UK Freedom of Information Blog

Briefing on the future of the FOI Act

2012-01-12T10:50:00.001Z

2 pm Wednesday 18 January 2012

Campaign for Freedom of Information, 16 Baldwins Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ

The Freedom of Information Act is being reviewed by a parliamentary committee which is likely to recommend changes to the law. This could be an important opportunity to improve the Act. But there will also be significant pressure for new restrictions from public authorities concerned about the cost of dealing with FOI requests or lobbying for new exemptions.

If you would like to contribute to the exercise, it is important to act quickly. The deadline for submitting evidence to the committee is 3 February 2012. The Campaign for Freedom of Information is holding a briefing meeting on January 18 at 2 pm for those who are considering giving evidence.

This ‘post legislative scrutiny’ of the Act is being carried out by Justice select committee of the House of Commons.[1] It has been prompted by the Ministry of Justice which has published a memorandum[2] highlighting specific areas of concern, including:

· Increasing request volumes
· The cost to public authorities and impact on resources
· The difficulty in refusing vexatious requests
· The level of protection given to policy advice and cabinet papers
· The impact on public authorities with commercial functions

The memorandum also:

· Acknowledges delays can occur in conducting public interest tests and carrying out internal reviews
· Discusses the possible extension of the Act to other bodies.

The memorandum says there is “limited evidence” about requesters’ views on the Act. It is therefore important that the select committee hears from requesters and we strongly encourage you to submit evidence about your experiences.

If you would like to attend the Campaign’s briefing meeting on January 18 please rsvp by email to admin@cfoi.demon.co.uk, via Twitter @CampaignFOI or by telephoning the office on 020 7831 7477. We would be grateful if you could circulate details of the meeting to any colleagues or contacts you think may interested.

Notes

[1] http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/justice-committee/news/foi-announce/
[2] http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/policy/moj/post-legislative-scrutiny-foi.htm

Course on Scottish Information Commissioner Decisions

2012-01-09T16:58:00.000Z

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland is providing a half-day training course on 'Scottish Information Commissioner Decisions' in Glasgow on 20 March 2012 and Aberdeen on 21 March 2012.

The course is aimed at FOI practitioners and those with a good working knowledge of the legislation. It highlights the latest developments in the way the exemptions, public interest test and the legislation's procedural requirements are being interpreted. The course is presented by the Campaign's direction, Maurice Frankel, who has worked in the field for 27 years. It will cover the most significant decisions issued since our last course in February 2011.

While the course will focus on the significant decisions issued by the Scottish Information Commissioner since the last course, it will also cover significant Court of Session rulings and decisions issued by the UK Tribunal that have implications for Scottish public authorities.

The course represents extremely good value for money. The course fee has remained the same since 2006, and significant discounts are available for more than one booking from the same organisation.

No need for more Cabinet secrecy

2011-12-20T18:50:00.000Z

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has written to The Times responding to comments made by Sir Gus O'Donnell, the outgoing Cabinet Secretary, that the Freedom of Information Act should be amended to provide greater protection for cabinet discussions. In an interview [£], Sir Gus told the newspaper he was a "massive believer in transparency" but "the bit that I'm really against in freedom of information is that bit where it reduces the quality of governance, so I want there to be a safe space."

An edited version [£] of the letter appeared in The Times on 20 December 2011. The full letter is below.

Sir, It is hard to believe that the Freedom of Information Act is the severe threat to cabinet government that Sir Gus O’Donnell, the cabinet secretary, maintains (‘Keep Cabinet secret’, December 17).

If the government thinks that the public interest favours keeping policy discussions or ministerial communications confidential, it can already appeal to a Tribunal against any decision by the Information Commissioner to order disclosure. There are further rights of appeal to an Upper Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and beyond. If arguing the case is too much trouble, ministers can instead simply veto the decision. As Sir Gus acknowledges, this has twice been done to protect cabinet and cabinet committee minutes. Yet he now seeks further protection precisely for such minutes.

The Tribunal’s decisions explicitly give heavy weight to the public interest in protecting collective cabinet responsibility by withholding evidence of ministerial disagreements. They also assume that disclosing options or advice while these are still under discussion is unlikely to be in the public interest.

When Tony Blair prematurely announced, in 2006, midway through a public consultation on nuclear energy that he had already decided the key issue, the Tribunal nevertheless refused to order disclosure of the briefings he had received or the views of ministers, finding that “they were entitled to be treated as confidential” at the time of the request “and probably for a substantial time thereafter”. Officials’ advice was also withhelsd.

Sir Gus presumably wants the Prime Minister to resuscitate the proposal rejected by the last government, to exclude all cabinet and cabinet committee papers - not just minutes - including exchanges between departments, from FOI for 20 years. This would have kept secret interdepartmental discussions on issues like BSE, permitting disclosure only when it was too late to inform debate, provide accountability or learn from mistakes. Key documents on countless other issues would also be secret for two decades, regardless of the public interest in openness or the fact that when requested they might no longer be sensitive.

The last government rejected this proposal. The present should do the same.

Maurice Frankel
Director, Campaign for Freedom of Information

MoJ discloses further details about extension of FOI

2011-12-19T11:23:00.000Z

Following a FOI request by the Campaign for Freedom of Information (see earlier post), the Ministry of Justice have disclosed further details about the bodies they are consulting on FOI coverage.

In addition to the 25 bodies announced on 7 January 2011, the list includes over 150 'awarding bodies', and over 200 harbour authorities. A list of all the bodies can be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet here.

The MoJ have also provided a list of the bodies they believe are likely to be brought within the scope of the Act by the amendment to the definition of 'publicly owned company' that is being implemented via the Protection of Freedoms Bill. At present the FOI Act applies to companies that are wholly owned by a single public authority. The Protection of Freedoms Bill would extend that definition to cover a company which is wholly owned by more than one public authority. The response to our FOI request stated:

We do not hold a comprehensive list of all bodies which will come within scope of the FOIA through this change. However, we carried out targeted research on a number of local authorities to estimate the number of bodies likely to be affected by this change within local government, and the list I have provided is the result of this research. I should clarify that the information on the list simply reflects the responses provided by the local authorities we contacted (green colour code) or from our own research (pink colour code). We have estimated from this information that the number of bodies that will be brought within scope under the changes to section 6 will be at least 100.

Jointly owned companies identified from the research include Bramcote Crematorium, Gunnersbury Park, Manchester Airport PLC, Gloucestershire Airport, Beacon Local Nature Reserve, Mount Edgcumbe House and Country Park, Farningham Woods Nature Reserve, Shoreham (Brighton City) Airport, Wetley Moor and Connexions Staffordshire as well as a number of shared purchasing and services companies.

The list also contains examples of companies partially owned companies which won't be covered by the changes to section 6. Such companies include Nottingham City Transport of which Nottingham City Council is the majority owner, and the NEC Group which has two shareholders Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, although the Council bears financial responsibility for the Group.

The MoJ also disclosed a copy of the template letter that has been sent to the bodies being consulted and a draft impact assessment on the consultation.

Guidance on private email accounts welcomed

2011-12-15T16:22:00.000Z

The Campaign for Freedom of Information welcomed today’s guidance from the Information Commissioner confirming that emails dealing with public authority business sent using officials’ private email accounts are subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The guidance points out that the same is true regardless of where information dealing with official business is held. This is because the Act applies not only to information held by a public authority but also to information held by “another person on behalf of the authority”.

The Campaign’s director Maurice Frankel said: “It's been well understood since the Act came into force that officials couldn’t avoid FOI simply by doing their work on their home computers, using private email accounts or keeping official files under their beds. If it was that easy to avoid FOI, Whitehall would have closed down and government business would be carried out from people’s homes. If people have been deliberately using such techniques to claim that no official records exist, they may have been committing an offence under the Act.”

The Information Commissioner’s new guidance says that where private account emails are used for official business because no official channel was available at the time it should be copied to the authority’s email system. It confirms that on occasions officials may be asked to search their private email accounts for messages dealing with official business, if these are needed to answer an FOI request. It also warns that anyone concealing or deleting requested information in order to prevent its disclosure under the Act may be committing an offence.

See also:
Disclosure rule for private emails set to shake Whitehall - FT 15 Dec 2011 (registration required)
Private email accounts are covered by information law - Martin Rosenbaum's blog post
FOI Man's blog post Privacy, email and clean pants

Campaign makes FOI request about Government's plans to extend the FOI Act

2011-11-09T18:16:00.000Z

During Justice Questions in the House of Commons on 8 November 2011, the Minister was asked about the Government's plans to extend the Freedom of Information Act.

Simon Wright (Norwich South) (LD): What plans he has to increase the scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Jonathan Djanogly): This month we extended the Freedom of Information Act to a further three bodies—the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Financial Ombudsman Service and UCAS. Additionally, we intend to extend the Act to over 100 more organisations through the Protection of Freedoms Bill. We have also begun consultations with more than 200 further bodies about their possible inclusion. Next year we plan to consult 2,000 housing associations and the housing ombudsman.

Simon Wright: I thank the Minister for his response and for the progress made by his Department. As he knows, Network Rail is responsible for spending billions of pounds of public money each year. Will he ensure that that organisation is brought within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act?

Mr Djanogly: The Government are committed to making Network Rail more accountable to its customers, and believe that there is a strong case for its inclusion in the FOI.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) news release 'Opening up public bodies to public scrutiny' on 7 January 2011 named some bodies it planned to consult about coverage. But as far as the Campaign for Freedom of Information is aware, the names of "more than 200 further bodies" the minister referred to have not been made public. Neither have the names of the bodies the MoJ has identified as being caught by the extension in the definition of 'publicly owned company' in the Protection of Freedoms Bill. We have therefore made a FOI request to the MoJ for details of these organisations.

The fact that the Housing Ombudsman is being consulted is welcome. The Campaign worked with Lord Wills on an amendment to the Localism Bill which would have brought the Ombudsman under FOI, but the Government did not support it (see earlier post). The Ombudsman and Network Rail were also raised along with other examples of bodies that are candidates for designation by Richard Shepherd MP during a debate on The Freedom of Information (Designation as Public Authorities) Order 2011 (see earlier post).

Speech on future of FOI by Lord McNally

2011-10-24T12:28:00.000+01:00

The Ministry of Justice has published the full text of a speech given by Lord McNally at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum event 'The future of freedom of information - challenges for expansion' which was held on 20 October 2011.

You can download the speech as a Word document here.

Parliamentary debates on extension of the FOI Act

2011-10-21T07:00:00.002+01:00

The Freedom of Information (Designation as Public Authorities) Order 2011 was debated and approved by both Houses of Parliament this week. The Order was made under section 5 of the FOI Act, which provides for the Secretary of State to extend the Act to bodies with public functions or to contractors providing public services on behalf of authorities (where the provision of the service is a function of the authority). The Order designated three additional bodies - the Association of Chief Police Officers, Financial Ombudsman Service and the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service - as public authorities for the purposes of the Act.

The Order was debated by a Delegated Legislation Committee in the House of Commons. During the debate a number of points were made about the scope of the Order and the government's commitment to extend the Act:

Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab): We welcome this extension to the number of pubic bodies covered by the Freedom of Information Act 2005 from—to use the Minister’s figures—100,000 to 100,003. We do so because the previous Labour Government were proud of the legislation, and the Opposition remain proud of having introduced it. In fact, the bodies were told that they were likely to become subject to the legislation in March 2010, under the previous Government, as the explanatory notes make clear. The order is clearly a de minimis extension to the number of bodies covered, although the individual bodies are important. Looking at them singly, it seems a logical extension to include each of them...

Secondly, I want to put on record that the substantial problem that I suspect that many colleagues have with the Freedom of Information Act is not the legislation itself, but its selective operation by public bodies, and the variation in responses, which range from helpful and speedy to deliberately obfuscatory and obstructive. That is something that the Government need to look at, because some public bodies—irrespective of party, type of organisation, and whether they are national or local—put more effort into avoiding the provisions of the Act than fulfilling their statutory duties. That is simply wrong. It is an abuse of legislation that this House has passed, and that needs the Government’s urgent attention...

Tom Brake: I will be brief. I welcome the fact that ACPO will be covered by FOI. I always thought that its exclusion was an anomaly, given the role that it plays. At the risk of sounding like a broken record—Members will hear that it is a 78—I hope that Network Rail will feature in the list of 200 bodies that are being considered for possible inclusion under FOI, because many of the issues that surround ACPO also surround Network Rail. The organisation is a recipient and a spender of large amounts of public money. To all intents and purposes, all its activities are in the public domain and should be covered by FOI; so, too, should the increasing number of private contractors doing public works. I wonder whether they will be included in the 200 bodies to which the Minister has referred. We as a Government are spending huge sums of public money on contracts that are delivered by such private companies. They are delivering, in effect, public services, and it would be entirely appropriate for them to be subject to FOI as well...

Mr Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con): The measures announced by the present Government are a welcome improvement to the Act. However, before the election, both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats promised that Network Rail would also be covered by the Act, and the Conservatives additionally promised to cover Northern Rock, but neither body has been covered. A report by the Public Accounts Committee published in July 2011 concluded that Network Rail, which received £3.7 billion of direct taxpayer support in 2009-10, was “not transparent”...

