news scandals. It's the routine, mundane stuff that is increasingly inaccessible." For example, Aftergood says, "Ten years ago, I used to go to the Government Printing Office bookstore and purchase the Pentagon phone book.... My understanding is that that phone book is now for official use only, and cannot be purchased. In a way, it's a small thing. But in another way, it's a wall that has been erected between the public and the government."

Govexec.com

Land Registration and FOI

Loacl authorities can expect many requests on this topic. This article outlines the Land Registration Act 2002 and the role of FOIA 2000

ICTeeside

Information Commissioner gets a new COO

In anticipation of the coming implementation of the Freedom of Information Act, the Office of the Information Commissioner has a new chief operating officer. The Information Commissioner's Office has appointed a chief operating officer. The appointment of Simon Entwisle was announced on 28 October 2004. He has joined as the ICO is expanding in anticipation of the full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act on 1 January, 2005.

ZDNet