There are many other candidates for designation, including electoral registration officers and returning officers, whose decisions about voting facilities prevented some from voting at the previous election. They are appointed by local authorities, but have their own legal existence and are not currently subject to the Act. District auditors are another significant omission. The Information Commissioner’s line-to-take document dated 29 August 2006 states:

“Appointed auditors clearly have many of the characteristics of public authorities and it is notable that information relating to audits of central government bodies, which are carried out by the National Audit Office, are accessible under the Act since the NAO is a public authority. The DCA is aware of the apparent anomaly and have told us, on a confidential basis, that consideration is being given to an Order.”

What happened to that consideration?

The responsibilities and powers of the housing ombudsman are to be expanded under the Localism Bill. At present, complaints about social housing matters are dealt with by two different ombudsmen. Complaints about housing associations go to the housing ombudsman; complaints about local authority housing go the local government ombudsman. The Localism Bill proposes that, in future, a unified complaints system should apply, with both types of complaint going to the housing ombudsman. Surprisingly, the housing ombudsman is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The Localism Bill contains no provision to bring the ombudsman under the Act, despite the fact that the housing ombudsman is to take over important responsibilities from the local government ombudsman, who is subject to the FOI Act.

Finally, the public’s right to information is likely to be undermined by some Government policies. Under the NHS reforms, NHS services will be provided either by NHS bodies or by independent providers under contract. The NHS bodies that commission services will be subject to the FOI Act, but independent providers will not. The standard NHS commissioning contract contains a clause requiring providers to provide the commissioning bodies with information to help them answer FOI requests, but the clause appears to apply only to the specific information that the contract requires a provider to hold or report. The contract does not cover the full range of information that would be available from an NHS body under FOI.

As functions are transferred from NHS bodies to independent providers, the existing broad FOI right of access is likely to be increasingly constricted. To prevent that, any contractual disclosure provision must reflect the full breadth of the existing access right and not be limited to specified databases, statistics or reports, however numerous they may be. The disclosure provision should extend to any information that would assist in assessing the adequacy of a provider’s services. Furthermore, where a provider’s work consists primarily of treating NHS patients, the provider should be made subject to the FOI Act under section 5 of that Act.

There are similar concerns about the contracting out of local authority functions proposed by the Localism Bill. The more council functions that are carried out by contractors, the harder it will be to rely on the Freedom of Information Act to scrutinise what is being achieved. The Government have so far refused to support potential solutions to that; they prefer to defer consideration of the issue until post-legislative scrutiny of the FOI Act next year, which risks the emergence of serious gaps in FOI coverage in the meantime.

The Order was also considered by Grand Committee in the Lords, during which a number of points about the Act's operation were made, including by the former Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Martin of Springburn, who raised concerns about journalists' use of the Act:

Lord Martin of Springburn: Many journalists use freedom of information so that they can get what is best described as an angle for their particular story. When they ask the question and there follows a period of, let us say, 27 days-although I may be contradicted on that-I have known it to be the case with matters of the House that they have complained bitterly that the freedom of information was given to them and to the general public. They have complained bitterly that it spoiled their story that everybody else should get the information. Freedom of information is about everybody getting that information. They are on record as complaining; they are using it as a device to get a scoop, or whatever they call it.

I feel strongly that once the information is issued to the applicant for that freedom of information, it should be put in the public domain immediately afterwards. In other words, if the information is given to the applicant at 2 o'clock on a given day, by one minute past two everyone should be able to get that information. I know that some people say that the identity of an applicant should not matter and that you should not know who they are. However, it is a bit rich if an application is made by someone sitting in garret in Toronto, asking for information, which takes a considerable amount of public funding. We should at least know whether a taxpayer of this country is making that application. Can the Minister mention that? It is not fair that someone who has nothing else to do with their time in another country can make an application and no one has to say where they come from. That is very important...

The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally): I turn to points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Martin, a number of which I thoroughly agree with. There have been journalists who have turned freedom of information into a kind of cottage industry. I again hope that the transparency agenda will make this less necessary, and that people will get the information that they want. I take his point about immediate publication. In pushing forward the agenda we press organisations to publish immediately or as soon as possible. In certain circumstances there may be a reason to consult and delay, but in the main I agree with what the noble Lord, Lord Martin, said. This is not information for an individual journalist; this is public information, and should be made public as quickly as possible.

I was interested in his points about the Republic of Ireland. I was on the pre-legislative committee that looked at freedom of information. The noble Lord, Lord Bach, is nodding; he will recall that one of the most enthusiastic pieces of evidence we received about freedom of information was from the Irish freedom of information director...The interesting thing about that was that the Irish have had post-legislative scrutiny of their own legislation and have brought in a number of restrictions, such as the one that the noble Lord, Lord Martin, referred to. They have brought in charges for some aspects of freedom of information.

The critics of freedom of information say that it puts unfair burdens and great costs on departments, as referred to before by the noble Lord, Lord Martin. I hope that the Justice Committee will take a good look at how the Act is working, take evidence from its critics and supporters, and then take us forward as we have indicated.

It's interesting that Lord McNally refers to "post legislative scrutiny" of the Irish Freedom of Information Act having led to restrictions being introduced to the Irish legislation. In fact, the process of review of the Irish FOI Act was far from open, as the Irish Information Commissioner described in a report to mark the first decade of the Irish Act:

The Review Group consisted of four Secretaries General under the chairmanship of the Secretary General to the Government and, remarkably, conducted its review in secret; it did not seek the views of the public, of any of the parties with a particular interest (such as the media) nor of the Information Commissioner. The review process was the very antithesis of the process which preceded the drafting of the original legislation...The primary urge to amend arose from the fact that, with effect from 21 April 2003, some Cabinet records would have become potentially available under the FOI Act.

A copy of the draft Order, Explanatory Memorandum and Impact Assessment are available here.

MPs debate Hillsborough documents petition

2011-10-21T06:52:00.001+01:00

On 17 October, MPs debated the e-petition signed by over 140,000 people calling for full disclosure of documents relating to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans died.

The petition was prompted by the Cabinet Office's decision to appeal a ruling by the Information Commissioner ordering information relating to the disaster to be disclosed to the BBC. In April 2009, the BBC made a request for all information provided to Margaret Thatcher in April 1989 relating to the disaster and minutes of meetings attended by the then Prime Minister at which the disaster was discussed.

After a nine-month delay, the Cabinet Office refused the request citing several exemptions, including information relating to the formulation or development of government policy and ministerial communications. The BBC requested an internal review. Following a further seven-month delay, the Cabinet Office upheld it's decision and cited three additional exemptions.

The BBC appealed to the Information Commissioner. On 20th July 2011, the Information Commissioner found that the public interest favoured disclosure and ordered the information to be released. The Commissioner's decision also criticised the Cabinet Office for the "unjustified and excessive delays" in its handling of the request.

Responding to the debate, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, apologised for government's handling of the request and gave a reassurance that the papers would be released with minimal redaction to the families first and then to the general public:

The reason for this debate and for the motion behind it concerns the Cabinet Office’s decision not to disclose papers relating to the disaster in response to a freedom of information request from a BBC reporter. I want to state very clearly that the Government’s position has absolutely nothing to do with attempting to suppress the release of those papers or to somehow hide the truth. I am sorry that the way the Government responded to the FOI request caused anxiety among the families and concern on Merseyside and beyond.

The Government firmly believe that the right way to release the papers is through the Hillsborough independent panel—to the families first and then to the public. The families should have the papers, and they should not have them filtered through politicians or the media. We therefore support the Hillsborough independent panel and today’s motion. We want full disclosure to the panel of all documents relating to Hillsborough, including Cabinet minutes. Those documents should be uncensored and unredacted. Indeed, the full unredacted Cabinet Office papers on Hillsborough have already been made available to the panel. That includes minutes of the meetings of the Cabinet immediately following the disaster...

The Government are not seeking to avoid the publication of Cabinet minutes or any other Hillsborough papers. The Cabinet papers on Hillsborough can be published, and the Government will do nothing to prevent the panel from publishing them or indeed whatever it so decides. The panel will release the full picture of what happened at Hillsborough, but in a way that is respectful of the families.

The panel’s terms of reference envisage minimal redaction to avoid junior officials’ names and addresses being published; to avoid signatures being available for copying; and to ensure that the Data Protection Act is not breached. It might also be necessary to redact sensitively private and personal information specific to the victims. However, it will be the role of the panel to ensure that any redactions are kept to a minimum.

The principle is clear: full publication and minimal redaction, and the panel seeing all of the papers, uncensored and unredacted—as the families have rightly demanded: the whole loaf, not snippets. I stand ready to do anything I can to aid the independent panel in completing its task.

You can read the debate in full here.
See also Martin Rosenbaum's blog posts here and here.

‘FOI Appeal Routes’ Seminar, University of Dundee

2011-10-05T13:51:00.001+01:00

Wednesday 19 October 2011
Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee

While the UK and Scottish Freedom of Information (FOI) laws are very similar, there are some key differences between them – difference which can sometimes have a material impact for the requester or authority involved in the request. One such difference concerns the appeal mechanisms that are in place following a decision of each Commissioner. While appeals under the Scottish Act are made directly to the courts, requesters and authorities in England and Wales can appeal to an ‘Information Rights’ Tribunal. In 2009/10, there were 161 appeals to the Tribunal against decisions by the (UK) Information Commissioner, 62% of which were brought by requesters. In Scotland, during 2010, there were two appeals heard by the courts in relation to Scottish Information Commissioner decisions.

But what impact does this have in practice? Do the different systems lead to different outcomes? Which model best serves the resolution of FOI disputes? Is there anything we would change?

This seminar will consider and explore the appeal mechanisms under both FOI regimes.

Speakers:

Professor John Angel, Principal Judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights)
The FOI Appeal Process in England and Wales

Christine O’Neill, Partner, Brodies LLP
Reflections on the Scottish model

Rob Edwards, environment correspondent, Sunday Herald
FOI Appeals: the requester’s perspective

A buffet lunch is served at 1pm, and the seminar will run from 2pm to 4pm.

For more information, or to book a place, visit: www.centrefoi.org.uk/

Speaker Biographies:

Professor John Angel
John Angel was the first President of the Information Tribunal. He set up the General Regulatory Chamber in the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) and was its acting President during that time. He is currently a deputy judge in the Administrative Appeals Chamber of the Upper Tribunal and Principal Judge of the Information Rights jurisdiction in the FTT.

John is a retired solicitor who was formerly the Head of Online Legal Services at the global law firm Clifford Chance and before that he practised technology law at Theodore Goddard. He has written, contributed to and edited a number of books and papers on subjects such as computer, telecommunications and electronic business law and has previously held a number of (non legal) management positions in the IT industry. John is also a visiting Professor at the Institute of Computer & Communication Law, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London.

Christine O’Neill
Christine O'Neill is a partner in the public law and regulatory team at Brodies LLP. She advises a range of clients on information law issues including FOI, data protection and data security and acted for the Scottish Information Commissioner in a number of appeals to the Court of Session. A solicitor advocate, she appears regularly in courts and in public inquiries for public authorities and commercial clients.

Rob Edwards
Rob Edwards has been a freelance journalist specialising in environmental issues for more than 30 years. He has written for New Statesman, The Observer, The Mail, The Sunday Times, Scotland on Sunday, The Scotsman, The Glasgow Herald, the Edinburgh Evening News and many others. Since 1999 he has been the environment editor of the Sunday Herald and a correspondent for New Scientist and The Guardian. He has co-authored three books about nuclear power, and won a series of journalist awards. Since 2005, he has made 242 requests under freedom of information legislation in Scotland and the UK. He lives in Edinburgh, and likes muckraking.

Central government FOI statistics Apr-June 2011

2011-09-29T13:07:00.000+01:00

The quarterly FOI statistics for central government have been published for the period April to June 2011. The figures show that the Cabinet Office, which, along with Ministry Defence, was required to sign an undertaking by the Information Commissioner earlier this year to improve compliance, answered less than half of requests within 20 working days.

Ranked in order of their performance in meeting the 20 working day deadline (number of requests received in brackets), the list of departments is as follows:

Department of Health 99% (417)
Attorney General's Office 98% (42)
Department of Culture Media and Sport 96% (195)
Northern Ireland Office 95% (61)
Department of Work and Pensions 93% (763)
Scotland Office 91% (54)
Home Office 90% (786)
Department for International Development 89% (122)
Department for Transport 88% (710)
HM Treasury 86% (480)
Communities and Local Government 85% (221)
Department for Education 84% (245)
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs 83% (150)
Wales Office 79% (47)
Department of Energy and Climate Change 77% (115)
Ministry of Defence 76% (830)
Ministry of Justice 75% (901)
Department for Business Innovation and Skills 74% (256)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 70% (344)
Export Credit Guarantee Department 69% (36)
Cabinet Office 48% (349)

A number of departments that were on the ICO's first list of bodies monitored between 1 October and 31 December 2010, have improved their performance. These include the Department for Work and Pensions, Home Office and Scotland Office. One of the ICO's criteria for selecting bodies for monitoring is that "less than 85% of requests are receiving a response within the appropriate timescales".

The statistics can be downloaded as a pdf, or in Excel or CSV format.

Commissioner marks International Right to Know Day

2011-09-28T10:43:00.001+01:00

News release: 28 September 2011

Transparency speech marks International Right to Know Day

‘Transparency is not just about what the authorities choose to reveal to citizens; but what citizens have a right to ask to see,’ Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said today, in a speech to mark International Right to Know Day 2011.

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said:

“We need to ensure that there is no gap between the right to know rhetoric and the reality of a ‘don’t tell ‘em’ mentality that all too frequently frustrates the citizen.

“I believe that an active and independent ICO can help make a practical reality of the transparency agenda. Not just supporting the direction of travel, but helping to reach a common goal. Delivering a Right to Know 2.0. The reality, not just the rhetoric. The difference between seeing it through - and seeing through it.”

In the course of the video address broadcast on YouTube, the Commissioner set out how the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is already a key player in delivering an effective Right to Know; how his responsibility for both the right to know and the right to privacy enables the ICO to assess where the public interest lies when rights appear to be in conflict; and why the ICO should be an essential partner in delivering the much trumpeted transparency agenda through to practical reality.

Mr Graham also today launched a public consultation on the content of publication schemes – the documents that specify what information public authorities must release proactively.

Speaking about the consultation, he added:

“We will want feedback, not just from public authorities but from members of the public. Our questions will include asking what further classes of information or further detail can be included in publication schemes? And how should publication schemes evolve in light of new technologies?”

Other topics covered in the Commissioner’s speech on the state of information rights in the UK include:
New technologies – the Commissioner says it is ‘vital that the FOI regime responds to the new demand for information online.’
Unstructured data – Mr Graham states that unstructured information – such as emails and memos – are ‘important in delivering accountability and holding public authorities to account.’
Service delivery changes – The Information Commissioner warns that ‘contracting out and the involvement of new providers…must not reduce the citizen’s right to know.’
The ‘balance’ between transparency and privacy – Mr Graham makes clear that ‘just saying there’s a balance doesn’t itself strike the balance. The decisive factor must be a sober assessment of the competing interests...and privacy shouldn’t always be claimed as a barrier to transparency.’
Anonymisation – The ICO is developing a code of practice on anonymisation under section 51 of the Data Protection Act.
Protection of Freedoms Bill – the Commissioner gives the ICO’s view on the information rights aspects of the proposals, including DNA profiling, CCTV and vetting checks.

Press release here.

Transcript of the Commissioner's speech here (pdf).

Consultation document on revising publication schemes here (pdf).

Commissioner orders extracts from note of Blair/Bush telephone discussion to be disclosed

2011-09-27T16:59:00.000+01:00

The Information Commissioner has ordered the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to disclose extracts from a note of a telephone conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush on 12 March 2003, shortly before the decision to go to war against Iraq (Decision Notice FS50341647). The Commissioner found that the exemptions for international relations (sections 27(1)(a) and 27(2)) and ministerial communications (s.35(1)(b)) applied to the information. In respect of information supplied by President Bush to Prime Minister Blair, he found the public interest in withholding the information outweighed the public interest in disclosure. However, for information that wasn't obtained from the US, which concerned the Iraq issue only from the UK perspective, the public interest favoured disclosure.

83. After careful consideration, and in circumstances where the respective public interest considerations are very finely balanced, the Commissioner is of the view that the public interest in maintaining the section 27 exemption to protect the confidentiality of the information provided by the US (in the form of information provided to Mr Blair by President Bush), outweighs, by a significant, but by no means overwhelming margin, the public interest arguments in favour of disclosure of this information, persuasive and weighty though they are.

84. The Commissioner emphasises that his decision with regard to the information contained in the document consisting of information obtained from a State (US) other than the United Kingdom, has been made because the Commissioner believes that the short-term and specific public interest benefits of releasing this particular information (important though they are) would be outweighed by the risk posed to the long-term integrity and maintenance of the relationship between the UK and the US, particularly that between Prime Minister and President.

85. However, the strength of the public interest attached to this specific information is such that the Commissioner considers that the public interest balance (assessed under either section 27 or section 35(1)(b) must be determined differently with regard to the information contained in the document which is not information obtained from the US (i.e. information which does not disclose the confidences given by President Bush, or reveal, directly or otherwise, the confidential information provided to the UK in the telephone discussion.) Once that information (the majority of the information contained in the document) is protected via appropriate redactions, the public interest arguments for disclosure of the remaining information at least equalise (and in the Commissioner’s view appreciably exceed) the public interest arguments in favour of maintaining the section 27 or section 35(1)(b) exemptions.

86. The Commissioner considers that such was the gravity and controversy of the decision by Prime Minister Blair to commit the country to the military action taken in Iraq, then any information which might provide the public with an insight or awareness of the Prime Minister’s thinking during the critical period when the decision was finalised, and its implications for the UK carries with it a powerful and compelling public interest in disclosure. It is for this reason that the Commissioner has decided to order partial disclosure of the information in this case, such disclosure being limited to select extracts of the information which concern the Iraq issue only from the UK perspective, and which do not reveal any confidences or information given by the US, nor prejudice UK relations with either the US, the UN or any other countries.

The original request for information in this case was for records of governmental discussions which took place between the UK, France and the US following the television interview of President Chirac on 10 March 2003. The FCO initially withheld all of the requested information, but disclosed 5 of the 6 documents, including a note of a discussion between Prime Minister Blair and President Chirac, during the course of the Commissioner's investigation, accepting that the balance of public interest had shifted in favour of disclosure following evidence heard by the Iraq Inquiry. The disclosed documents were placed in the public domain on the Iraq Inquiry website.

Commissioner orders partial disclosure of previously vetoed minutes

2011-09-22T13:33:00.002+01:00

The Information Commissioner has again considered whether minutes of meetings of the cabinet sub-committee on devolution from 1997/8 should be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. These minutes were the subject of an earlier FOI request made in 2005. The Commissioner had ordered them to be disclosed (Decision Notice FS50100665). The Cabinet Office appealed this decision to the Tribunal, but prior to the Tribunal hearing, the then Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, issued a veto under section 53 of the Act, overruling the Commissioner's decision (see earlier post). This was, and remains, only the second time the veto has been used.

At the time, Jack Straw identified a number of factual disagreements with the Information Commissioner. The Commissioner had found that only 1 member of the Cabinet committee was still in government at the time of the request. Mr Straw said in fact 15 of those who attended committee meetings were still ministers when the request was made. He also disagreed with the Commissioner's view that the policy issues discussed in 1997 were no longer live and that papers provided little insight into ministers' views. The Commissioner published a response to the use of the veto, which suggested that had the Tribunal been given the opportunity to hear the case, it may have found that the government was entitled to withhold some of the information.

In his decision on the new request, the Commissioner states that he "does not rely to any extent on the continued involvement or otherwise of the participants in the Devolution Committee in politics", but he "has recognised the validity and weight of the argument against disclosure on the grounds of preserving the convention of collective Cabinet responsibility".

His conclusion is that this factor [preserving the convention of collective Cabinet responsibility] tips the balance in favour of maintenance of the exemptions in relation to some of the information, specifically content that identifies individual Ministers and other content that in the Commissioner’s view covers what could be fairly characterised as the more sensitive areas of policy discussed by the Devolution Committee. In relation to the content identifying individual Ministers and the content recording discussions on sensitive issues, the view of the Commissioner is that the factor relating to collective Cabinet responsibility continues to carry significant weight. The Commissioner would stress that his decision in relation to information identifying Ministers means that only the content specifically identifying any Minister should be redacted...

In relation to the remainder of the content, the Commissioner considers that its disclosure would not be likely to result in harm to the convention of collective Cabinet responsibility, particularly given the passage of time. The Commissioner considers there to be a specific public interest in disclosure in order to inform current and future debate about devolution and a general public interest in the transparency and openness in decision-making.

The latest decision also upholds the use of the exemption for legal professional privilege in relation to legal advice provided to the devolution committee or to the government itself.

The decision to again disclosure of some of the minutes will be a test for the coalition government and its commitment to transparency. In response to the previous government's veto of the minutes, the Liberal Democrats' then justice spokesman, David Howarth MP, was reported to have said:

This completely undermines Labour's claims to be committed to open government...the veto is clearly a threat to freedom of information and should be abolished.

The Ministry of Justice recently published a revised policy on use of the veto in relation to information falling within the scope of section 35(1). This states:

The Government recognises that the public interest against the disclosure of much material covered by collective responsibility will often be strong, but that the scheme of the Act does not make protection absolute. Accordingly, the drafting of the section 35 exemption reflects Parliament’s intention that in some circumstances, the public interest in relation to information covered by it may fall in favour of release. So in particular cases the public interest in favour of the disclosure of material covered by collective responsibility may prevail.

It then goes on to outline a number of guiding principles, criteria for determining what constitutes an exceptional case and factors to be taken into account when considering whether to exercise the veto.

Effect of NHS reforms on FOI rights

2011-09-13T16:56:00.001+01:00

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has written to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, expressing concern that the public's rights to information about the NHS are likely to be "increasingly constricted" by the reforms in the Health and Social Care Bill.

Under the reforms, NHS services will be provided either by NHS bodies or by independent providers under contract. The NHS bodies which commission services will themselves be subject to the FOI Act though the independent providers will not. However, the providers will be contractually required to provide information to the commissioning bodies to help them answer FOI requests.

The standard NHS contract already contains a clause requiring providers to do this. But according to the Campaign, the clause appears to apply only to the specific information which the contract itself requires a provider to hold or report on. While numerous items of information are specified – for example, about the quality of the service, treatment times, complaints, MRSA infections and other matters - it does not cover the full range of information that would be available under FOI from an NHS body itself.

In the letter, the Campaign calls on the government to extend the disclosure provision so that FOI rights in relation to independent providers’ NHS work is as wide as that of NHS bodies themselves. The Campaign director Maurice Frankel says:

“Suppose there is concern about the use of potentially contaminated medical supplies by hospitals. For an NHS hospital, the FOI Act could be used to obtain details of stocks of the product, the number of doses administered, the numbers of affected patients, the quality control measures in place, correspondence with suppliers, minutes of meetings at which the problem was discussed and information showing what measures were considered, what action was taken, how promptly and with what results.

This level of information would clearly not be available in relation to independent providers treating NHS patients. This would represent a major loss of existing information rights."

Read the letter here.

Campaign responds to debate about tobacco company's use of FOI

2011-09-05T11:26:00.000+01:00

The freedom of information request made by the tobacco company Philip Morris to the University of Stirling for information relating to a survey on the smoking habits of teenagers has received a great deal of media attention. It has been extensively covered by The Independent and was discussed on a number of radio shows last week.

An article by Maurice Frankel, director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, published in The Independent defends the "applicant blind" principle of the Freedom of Information Act and suggests that the threat of disclosure may not be as severe as researchers fear:

Are tobacco companies abusing freedom-of-information laws by asking for the raw data obtained by academics studying teenage smoking? Research funded by a cancer charity trying to reduce smoking is being sought by a giant tobacco company keen to recruit users to its lethal products. Not surprisingly, the requests are highly contentious. But is the threat as severe as it seems?

A problem for Stirling University's Centre for Tobacco Control Studies is that our FOI laws are designed to be "applicant blind". Decisions depend on whether information can safely be made public – not whether it should be released to the specific requester, however much it may be abhorred.

That principle is important. It means that an authority cannot refuse a request because the applicant is opposing its policies, criticising its competence, challenging its decisions in court or, in the case of an opposing political party, trying to replace it in government. It cannot withhold complex data because it claims the requester lacks the ability to understand it – or withhold from a campaigning journalist what it hands over to a pliant hack.

...The researchers have argued that if they are forced to hand over the information (presumably even in anonymised form from which subjects could not be identified), funders will be reluctant to back them, other academics will not share data with them and teenagers will refuse to be interviewed in future.

If this is true, then a specific exemption in the Scottish FOI Act may apply. This allows information collected during a continuing programme of research to be withheld if future reports are planned and disclosure would substantially prejudice them. The exemption is subject to a public-interest test. Other exemptions, such as breach of confidence, may also apply. This means the "catastrophe" the researchers warn about may not be imminent at all.

David Goldberg, a spokesperson for the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland has also had a letter published in The Herald:

The battle for freedom of information is ongoing, sometimes on fresh fronts (Ian Bell, The Herald, September 3).

Fundamental FOI principles are worth restating.

First, requests should be treated as applicant (and motivation) blind. The implication of Mr Bell’s article is that Philip Morris International’s request should be refused because PMI are hateful poisoners. But, if that approach were adopted how long would it be before anyone is refused by an authority which finds their views dangerous or merely unacceptable?

Secondly, information should be disclosed unless it would be substantially damaging to make it public, regardless of who requests it. If Stirling University is not exaggerating what it says would be threatened by disclosure, and can demonstrate that, then the university may be able to satisfy various exemptions, including maintaining any confidences owed.

If, on the other hand, the university are exaggerating their case, the information would have to be disclosed, and rightly so.

Public Accounts Committee: FOI Act should be extended to private companies providing public services

2011-09-02T12:37:00.001+01:00

The House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee has called on the Government to extend the Freedom of Information Act to public companies providing public services. In a report examining the lessons from the private finance initiative and other projects, the Committee states:

Taxpayers could get a much better deal from PFI, as demonstrated by the buoyant and profitable market in PFI deals. The taxpayer’s position is made worse by poor transparency of investor and contract information alongside patchy public sector commercial skills. We suspect that initial investors are able to make excessive profits from selling PFI shares, yet we lack the information to know for sure. Freedom of information provisions do not currently apply to private providers of public services though investors told us they are willing to make more detailed information available. We believe there is a strong case for sharing these gains with the Government. We look to the Treasury and departments to make full use of existing contractual rights of access and further investor information to increase transparency and find ways for taxpayers to get a share of these gains.

...Public scrutiny of investor returns has been inhibited by the absence of an obligation on investors to disclose full details of their profits and gains on PFI deals. The Treasury cited commercial sensitivities for not allowing freedom of information provisions to apply to the private sector. While aspects of some deals may be commercially sensitive, it has been all too easy for departments and investors to hide behind commercial confidentiality, rather than provide full disclosure of costs and benefits to inform value for money. These are publically funded investments and should be subject to public scrutiny.

The Committee recommends:

Transparency on the full costs and benefits of PFI projects to both the public and private sectors has been obscured by departments and investors hiding behind commercial confidentiality. The Treasury cited commercial sensitivities for not allowing freedom of information provisions to apply to the private sector. Once contracts have been let, commercial confidentiality should not restrict the ability of the public, Parliament and decision makers to access information. Freedom of information should be extended to private companies providing public services. The Treasury should define commercial confidentiality and the exceptional circumstances where it applies.

Lessons learnt from PFI and other projects HC 1201, 1 September 2011

FOI Disclosure Stories August 2011

2011-08-18T14:57:00.001+01:00

Papers reveal fears over ports’ millions proposal – News Letter 16/08/111
Stormont minister Danny Kennedy was warned that moves to take funds from Belfast port could be challenged in the courts. The concerns were contained in briefing papers which were requested by the News Letter under the Freedom of Information Act. The Department for Regional Development intended to black out large chunks of the documents but actually highlighted the areas which it wanted to hide.

Gateways using nurses to screen GP referrals – Pulse 10/08/11
GP referrals are being screened and bounced back to general practice by nurses, physiotherapists and even podiatrists employed by PCTs to staff referral management centres, a Pulse investigation reveals. Data supplied under the Freedom of Information Act shows PCTs that operate referral management centres to reduce the number of GP referrals to secondary care are commonly using non-doctors for triage.

Scottish Review celebrating a victory on salaries of ‘fatcat’ NHS board managers – The Drum 08/08/11
Scottish current affairs website editor Kenneth Roy is celebrating a major victory in a two-year battle to force NHS regional health boards to reveal the salaries of top managers. He achieved this by putting in freedom of information requests to dig up the salaries of the top execs.

Birmingham City Council awarded PwC £250k contract without tendering – Birmingham Post 04/08/11
An inquiry is under way after Birmingham City Council broke its own rules by failing to put a £254,000 contract with financial consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers out to tender. Details of the contracts for PwC and Taylor Haig emerged following a Freedom of Information Act question from Larry Brown, a member of the public.

Shortfall in affordable housing - Countryside Alliance 04/08/11
Research undertaken by the Countryside Alliance shows how local councils have failed to meet provision targets for affordable housing on average by over 76 per cent in the past year. A Freedom of Information request was sent to all local authorities in order to obtain the data.

Courts forced to disclose written arguments – The Times (subscription only) 03/08/11
A landmark ruling by senior judges has struck a blow for open justice that will force courts in future to disclose all the written arguments in cases before them. The Court of Appeal has ruled that HM Revenue and Customs must comply with a request made by a barrister under the Freedom of Information Act to disclose their outline arguments.

More than 2,000 charities and community groups face cuts – False Economy 02/08/11
More than 2,000 charities and community groups are facing budget cuts as local authorities reduce their funding – or in some cases completely withdraw it – according to research based on hundreds of Freedom of Information responses from local councils published by False Economy.

Police admit one in three crimes not investigated – The Times (subscription only) 02/08/11
Figures obtained by The Times according to responses under the Freedom of Information Act for 21 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales show that the overall rate of crimes being dropped from further investigation is remarkably constant nationally and runs at about 32 per cent.

Cuts threaten traveller children’s schooling – The Independent 02/08/11
The schooling of up to 100,000 children in the travelling community is being put at risk by cuts to council funding, an investigation by The Independent has revealed. Nearly half of 127 authorities have either abolished their traveller education service or drastically cut staff levels, Freedom of Information responses show.

Care homes cash in on resident’s death – The Times (subscription only) 01/08/11
Care homes are making tens of thousands of pounds each year from the deaths of residents. Council records show that care providers are taking up to six months to inform their local authority that a resident has died, meaning they continue to receive taxpayers’ money to fund that resident’s care. Of 20 councils surveyed by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act, 14 admitted overpaying care home providers after the deaths of residents in the past year.

Public consultation on Digital Economy Act a sham? – Techradar.com 01/08/11
Freedom of information requests have revealed that Peter Mandelson, the UK's then Business Secretary of State, made the decision to sanctify aspects of the Digital Economy Act, even as the public consultation was under way.

Cuts leave patients waiting months for mental health help – The Times (subscription only) 01/08/11
A growing number of patients suffering from depression and other mental health problems are waiting more than three months for counselling in the latest sign of the impact of financial pressures on NHS services. Data collected from 120 Primary Care Trusts in England under the Freedom of Information Act shows that in those trusts that provide access to trained counsellors, more than 40 per cent leave patients waiting three months.

SNP rapped by water regulator – The Scotsman 31/07/11
Ministers have been told that their insistence on keeping Scottish Water in public ownership is hampering the company's efforts to fix the country's antiquated pipe network. Documents released under Freedom of Information legislation reveal an internal memorandum sent two years ago warning that bosses at Scottish Water were "increasingly concerned" they would not be able to afford repairs if the company remained funded solely by the government.

Private healthcare group lobbied competition body for NHS inquiry – Guardian 29/07/11
The close links between a private sector lobby group and an NHS regulator in the run-up to the launch of a groundbreaking inquiry into competition in the health service have emerged in a series of documents passed to the Guardian. Emails released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the lobby group NHS Partners Network helped draft a letter requesting a formal investigation into how firms were being blocked from getting NHS work.

One Hundred Years of Secrecy - BBC Radio 4

2011-08-15T20:36:00.000+01:00

BBC Radio 4 will broadcast the first in a series on 'Secret Britain' on Tuesday 16 August at 9.00 am.

Kicking off Radio 4's Secret Britain series, Peter Hennessy, the leading Whitehall-watcher, tells the story of the Official Secrets Act and explores the tension between Britain's culture of state secrecy and more open government.

One hundred years ago, in the hot summer of 1911, Asquith's Government exploited a scare about German spies and a panic over a German gunboat in a Moroccan port to rush a new Official Secrets Act through parliament. The measure was presented as being necessary for national security, but ministers seized their opportunity to extend the law much further. The Act included a 'catch-all' section that forbade the unauthorized disclosure of anything about the government's work, including innocuous matters that posed no possible threat to national security.

Peter Hennessy explains why Britain developed a culture of state secrecy and shows how politicians kept politically inconvenient information secret. He examines how reform of official secrets eventually came and explores the tension between the competing needs for secrecy that protects national security and more openness in a democracy.

Producer: Rob Shepherd.

See also:
The slow road to reform in a nation once ruled by secrecy - Telegraph, 15 August 2011

Equality and Human Rights Commission says information privacy laws flawed

2011-08-15T16:13:00.000+01:00

15 August 2011

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is today publishing a report that shows current privacy law is failing to stop breaches of personal data privacy and is not keeping pace with the rapid growth in personal data collection.

In response to the research findings the Commission wants the government to bring in changes that will better protect personal information.

The report shows that the way government and its agencies collect, use and store personal data is deeply flawed. They may be unaware that they are breaking the law as the complexity of the legal framework means their obligations are unclear.

It also finds that it is difficult for people to know what information is held on them, by which government agency or private sector body, or how it is being used. For example, as there is currently no law regulating the use of CCTV cameras it would be very difficult for someone to find which organisations hold footage of them.

It can be hard to check the accuracy of personal data held, to hold anyone to account for errors in the data or its misuse and to challenge decisions made about someone on the basis of that information. Calling any public or private organisation to account is made more difficult because people often may not know what their rights are or know when a breach of those rights has occurred...

In response to the report’s findings, the Commission is making three recommendations to government:
streamline the current legislation on information privacy so that it is easier for organisations to understand their responsibilities and simpler for citizens to know and use their rights.

ensure that public bodies and others have to properly justify why they need someone’s personal data and for what purpose. Any requirement to use personal data for any purpose other than for which it was collected should go through a vetting process. Organisations should ensure they comply with the current data protection and RIPA regimes, in addition to the Human Rights Act.

all public bodies should carefully consider the impact on information privacy of any new policy or practice and ensure that all requests for personal data are justified and proportionate.

Full press release here and Protecting Information Privacy report here.

Football Supporters' Federation calls for sports' governing bodies to covered by FOI

2011-08-15T13:21:00.001+01:00

10 Aug 2011
FansNetwork/The Ugly Inside

The FSF believes that football’s governing bodies should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FoI). Sport’s governing bodies should be held accountable in the same manner as government departments, local councils, and civil servants.

Currently organisations like the Football Association (FA) are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act as are other sporting bodies such as the English Cricket Board, British Cycling Federation, and British Olympic Association (BOA).

The FSF argues that sports governing bodies should not enjoy the same privileges as private companies. Governance of sport is a matter of great public interest because of the huge amounts of public money spent on sport and sporting events.

Full story here.

Petition on fixed time limits for internal reviews of FOI requests

2011-08-15T12:43:00.000+01:00

John Cross has started an e-petition calling on the Government to introduce a statutory time limit for internal reviews of FOI requests:

Introduce legislation to create a fixed time limit of 20 workings days for public bodies to complete internal reviews under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The present system with no statutory limit is open to abuse and long delays reduce public confidence in the work of public bodies and civil servants. Information is most valuable when it is current and up to date.

The petition's closing date is 12 August 2012. Sign up here.

Seminar on current developments in FOI in Scotland

2011-08-08T12:34:00.000+01:00

The final speakers for the next seminar at the Centre for Freedom of Information in Scotland, have been confirmed. Dr Will Dinan and Kate Spence will share findings from the most recent phase of their research into the uptake of FOI by civil society. The qualitative research included interviews with voluntary organisations, public authority staff and campaigners. The three-year project aims to improve understanding of the issues facing the voluntary sector in their use of FOI.

The event takes place at the Dundee School of Law on Wednesay 7 September 2011, from 13:00 to 16:00. Other speakers confirmed already are Fiona Killen, the Commissioner’s external legal advisor, who will give a comprehensive update on key issues facing FOI in Scotland today, and Hugh Hagan, who worked on the Public Records Bill team and will discuss the implications the new records legislation for FOI.

Why should you attend?

The seminar offers a cost effective “one stop shop” to get up to speed with a wide range of policy and legislative issues which affect FOI in Scotland - FOI practitioners and users alike. It’s the first general update seminar the Centre has held since October 2010. It’s also an opportunity to engage in interactive debate with the speakers and with each other.

A booking form is available here, or simply email Donna Hendry at the School of Law on centrefoi@dundee.ac.uk.

Welcome for greater online disclosure - but concern that contracting out will encourage greater secrecy

2011-08-04T08:33:00.000+01:00

Press release 4 August 2011

The government’s plans, announced today, to publish more information online about the quality of public services was welcomed by the Campaign for Freedom of Information. “The more that is published proactively, the less opportunity there will be for individual authorities to resist disclosure when the figures show that their performance is poor” the Campaign said.

But the Campaign said that some government policies, risked undermining openness. It highlighted the large-scale contracting out of local authority functions proposed by the Localism Bill. “The more council functions are carried out by contractors, the harder it is to rely on the Freedom of Information Act to scrutinise what is being achieved. There are potential solutions to this, which the government is so far refusing to support. Someone making an FOI request to the council should be able to obtain any information about the contract held by the contractor, unless it is exempt. At the moment, access can be blocked by a confidentiality clause agreed between the contractor and council.”

Training for freedom of information requesters

2011-08-03T14:17:00.000+01:00

Do you want to learn how to use the Freedom of Information Act? Are you already using the Act, but want to know more about how the Information Commissioner and Information Tribunal are interpreting its key provisions?

The Campaign for Freedom of Information is running a training course for FOI requesters in central London on Thursday 8 December 2011. The course is divided into two parts. The morning session will provide an introduction to the legislation covering both the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations. The afternoon session will be more advanced and will examine some of the key decisions made under the two regimes and explain how they can help you obtain information. We think most people will benefit from attending the whole day, but you're welcome to come to just the morning or afternoon if you wish.

Further information and details on how to book a place are available here.

FOI Disclosure Stories July

2011-08-01T15:13:00.000+01:00

OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted - New Scientist 28/07/07
Temperature records going back 150 years from 5113 weather stations around the world were yesterday released to the public by the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. The university were ordered to release data by the UK Information Commissioner's Office following a freedom-of-information request for the raw data from researchers.
See the data here.

Cataracts, hips, knees and tonsils: NHS begins rationing operations – The Independent 28/07/11
Hip replacements, cataract surgery and tonsil removal are among operations now being rationed in a bid to save the NHS money. The alarming figures emerged from a survey of 111 PCTs by the health-service magazine GP, using the Freedom of Information Act.

Exclusive: Cameron breaks his Sure Start promise – New Statesman 27/07/11
27 centres have been closed since May 2010 despite Cameron's promise to protect funding, according to information released after freedom of information requests were made by the New Statesman to the Department for Education.

Children and young people’s mental health services slashed by funding cuts – Young Minds 27/07/11
A survey of health trusts and councils has found that more than half have cut their budgets for children and young people’s mental health services for 2011/2012. A Freedom of Information request sent to 120 service providers and commissioners generated 55 responses, of which 29 said they would reduce spend in this area.

Ministry of Defence spends £1 billion on staff credit cards – The Telegraph 27/07/11
Over the past four years, the MoD spent £986,041,110 on department credit cards, far more than any other government body according to a data released by the Cabinet Office following freedom of information request. The disclosure will add to concerns over the management of the ministry, which is grappling with a multi-billion pound black hole in its finances.

Children endure seven-month wait for wheelchairs – Children & Young People Now 26/07/11
Hundreds of disabled children are being forced to wait more than seven months to be assessed and provided with the mobility equipment they need, an investigation by CYP Now has revealed through figures obtained from freedom of information requests sent to all 151 primary care trusts, and answered in full by 40 areas.

Substandard care linked to maternal deaths in London – BBC 25/07/11
Panorama used Freedom of Information requests to survey the provision of maternity services across the UK. The findings reveal that maternity units temporarily closed their doors to new admissions 1055 times in 2010, resulting in at least 927 women needing to be transferred to other maternity units.

Fifth of patients left in learning disability hospitals for five years – Community Care 19/07/11
Nearly one in five people in learning disability hospitals such as Winterbourne View have been there for more than five years. Information gathered under the Freedom of Information Act from 32 primary care trusts, covering 247 patients, showed 18% had been in hospitals for five years or more and 3% had been resident for more than 10.

The Arbroath Schools review: the scandal of the public opinion surveys – For Argyll 18/07/11
Angus Council consulted the public on merging two schools into one new school through two surveys. An FOI request was issued for a breakdown of the survey results. The data released showed both of these surveys to have been profoundly manipulated. In the first survey it emerged that 399 (57.4%) of the responses had come from the same IP address, effectively the same computer and most likely the same individual.

Call for councils to remove £1bn in pension funds from tobacco firms – The Guardian 17/07/11
Doctors have claimed that councils are profiting from deaths through smoking by investing tens of millions of pounds of their pension funds in tobacco firms. They have spoken out after freedom of information requests by a health campaigner in the south-west of England revealed that seven local authorities in that region have made investments of £103.8m.

Free seminar: Access to information? … There’s a website for that!

2011-07-19T15:58:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, is chairing a free seminar at the Festival of Politics in Edinburgh on 26th August. Titled “Access to information? … There’s a website for that!”, the event will cover how new media make it easier for people to ask for information, and how they have led to the creation of new kinds of information using government data.

Attendees will hear from local Edinburgh man, Michael Traill, who became interested in FOI when asking Lothian and Borders police for information some years ago, and now regularly makes FOI requests online. There will also be live demonstrations of websites which take raw government data and use it to provide new and useful services for the public.

The event will round up with a chance to discuss the issues raised with a panel including the Commissioner and speakers, chaired by Kirstie Shirra, a freelance campaigner who started out on her career as Scotland's only full time FOI lobbyist, when she was at Friends of the Earth Scotland.

To book a free place visit www.festivalofpolitics.org.uk or call 0131 473 2000.

Friday 26 August 2011, 13:30 to 14:30, in Committee Room 3, The Scottish Parliament

Scottish Govt drops fight to withhold local income tax information

2011-07-19T15:50:00.001+01:00

The Scottish Government has released documents detailing the financial implications of a proposed local income tax scheme following a two-and-a-half year fight to prevent disclosure.

The documents, written by Dr Andrew Goudie, Mr Salmond’s chief economic adviser, explain how the projected revenue from this proposed local income tax had declined by up to £158 million. In order to fill this gap, the local income tax levy would have had to be 50 per cent higher than Mr Salmond claimed.

The legal battle began when the Daily Telegraph made a Freedom of Information request for the revised local income tax revenue projections from Scottish Ministers in 2009. The Scottish Government refused the request on the grounds that the information was exempt under section 29(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act, which applies to information relating to the formulation or development of government policy.

The case went to the Scottish Information Commissioner. The Commissioner ordered the information to be released because the decision by Scottish Ministers in January 2009 to delay the introduction of the tax until after the election in 2011 created a weighty public interest in understanding the projections available to Ministers at that time. The Scottish Government appealed this decision, taking the case to Scotland’s highest civil court, the Court of Session. The result of this legal move was that disclosure of the documents was postponed until after the Holyrood election in May.

According to the Daily Telegraph, opposition parties claim this was a cynical move on Salmond’s behalf to hide this embarrassing information in the run up to the Scottish elections.

The case was due to go to the Court of Session, however in a surprise U-turn ministers withdrew the appeal last week. John Swinney, Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth Secretary, said: "While this particular issue became academic given that the information is already in the public domain, we will of course continue to uphold the wider principle in regard to policy formulation.”

However, only one small part of the information had been leaked in a Telegraph article in April 2011. Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, is critical of how the government has responded:

“This has been a most extraordinary case, throughout which the Government has consistently challenged almost every aspect of my investigation.

It resisted my conclusion that the request was valid; it disputed whether certain information was relevant to the request; it took court action against a statutory notice requiring Ministers to provide information I needed in the course of my investigation; and finally appealed to the Court of Session against my decision which ordered the information to be disclosed.

Some two years of work and £60,000 in legal fees later I have received notice from my solicitors that the Government intends to abandon that appeal and meet my expenses.”

Read the full story in the Telegraph and the Scottish Government’s press release.

FOI Disclosure Stories June 19th- July 7th

2011-07-18T11:16:00.000+01:00

More than 100 death risk leaks in North Sea oil rigs in two years – The Daily Record 07/07/11
More than 100 potentially lethal oil and gas spills took place on rigs in the North Sea in the last two years, a probe has highlighted. Damning statistics showing serious spills on oil and gas platforms at the rate of one a week were revealed under freedom of information legislation.

GPs left in limbo as PCTs shed staff and pay millions in redundancy costs – GP 05/07/07
PCTs have seen a mass exodus of staff almost two years before the transition to GP commissioning, with some already shedding up to a third of their workforce, a Pulse investigation reveals. Figures from 54 PCTs obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show they have each shelled out an average of £585,000 in redundancy and voluntary resignation costs – meaning the bill across England is likely to be more than £88m so far.

Revealed: The thousands of pregnancies aborted for ‘abnormalities’ including cleft palates and Down’s syndrome – The Daily Mail 05/07/11
Thousands of pregnancies were aborted last year for 'abnormalities' including 500 for Down's syndrome, new figures reveal. The statistics for 2010 in England and Wales were released after the Department of Health yielded to a Freedom of Information Request from the Pro Life Alliance, following a five-year legal battle.

One in three PCTs restricts prescriptions – Gponline 04/07/11
One in three PCTs has issued guidance restricting prescriptions to 28 days' treatment at a time, despite opposition from patients and GPs, our investigation has found. Of 104 PCTs that replied to a Freedom of Information request, 32% said they had issued guidance advising GPs to limit prescriptions to 28 days' supply at a time. A further 11% said they promoted such practice.

Some families still receiving £100,000 a year in housing benefit, latest figures reveal – The Telegraph 04/07/11
As the Coalition Government faces mounting criticism over plans to cap housing benefit at £500 per week, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that some local authorities in the capital are still to paying private landlords up to four times that amount.

H.R.H. The Prince Minister: Charles accused of meddling after he summons seven senior Ministers to Clarence House in just ten months - Mail On Sunday 03/07/11
Prince Charles has been accused of meddling in Government policy after a Mail on Sunday investigation revealed he has had at least nine private meetings with Ministers in less than ten months according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act

Revealed: British government’s plans to play down Fukushima – The Guardian 30/06/11
Internal emails show a PR campaign was launched to protect UK nuclear plans after tsunami in Japan. Internal emails released by the Department for Energy and Climate Change show how the business and energy departments worked closely behind the scenes with multinational companies to try to ensure the accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the UK.

Cataract treatment thresholds branded ‘false economy’ – Optomentry.co.uk 30/06/11
Arbitrary thresholds for cataract treatment being brought in by some PCTs are ‘false economy’ and are reducing the quality of life for the elderly in England, an RNIB report has concluded. Following a Freedom of Information Act request to all English PCTs, the charity has found that 53% of those who responded had an acuity threshold in place for treatment which goes against Department of Health guidance. Read the report here.

Police cash in on car crashes: It’s not just insurance forms making millions selling drivers’ details – 28/06/11 Claims Standards Council
Police are raking in millions of pounds from a ‘huge racket’ in which they cynically sell on the details of drivers who have had a road accident. The police demand a so-called ‘administration fee’ of up to £25 per vehicle. The evidence was compiled by the insurer swiftcover.com, using Freedom of Information requests.

UK Information Commissioner orders release of climate data – Nature 28/06/11
Nearly two years after an Oxford University professor filed the original freedom-of-information request, the United Kingdom Information Commissioner's Office has overruled the University of East Anglia and ordered the institution to release a pair of files containing weather station data.

Spending on older people’s care to be cut by 8.4 per cent this year reveals new Age UK research – Age UK 27/06/11
Age UK research launched today reveals that the likely cuts in older people’s social care of 8.4 per cent this year could hasten the collapse of an already crumbling social care system in England. Age UK made a Freedom of Information request to each English council with responsibility for adult social services, to reveal their planned expenditure on older people’s social care for the current financial year.

Memo reveals intelligence chief’s bid to fuel fears of Iraqi WMDs – The Observer 26/06/11
The senior intelligence official responsible for Tony Blair's notorious dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction proposed using the document to mislead the public about the significance of Iraq's banned weapons. The memo, released under the Freedom of Information Act, has been described as one of the most significant documents on the dossier yet published.

Inspections reveal poor standards of care at homes for the elderly – The Scotsman 26/06/11
One in ten of Scotland's homes for the elderly are providing either "weak" or "unsatisfactory" care for residents, according to worrying new figures obtained by Labour from a freedom of information request.

Secret memorandum reveals Britain’s involvement in rendition – The Guardian 23/06/11
A secret memorandum of understanding between the UK and US on the treatment of prisoners captured in Iraq has been released for the first time. The 2008 document is one of a series of documents revealed through freedom of information requests put in by the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition. Read the MOU here.

An end to the ‘status quo of secrecy’ at Bolton Council? – Bolton News 19/06/11
The outside business dealings of senior town hall staff could soon be made public after Bolton Council was issued a High Court threat by the country’s information boss. The threat comes after transparency campaigner John Greenwood asked for details held on the council’s register of interests in a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The Information Commissioner has now ruled that the details of the register of interests should be released.

FOI amendments pressed during Localism Bill

2011-07-13T12:42:00.000+01:00

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has been working on amendments to the Localism Bill tabled by Lord Wills, the former Labour FOI minister. The amendments sought to:

1) Require local authority executives and their committees to meet in public, unless regulations specify otherwise. The Localism Bill amends the arrangements for local authority governance, allowing councils to return to the committee system should they choose to do so. For authorities which operate executive arrangements, the Bill allows for new regulations to be made governing the circumstances in which meetings and documents must be open to the public (Clause 11 of the Localism Bill gives effect to Schedule 2 which inserts a new Part 1A into the Local Government Act 2000, and the proposed section 9GA(4) of that new part provides for these regulations to be made). But if the regulations are not made before the new arrangements come into force, the Bill would leave it to executives themselves to decide which of their meetings will be open to the public and which will be held in private (Sections 9G(1) and (2) of the new part 1A). They would be free to hold all their meetings in private, should they choose to do so. The amendment sought to reverse this position, so that in the absence of regulations, all meetings of the executive or its committees would have to be in public.

2) Ensure that future contracts entered into by local authorities would include a ‘freedom of information’ provision. This would stipulate that all information about the performance of the contract which is held by the contractor would be deemed to be held 'on behalf of' the authority for the purpose of the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations. The ‘Community Right to Challenge’ in Chapter 3 of the Localism Bill envisages that a growing proportion of local authorities’ functions will be carried out for it by other bodies. The intention of the amendment is that the public’s rights to information should be the same, whether a particular task is carried out in-house or contracted out.

3) Bring companies that are 50% or more owned by local authorities within the scope of the FOI Act. At present the FOI Act applies to companies that are wholly owned by a single public authority. The Protection of Freedoms Bill would extend that definition to cover a company which is wholly owned by more than one public authority. However, a company which jointly owned by a public authority and some other body, perhaps a private company, is not subject to the FOI Act at all, even where the public authority is the dominant shareholder. The amendment would bring such companies within the Act’s scope.

4) Require local authorities to publish annual statistics on their compliance with the FOI Act.

5) Bring the Housing Ombudsman within the scope of the FOI Act. At present, complaints about social housing matters are dealt with by two different ombudsmen. Complaints about housing associations go to the Housing Ombudsman; complaints about local authority housing go to the Local Government Ombudsman. The Localism Bill proposes that in future a unified complaints system should apply, with both types of complaint going to the Housing Ombudsman.

This transfer of functions, may be accompanied by a strengthening of the Housing Ombudsman’s enforcement powers. The Bill allows the Secretary of State by Order to give the Housing Ombudsman the power to make determinations which have the force of a court order (New paragraph 7C, which would be added to Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1996 by clause 158 of the Localism Bill). Surprisingly, the Housing Ombudsman is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The Localism Bill contains no provision to bring the Ombudsman under the Act, despite the fact that the Housing Ombudsman is to take over important responsibilities from the Local Government Ombudsman, who is subject to the FOI Act. The amendment would redress this anomaly.

The amendments were debated during the second day of the Bill’s committee stage on Thursday 23 June 2011. Responding to the debate, the minister Baroness Hanham gave a reassurance that the Government would make it clear there is a presumption of openess regarding meetings of local authority executives. But she did not support any of the other amendments.

I cannot say anything more than that we are very much in favour of open access to meetings of local authorities, but we recognise that there are occasions when confidential information has to be discussed – for example, information on contracts and members of staff. Meetings have to be closed sometimes, but we will make it clear that there has to be a presumption in favour of openness…

We do not believe that it is necessary to extend the Freedom of Information Act to those bodies at present with information about contracts with public authorities, which can be requested from them. A local authority can be quizzed about any contract that it has and we are proactively publishing contractual information online.

Amendment 133C would introduce a statutory requirement for the publication of an annual report by every local authority, including the smallest parish councils receiving very low volumes of freedom of information requests. We do not think that this is a burden that should be borne...

Finally, on extending the Freedom of Information Act to cover the Housing Ombudsman, it is worth noting that we are planning to extend the Act to a considerable number of new bodies through legislation and we intend to keep those under review. While I do not say “in”, I do not say “out” at the present time.

In reply, Lord Wills pressed the minister to consider the amendments again in more detail.

I am grateful to the Minister for the spirit in which she engaged with these amendments. However, her response was not quite as welcoming instinctively as I would have hoped, so I ask her to scrutinise the amendments in more detail and perhaps to consult the noble Lord, Lord McNally. I do not say that because I discount any possible burdens put on local authorities or contractors or businesses. As someone who ran a small business in the past, I am deeply conscious of the need to avoid putting burdens on small businesses. These amendments were framed not to place a disproportionate burden on anyone. Perhaps on closer scrutiny that will become apparent.

I am willing to accept any suggestions for amendments and I am sure that the Government would be able to improve the drafting. The key point that I ask the Minister to take away is that, if the Government do not engage with the issues behind these amendments…that will mean, potentially, over time, a significant diminution of transparency in the operation of local authorities and those whom they contract to provide services for them. That is very serious for those who believe in freedom of information. It is in breach of a fundamental tenet of the coalition agreement, which is why I hope that this Government will take it seriously.

Read the full debate on the amendments here (begins Col 1433).

See also:
Localism Bill Explanatory Notes [HL Bill 71] ) (pdf)
Second Marshalled List of Amendments as at 21 June. Lord Wills' amendments were 52A, 133A, 133B, 133C and 181A.

Public Accounts Committee says Network Rail should be subject to FOI Act

2011-07-12T12:04:00.001+01:00

A report by the Public Accounts Committee 'Office of Rail Regulation: Regulationg Network Rail's efficiency' published today, calls for the Department for Transport and Office of Rail Regulation to ensure that Network Rail is made subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The report states:

The internal operations of Network Rail are not transparent. We are concerned about Network Rail’s use of ‘compromise agreements’ with departing employees, and that a review by the Regulator has been required to investigate the delayed disclosure by Network Rail of an issue regarding level crossing safety. We are concerned that Network Rail was not able to tell us the total value of compromise agreements it had entered into. The Department and the Regulator should ensure that Network Rail is subject to the same transparency requirements as public bodies, with full application of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

It also says:

Pursuing the issue of transparency, we noted press reports of an internal Railtrack memorandum from 2001 regarding safety at the Elsenham level crossing, an issue which had not been made public until 2006. The matter is currently the subject of review by the Regulator, who will judge whether it was material to the public interest and was withheld deliberately. Network Rail is not currently subject to Freedom of Information legislation, but told us that it would not object to being included within the scope of the Act in future.

Does this mean Network Rail has had a change of heart? David Higgins, who took over as Chief Executive of Network Rail in February 2010, told the Committee he would have no objection to members of the public being able to make FOI requests adding that he had "been used to FOI in the last two jobs I have had".

Before the election both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats promised Network Rail would be covered by FOI. In April 2010, the Conservatives published 'Big ideas to give Britain real change in politics', which stated:

A Conservative government will increase the range of publically funded bodies that are subject to scrutiny using Section 5 orders under the Freedom of Information Act. These bodies will include:

• Network Rail

• Northern Rock;

• The Carbon Trust;

• The Energy Saving Trust;

• NHS Confederation (in relation to activities in receipt of public funds);

• Local Government Association; and

• Traffic Penalty Tribunals

Section 5 of the Freedom of Information Act enables Secretaries of State to designate organisations that appear to exercise functions of a public nature to scrutiny under the legislation. We will extend the Freedom of Information Act to these organisations within weeks of the General Election.

But an announcement in January 2011 that the Government would extend the FOI Act to additional bodies did not include Network Rail, a decision which the Campaign for Freedom of Information expressed disappointment about.

See also:
We need a regulator with teeth to force efficiencies at Network Rail, says MPs - The Times, 12 July 2011 (subscription)
Network Rail chief in push for openness - FT, 27 Feb 2011

Government to publish new data on health, schools, courts and transport

2011-07-07T16:16:00.002+01:00

The Government has announced the next stage in its transparency agenda with a commitment to publish key data on the NHS, schools, criminal courts and transport. The new commitments are set out in a letter from the Prime Minister to Cabinet colleagues.

In his letter, the PM said transparency was "at the heart of the Government's agenda".

"We recognise that transparency and open data can be a powerful tool to help reform public services, foster innovation and empower citizens. We also understand that transparency can be a significant driver of economic activity. These commitments represent the most ambitious open data agenda of any government in the world."

The letter commits the Government to publishing the following new data sets:

NHS
Data on comparative clinical outcomes of GP practices in England to be published by December 2011, following the lead of the NHS in London which has agreed a set of 22 indicators with local GPs.
Prescribing data by GP practice to be published by December 2011, as per the Growth Review.
Complaints data by NHS hospital so that patients can see what issues have affected others and take better decisions about which hospital suits them. This commitment will be met by October 2011.
Clinical audit data, detailing the performance of publicly funded clinical teams in treating key healthcare conditions, will be published from April 2012. This service will be piloted in December 2011 using data from the latest National Lung Cancer Audit, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP).
Data on staff satisfaction and engagement by NHS provider (for example by hospital and mental health trust) will be published from December 2011.
Data on the quality of post-graduate medical education by provider from April 2012.
Education and skills

Data enabling parents to see how effective their school is at teaching high, average and low attaining pupils across a range of subjects, from January 2012.
Opening up access to anonymised data from the National Pupil Database to help parents and pupils to monitor the performance of their schools in depth, from June 2012. This will enable better comparisons of school performance and we will look to strengthen datasets in due course.
Bringing together for the first time school spending data, school performance data, pupil cohort data and Ofsted judgements, from January 2012, in a parent-friendly portal, searchable by postcode.
Data on attainment of students eligible for pupil premium to be published from January 2012.
Data on apprenticeships paid for by HM Government, by organisation and by success rate to be published from July 2011.
Criminal justice
Sentencing data by court will be published by November 2011, enabling the public to see exactly what sentences are being handed down in their local courts, and compare different courts on a wide range of measures. The data, anonymised, will include the age, gender and ethnicity of those sentenced, the sentence given, and the time taken at each stage from offence to completion of the case in court.
Data on performance of probation services and prisons including re-offending rates by offender and institution. To be published from October 2011.
From May 2012, the national crime mapping website, Police.uk, will provide the public with information on what happens next for crime occurring on their streets, i.e. police action and justice outcomes.
Transport

In addition to opening up data owned by DfT and its arms length bodies, we are committed to working with the transport industry and data users to make public transport data open and freely available for re-use. Over the next year we will deliver:

Data on current and future roadworks on the Strategic Road Network to be published from October 2011, and subject to consultation to extend this during 2012 to Local Authority Streetworks Registers maintained under statute.
All remaining Government-owned free datsets from Transport Direct, including cycle route data and the national car park database to be made available for free re-use from October 2011.
Real time data on the Strategic Road Network including incidents, speeds and congestion to be published from December 2011. Office of Rail Regulator to increase the amount of data published relating to service performance and complaints by May 2012.
Rail timetable information to be published weekly by National Rail from December 2011.
Government financial information

We are working with the purchase and payment card providers to provide a consistent method of reporting government procurement card spend data for transactions above £500 in value, so this is available for publication on departmental websites, from end September 2011.

See also:
David Cameron's article in the Telegraph on transparency
ICO statement on Cabinet Office transparency event

Information Commissioner's Annual Report 2010/11

2011-07-07T13:44:00.000+01:00

The Information Commissioner's Annual Report for 2010/11 has been published. A press release accompanying the report highlights the continued progress made by the ICO in reducing the time taken to investigate freedom of information complaints:

Today's annual report also highlights the significant improvements the ICO has made in the time it takes to handle freedom of information complaints. There are now no cases over 12 months old, compared with three at the end of 2010/11, 117 at the end of 2009/10 and 418 two years ago. Process improvements and changes to the ICO's organisational structure made during the year enabled the ICO to complete more decision notices than ever before without sacrificing quality and no increase in the rate of appeals.

The report is available to download here. A webcast of the report's launch with a presentation by Christopher Graham is available to watch here.

DoH complies with High Court ruling on definition of personal data in abortion statistics case

2011-07-05T12:00:00.000+01:00

The Department of Health has decided not to appeal the recent High Court ruling on the definition of personal data in Department of Health v IC [2011] EWHC 1430 and has disclosed the disputed statistics on the number of late of abortions carried out in England and Wales.

Following the Department's appeal to the High Court, Mr Justice Cranston held that the Tribunal had been entitled to find, from the evidence before it, that the proposed disclosure was of fully anonymised data, which would not identify or (in combination with other information) lead to the identification of any of the individuals concerned.

The key part of the judgement considered the meaning of a disputed passage in Lord Hope's judgement in the House of Lords ruling on Common Services Agency v Scottish Information Commissioner [2008] UKHL 47. This was the request for childhood leukemia statistics by census ward in Dumfries and Galloway.

Mr Justice Cranston found that:

• Lord Hope had recognised that the CSA could itself always identify the children involved from the original information which it held

• it did not follow that statistics derived from that data, if disclosed in a fully anonymised form would still be personal data. This is a point on which, he found, all members of the House of Lords demonstrated 'a shared understanding'.

• the House of Lords decision to refer the issue back to the SIC in that case was not to determine whether the process of barndardisation would transform the data into data that would no longer be personal data in the hands of CSA itself. (This is what the Tribunal had found in its ruling in the abortion statistics case.) The process of barnardisation (by which low numbers were randomly increased or decreased by 1 or left as they were) was not capable of doing this, since Lord Hope had expressly recognised that the CSA would still hold data identifying the children concerned. The point of the referring the case back to SIC was to determine whether bardnadisation could prevent the public from identifying any of the children involved.

•the Tribunal had made an error of law. It should have found that disclosure of fully anonymised abortion statistics to the public did not involve a disclosure of personal data, even though the Department of Health, the data controller, could still identify each of the women involved.

• any other conclusion would be 'divorced from reality'. The argument that the data remained personal data, even if disclosed to the public in fully anonymised form, because the data controller could identify those involved, would lead to the conclusion that to reveal that 100,000 women had an abortion in a particular year would be to disclose personal data about every one of them, which "is not a sensible result" and would seriouslty inhibit the publication of medical statistics.

See also:
Department of Health statement 5 July 2011

FOI Disclosure Stories May 26th- June 13th

2011-06-15T11:58:00.000+01:00

Thousands of children held in police cells overnight – Guardian 13/06/11
At least 53,000 children under the age of 16 were held overnight in police cells in 2008 and 2009, including 13,000 children aged between nine and 13, according to figures obtained by the Howard League for Penal Reform from half the police forces in England and Wales.

Foreigners pay £1m for NHS liver operations – The Sunday Times 12/06/11 (subscription only)
A hospital in the National Health Service has been paid more than £1m in the past two years for carrying out private liver transplants on foreigners using scarce organs donated by British patients. King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, in London, was paid £1,082,064 for 22 private liver transplants on foreign patients between January 2009 and February 2011, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Vulnerable pupils are most likely to suffer expulsion – Your Ashford 12/06/11
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that of 168 secondary school youngsters who were permanently excluded in the county of Kent last year, more than half had been assessed as needing close attention due to learning problems such as autism and dyslexia.

MoD Report Sparks Nuke Safety Fear – The Sunday Post 12/06/11 (subscription only)
A damning MoD report has said the future safety of the UK’s nuclear defence programme is being jeopardised by spending cuts. The report by the MoD's internal watchdog the Defence Nuclear Environment Safety Board was released under Freedom of Information. Read the article in The Herald.

No home to call their own – Inside Housing 10/06/11
The number of homeless households in England is set to jump dramatically this week as councils publish their official figures. Freedom of information requests by Inside Housing, which obtained the figures ahead of their expected publication on Thursday, reveal that 37 out of the 51 councils who provided figures for 2010/11 saw homelessness increase.

More than 70 per cent of NHS trusts break rules to deny IMF – and save money – The Independent 07/06/11
Women unable to conceive naturally are being denied IVF on the NHS because they are too young, too old, too fat, smoke or live in Wales – in flagrant breaches of the guidelines. The information was disclosed after the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infertility sent Freedom of Information requests to all 177 PCTs in England and Wales in March and received 171 replies.

Architects net £98m from schools – The Sunday Times 05/06/11 (subscription only)
Architects have claimed nearly £100m in fees from just 21 councils under Labour’s multi-billion-pound school-building programme, newly disclosed figures show. The architects’ fees were revealed after a freedom of information request by the Conservative party. Read the story on the Conservatives website.

HMRC launched 9,368 investigations into inheritance tax valuations over the last year – UHY Hacker Young 06/06/11
HMRC collected £70 million of additional tax by challenging the valuations of properties included in the estate of a deceased person in 2010. A freedom of information request obtained by accountants UHY Hacker Young has revealed that HMRC examined 9,368 inheritance tax valuations over the last year and has raised an average of £24,000 per case in additional tax.

Did sports club members jump the housing queue? – This is Nottingham 02/06/11
An investigation by the Post has revealed that some members of a city sports club may have received preferential treatment in the allocation of council houses. Using leaked housing records and requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the Post has identified eight players and their families who received offers for a total of 18 properties during two-and-a-half years from late 2002 to 2005.

Shock figures that spell out the extent of London’s reading crisis – The Standard 01/06/11
Data obtained by the Standard show as many as one in three children in parts of the capital lags behind - far worse than was first feared. The figures reveal the extent of the literacy crisis in London, with many state schools failing to give children the most basic of life skills. The statistics, uncovered after a five-month freedom of information battle, led parents and experts to call on the Government to tackle the scandal.

Trafficked children condemned to a nightmare by state neglect – The Observer 28/05/11
Thousands of trafficked children are being abused and murdered by their captors, but UK officials remain indifferent and skeptical. A freedom of information request revealed that 173 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, all vulnerable to traffickers, went missing from Kent council's care homes in 2009.

Trust me, Cable tells arms trade, I sold weapons to Latin America – The Times 30/05/11 (subscription only)
Vince Cable’s days as a young diplomat were spent as an arms broker helping to sell British-made weapons to one of the world’s most unstable regions. In a private speech to a symposium of arms exporters in London last November, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act, Dr Cable set about calming nerves among the industry that his past stance against arms exports would make him queasy about fighting their cause abroad.

Councils spend £100m on taxpayer funded credit cards – The Telegraph 31/05/11
Councils have spent tens of millions of pounds on taxpayer-funded credit cards with local authority executives and councillors treating themselves to first-class travel to foreign destinations and stays in five-star hotels. The Daily Telegraph has obtained details of credit card spending at 186 councils across Britain using Freedom of Information laws.

UK trained Bahraini army officers even after crackdown began – The Independent 30/05/11
Britain continued to train Bahraini army officers at Sandhurst months after the Gulf state began its brutal crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators, it was disclosed yesterday. Five Bahraini officers were receiving tuition at the élite military academy in Surrey as recently as last month, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

UK training Saudi forces used to crush Arab spring – The Observer 28/05/11
Britain is training Saudi Arabia's national guard – the elite security force deployed during the recent protests in Bahrain – in public order enforcement measures and the use of sniper rifles. In response to questions made under the Freedom of Information Act, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that British personnel regularly run courses for the national guard in "weapons, fieldcraft and general military skills training, as well as incident handling, bomb disposal, search, public order and sniper training".

Waste Watch: Councils Spend Millions On Away Days – 26/05/11
A Sky News Waste Watch investigation reveals local authorities spent more than £2 million on away days over the last two years, as Britain plunged into recession. Using Freedom of Information legislation, Waste Watch contacted every council in Britain for details of spending on team-building trips, away days and 'brainstorming' sessions.

Kenneth Clarke data protection speech

2011-05-27T12:39:00.002+01:00

Ministry of Justice
26 May 2011

Europe is in danger of making the wrong choices on new data protection rules, Secretary of State for Justice Kenneth Clarke said.

Speaking at the British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium, Mr Clarke reiterated the UK Government's commitment to restoring civil liberties, citing the Government's achievements in scrapping ID cards, and working to end the misuse of anti-terrorism stop and search powers.

He stressed that collecting data in the interests of national security must not come at the expense of UK citizens' basic freedoms, particularly the right not to have their personal data treated carelessly or even fall into the wrong hands.

The Justice Secretary also warned, however, that collecting data sensibly and sharing it safely across borders is a crucial part of efforts to tackle international crime and protect our security, and is entirely consistent with ensuring strong standards of data protection.

The EU is currently reviewing its data protection rules and Mr Clarke's speech made clear the Government's belief that it must be up to all Member States to decide the details of when to use and share data to keep their citizens safe – particularly in detecting crime and preventing terrorism. He also warned Member States of the dangers of unnecessarily prescriptive rules in this area.

Kenneth Clarke said: 'Imposing an inflexible, detailed data protection regime on the whole of the EU, regardless of the peculiarities of different cultures and legal systems, carries with it serious risks.

But he added: 'I am optimistic that there's a common sense solution on this. Our experience in the UK is that security, freedom and privacy are possible.'

While in Brussels, the Justice Secretary also met UK Members of the European Parliament and discussed data protection issues.

The speech is available to download in full here.
See also comment by Chris Pounder on the Amberhawk blog.

Campaign for Freedom of Information responds to comments on science and FOI

2011-05-27T10:58:00.001+01:00

Letter
The Guardian, Friday 27 May 2011

The president of the Royal Society calls for changes to freedom of information laws to prevent them being misused (Data laws 'misused' in climate change row, 26 May). However, existing safeguards address many of his concerns. Deliberate attempts to "intimidate" scientists, if that is what they are, can be refused under the Freedom of Information Act's safeguards against vexatious requests. Unreasonable requests for all pre-publication drafts of scientific papers can be refused under an exemption for information due for future publication. Explanations of why changes to successive drafts were made do not have to be provided unless they exist in writing. Multiple related requests from different people, if they are co-ordinated, can be refused if the combined cost of answering exceeds the act's cost limit.

Another academic is quoted as saying many FoI requests are made in order to find problems and errors – but that is a valid use of the act. It was the misguided attempt to deny ammunition to critics that led to the Climategate fiasco. The resulting independent review found there had been an "ethos of minimal compliance (and at times non-compliance) … with both the letter and the spirit" of the legislation, and that the campaign of requests to the UEA climatic research unit was partly the result of its own "unhelpful" response to earlier requests. It is not clear that much has changed.

Maurice Frankel
Director, Campaign for Freedom of Information

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/27/scientists-freedom-information-law-safeguards

FOI Disclosure Stories May 2011

2011-05-25T14:34:00.000+01:00

Internal report reveals fear of sudden ruinous rise in oil prices – The Times 24/05/11 (subscription only)
A sudden huge increase in oil prices would cut more than £102 billion from the economy over the next five years, wrecking Britain’s economic recovery, increasing unemployment and provoking industrial action, according to a Department for Energy and Climate Change report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Empty homes to be demolished ‘hidden from figures’ – BBC 23/05/11
Around 12,000 empty homes are hidden from official figures because they are earmarked for demolition, according to The Empty Homes Agency, which discovered the numbers using a freedom of information request.

Welsh schools’ GCSE performances revealed – BBC Wales 23/05/11
The Welsh Government places schools in "families" - groups of about 10 - where pupils have similar levels of family income and special needs. In one case a school's results are 42% better than another in the same family. The details were obtained by BBC Wales under the Freedom of Information Act.

Sharp drop in risk assessments into financial firms – The Guardian 22/05/11
The number of risk assessments into financial firms has fallen dramatically since the banking crisis in 2008. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the FSA revealed 936 risk assessments took place in 2002, with 616 in 2004 and 427 in 2006. The number then stabilised around 300 until 2008 when it fell to just over 200.

Radiotherapy centre was regarded as one of the five ‘highest priority projects’ – The Londonderry Sentinel 13/05/11
Documents obtained through FOI show that the move towards halting plans to proceed with a badly-needed radiotherapy centre at Altnagelvin Hospital came just hours after it was described as one of the Department of Health’s highest priorities. The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety released various drafts of the controversial statement made by then Health Minister Michael McGimpsey on the last day of the Assembly.

NDCS map shows local authorities failing to protect deaf children’s services – National
Deaf Children’s Society 10/05/11
Figures released by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) reveal that almost one in five local authorities across England have cut education services for vulnerable deaf children, despite the education budget being protected by the Government. NDCS had to issue 45 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to obtain the data.

Extent of sexual offences by police being concealed by resignations – The Times 10/05/11 (subscription only)
More than 300 police officers have been disciplined for sexual offences in the past five years, The Times can reveal. Almost a hundred faced sexual assault charges, and 231 misconduct hearings for sexual misconduct, with about a third of the officers dismissed or required to resign. All 52 police forces responded to a freedom of information request for data about sexual wrongdoing by officers, with the exception of Warwickshire.

Birmingham children’s care homes and the £41million scandal – Birmingham Mail 09/05/11
The cost of placing troubled children from Birmingham in private care has rocketed after council chiefs closed four kids’ homes in the city. The information was released to the Birmingham Mail under Freedom of Information laws. The revelation that children from the city are being sent to centres up to 470 miles away in Scotland, as well as East Sussex and County Durham, has been described as a “scandal”.

Hundreds of police sacked in secret hearings – The Times 09/05/11
Police forces are sacking 160 officers every year after misconduct hearings held behind closed doors, an investigation by The Times has discovered. The Times made freedom of information requests to all 52 local forces across Britain. The results uncovered a disciplinary lottery, with officers being fired in one area for offences that might attract only a fine in another.

Councils accused of blocking renewable energy roll out - Renewable Energy Installer 05/05/11
Government plans to support the roll out of a renewable energy network are being hampered by confusion and a shocking level of inconsistency at the local level, a new survey has found. Despite government legislation to scrap the need for planning permission, many councils are still insisting homeowners seek their consent before installing solar panels according to FOI requests submitted by Renewable Energy Installer magazine.

1 in 4 not in council pension – GMB Union 03/05/11
One in four council workers have already opted out of local government pension schemes showing proposed contribution increases to local government pension schemes from 3.2% to 9.6% would be a disaster, and could jeopardise the entire Local Government Pension Scheme for its four million members says GMB. GMB established that data on participation rates in the current Local Government pension scheme using the Freedom of Information Act.

Alok Sharma MP: How Council Tax payers have funded £35 million of Trade Union salaries over the past three years – Conservative Home 28/04/11
In order to find out just how widespread the practice of funding full-time union officials with tax payers’ money was, FOI requests were sent to 429 councils across the country. Out of the 319 councils that responded, 132 had a paid full-time union official in at least one of the last 3 years. The total salary bill over the three year period for full-time union reps was £35 million.

ICO consults on new Information Rights Strategy

2011-05-24T12:20:00.000+01:00

The ICO is consulting on a new Information Rights Strategy, which will replace the former separate data protection and freedom of information strategies. It is being introduced in light of the ICO's commitment to integrate its data protection and freedom of information activities wherever possible.

The draft Information Rights Strategy is available here.

The consultation is open until 12 August 2011.

ICO specialist guidance published

2011-05-24T10:45:00.002+01:00

The ICO have published their internal freedom of information and environmental information knowledge base on their website. The specialist guidance includes the ICO's lines to take documents, which "capture the Commissioner's position in relation to issues that have arisen in casework or as a result of Tribunal decisions". The LTT documents had previously been released via WhatDoTheyKnow in response to an FOI request by Alex Skene, who made them available in a more accessible manner on the FOI wiki which he hosts. The ICO has decided to make these routinely available together with several legal background papers and other policy resources, which were previously only accessible on the ICO intranet site.

Committee stage debate of Protection of Freedoms Bill FOI clauses

2011-05-16T19:39:00.001+01:00

The House of Commons' Committee considering the Protection of Freedoms Bill last week reached the clauses of the Bill relating to datasets, Freedom of Information and the independence of the Information Commissioner.

Clause 92 of the Bill amends section 11 (Means by which communication to be made) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, by providing, amongst other things, that where an FOI request is made for a dataset to be provided in electronic form:

it must, so far as reasonably practicable, be supplied in a reusable format; and
if the public authority is the copyright holder, no copyright restrictions may be imposed on its reuse other than those set out in a 'specified licence'.

However, the Campaign for Freedom of Information has highlighted a number of concerns with the definition of the term 'dataset' which underpins the measures. It has pointed out that new subsection 5(c) of the definition currently provides that a dataset ceases to be a dataset if any change is made to the way in which the information in it is presented. On the face of it this means that even a modest change in presentation, such as the merging of two columns of data into one, or the separation of one column into two, would mean that the information ceased to be a dataset. This would lead to the new dataset provisions being circumvented by relatively modest changes to the way in which the dataset is presented.

This issue was raised by Tom Brake MP (Lib Dem, Carshalton) and Vernon Coaker MP (Lab, Gedling) during the debate. In response, the minister, Lynne Featherstone, promised to look again at the drafting of the clause:

Lynne Featherstone: Both the hon. Member for Gedling and my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington asked whether the definition of datasets excludes basic organisation of the information in a dataset, such as sorting alphabetically or merging two documents. We accept that the information in many datasets may have undergone some reorganisation or change in presentation; I am talking about the minor amendments that my hon. Friend was concerned might lead to a wrong use of subsection (5)(c). The objective and intent for a change is that it is not significant or substantive, such that it still constitutes the factual source data or raw data, un-manipulated in form. The policy is that such datasets are still covered by the definition. Such minor alterations, which are not significant or substantive but involve just a reorganisation or change in how the information is presented, are still covered by the definition of “dataset”, which is a subset of “information” under freedom of information legislation...Organised and adapted in such a context means that the information must have been materially organised or materially adapted for the information not to constitute a dataset.

Vernon Coaker: In all honesty, the Minister needs to look at how the clause is drafted. It does not say that. I am not making a point of difference or a point of principle, nor am I angry about the matter and think that it is a disgrace. I agree with the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington. If the hon. Lady reads subsection (5)(b) and (c)—

Lynne Featherstone: I did.

Vernon Coaker: I know that the hon. Lady has just read out subsection (5)(c). Such provisions are a lawyer’s paradise. In calmer times, she must just check whether the clause needs to be looked at again or materially altered. I am not a lawyer, so we will no doubt have a row about the meaning of “materially”. She might want to reflect on such matters and change them.

Lynne Featherstone: I hear what the hon. Gentleman is saying about the concerns that the drafting of the clause does not match its intention. I am happy to have a look at it. My understanding is that the clause does say what I intend it to say, but I take such the advice in the spirit in which it was offered and will have a second look at it. I definitely would not wish to give the lawyers a feast.

Clause 92 also amends section 19 of the FOI Act, requiring authorities to publish any requested dataset as part of their 'publication schemes' and keep it up to date, unless the authority is satisfied that this is not appropriate. The Campaign for Freedom of Information has pointed out that this involves a subjective test and would be difficult for the Information Commissioner to oversee. The minister has also now promised to look again this:

Vernon Coaker: I will be accused of being a pointy-head for other reasons in a minute, but clause 92(4)(a) states that a publication scheme must, in particular, include a requirement for the public authority concerned to publish,

“unless the authority is satisfied that it is not appropriate for the dataset to be published”.

To use the words “is not appropriate” makes the provision incredibly wide. The hon. Lady might say that she totally disagrees with what I have said, and that the provision is not widely drawn at all. I think that it is. It is a drafting point; it is not a point of principle. When the words “is not appropriate” are included, people will argue about their meaning. It is a get-out for people. If an authority does not wish to publish, it can say, “It is not appropriate for us to publish”.

Lynne Featherstone: I hear what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but I imagine that it is an interpretation in law. He is right in that there is an opportunity, if that is how he is framing this, in the words,

“unless the authority is satisfied that it is not appropriate for the dataset to be published”.

Clearly, that is not meant to be a get-out clause for authorities not to publish. The presumption and the message going out is that everything that can be published, should be published, but I will take that away and have a look at it.

The minister also responded to views expressed during oral evidence to the Committee, that if the Information Commissioner is to be limited to single term of office, it should be for longer than the 5 years proposed in the Bill. Government amendments to increase the term to 7 years were passed by the Committee.

With amendments 150 and 151, the Government want to increase the length of the single period of office from five to seven years. Both the Information Commissioner and the Campaign for Freedom of Information have welcomed the move to a single term of office...In oral evidence to the Committee, the Campaign for Freedom of Information suggested that a five-year term might be too short to allow the commissioner to be fully effective and could limit the field of applicants for the role. We have looked again at that point in the light of the concerns that were raised...Lengthening the term that the Information Commissioner serves to seven years is an appropriate response to the concerns expressed to the Committee, balanced against the points made by the Public Administration Committee and the Tiner review. Additionally, a seven-year term is consistent with similar appointments such as the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, who is also appointed for a single, non-renewable term of up to seven years.

But the minister confirmed that the Government were not considering extending the provisions on datasets to the Environmental Information Regulations as well as the Freedom of Information Act:

The Government consider that the environmental information regulations implement Council directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information. No changes to the regulations are currently being considered. The environmental information regulations already require environmental information datasets to be proactively disseminated to the public, so there was no need for us to cover the same ground.

A number of wider points aimed at strengthening the FOI Act were raised by Tom Brake MP. The minister responded that many of these fell outside the remit of the Bill, but that the parliamentary committee may want to consider them when it undertakes post-legislative scrutiny of the FOI Act later this year.

The Hansard of the debate is available here. You can watch the debate here.

School becomes second authority asked to sign undertaking to improve FOI compliance

2011-05-12T15:22:00.000+01:00

ICO press release
12 May 2011

Aberdare Girls’ School has signed a commitment to improve its freedom of information practices following concerns over the school’s handling of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said today.

The ICO contacted the school in October 2009 after receiving a complaint about the school’s refusal to disclose information. The information in question related to the legal costs and advice sought over the exclusion of a former pupil who refused to remove a religious bangle. During the ICO’s enquiries the school repeatedly failed to provide timely responses to the Commissioner’s questions. This led to the ICO issuing the school with an Information Notice requiring them to disclose information necessary to the investigation.

The ICO issued a decision notice ordering the school to provide the information to the requester on the 20 December 2010. The ICO has also now served the school with an undertaking to ensure that it continues to demonstrate a commitment to openness and compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.

Assistant Commissioner for Wales, Anne Jones, said:

“This case should serve as a warning to all public authorities that are failing to fulfil their obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

Where justified, we will use the powers available to us to ensure authorities are open and accountable.

I am pleased that Aberdare Girls’ School has signed a commitment to improve its handling of information requests.”

P Scott, Chairman of Aberdare Girls’ School has now signed a formal undertaking to ensure that staff receive adequate training on the requirements of the FOI Act. The school will also provide the Commissioner with timely responses to any future enquiries related to the school’s handling of information requests made under the FOI Act or the Environmental Information Regulations.

A full copy of the undertaking can be viewed here:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/promoting_openness/taking_action.aspx#Undertakings

ENDS

FCO review on release of colonial records says files were a 'sort of guilty secret'

2011-05-11T16:12:00.001+01:00

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has published the findings of a review into why a collection of 8,800 colonial records from the former British territories had not been placed in the public domain. The review, into why the records were not treated in accordance with the Public Records Act 1958, was undertaken by the former British High Commissioner to Canada, Mr Anthony Cary. The existence of the files (known as the 'migrated archives') in the FCO archives only emerged as a result of the High Court case brought by four Mau Mau veterans over alleged human rights abuses by British colonial officials in Kenya in the 1950s. The High Court is set to rule on their claim shortly.

The review states:

As a consequence of confusion over ownership, the Kenyan migrated archive was left in limbo: neither accepted by the TNA [The National Archives] for the public record, or formally acknowledged by the FCO. Unless it catalogued the files and conducted a full sensitivity review, the FCO could neither release the files (whether to successor Governments or to private repositories) nor consult them in any systematic way for the purposes of FoI and other search requests, nor even apply for a Lord Chancellor's instrument to authorise retention of them. But no such review was conducted. In part, this was because of resource constraints: the Department has struggled to keep up with the annual statutory requirement to select, review and redact files for acceptance by the National Archives [TNA], and in recent years it has also faced an unrelenting flow of FoI requests. But in part it also reflected a failure by successive senior managers to grip what should have been seen to be an unresolved and potentially explosive problem.

On the question of why the Kenya files were not identified or searched at the time FOI requests were received by the FCO in 2005 and 2006, the report states:

Lack of process documentation and misunderstanding about the importance and searchability of the archives explain the failure only up to a point. I think it is fair to say that these misapprehensions were only half believed, at least by the more thoughtful and knowledgeable staff. It was perhaps convenient to accept the assurances of predecessors that the migrated archives were administrative and/or ephemeral, and did not need to be consulted for the purposes of FoI requests, while also being conscious of the files as a sort of guilty secret, of uncertain status and in the 'too difficult' tray.

The review recommends that the FCO conducts a full inventory of the information it holds. In a written ministerial statement, the Foreign Secretary said:

I believe that it is the right thing to do for the information in these files now to be properly examined and recorded and made available to the public through the National Archives. This will be taken forward rapidly. Given the size of the archive the process may take some time to complete in full. It will be overseen by a senior and independent figure I shall appoint...It is my intention to release every part of every paper of interest subject only to legal exemptions.

See also:
Mau Mau torture files were 'guilty secret' - The Independent
Court approves release of documents in Mau Mau trial - Leigh Day & Co.

Training on using the Freedom of Information Act - additional date added

2011-05-05T15:25:00.001+01:00

The 'Using the FOI Act' course being held by the Campaign for Freedom of Information on 16 June 2011 is now full. However, if there is sufficient interest, we will run the course again on Wednesday 22 June. Please contact the Campaign by email or telephone 020 7831 7477 if you are interested in attending on this date.

The media and FOI - report of roundtable discussion held in Scotland

2011-05-05T11:52:00.000+01:00

The report of a roundtable discussion on FOI and the media hosted by the Scottish Information Commissioner and Holyrood Magazine has been published.

Holyrood magazine and the Scottish Information Commissioner recently hosted a roundtable event where professionals from the media, local government, tade unions and the legal sector discussed how the legislation has worked out since it was implemented in January 2005 and how it impacts different perspectives.

The Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, was joined by a number of journalists, lawyers, FoI staff and campaigners to debate the relationship between the legislation and the media.

The meeting was held just a month after the previous Scottish Government said it was not appropriate to extend FoI laws to organisations such as contractors who build and maintain hospitals, housing associations and private prisons.

A series of other proposals have been mooted, however, and it is expected that changes will be made to the legislation.

In Scotland the role of FoI has come under the spotlight again in recent weeks. The SNP announced that it has now shelved plans to replace the council tax with a local income tax in the next Parliament. But the SNP Government came under fire after it emerged Alex Salmond has twice gone to the Court of Session to prevent the disclosure of a memo detailing the financial implications of local income tax becoming public.

The Government is contesting a decision by Dunion, who believes the tax plans are in the public interest and should be released, on the grounds that the memo constitutes "advice to ministers" which is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Full report here.

FOI Disclosure Stories April 19th-May 4th

2011-05-04T12:30:00.000+01:00

£7 million spent on Birmingham Prison ahead of controversial takeover – Birmingham Mail 03/05/11
Taxpayers have shelled out more than £7 million during the past five years on improvements at Birmingham Prison – even though it will be taken over in less than six months by a private security firm. A Freedom of Information request revealed more than £2 million had been spent during the first three months of this year alone.

£310k of City Council schemes are waved through – The Sentinel 03/05/11
Council officers applied to have more than £1.5 million worth of contracts approved without going through a tendering process designed to secure best value for money. They applied for exemption certificates for 12 projects which meant they did not have to go through a protracted procedure. Information, obtained by The Sentinel under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that six of these projects went ahead costing £30, 915.

Care Quality Commission visits drop by 70% - Community Care 03/05/11
Adult care providers have seen a "frightening and unacceptable" 70% drop in inspections by the Care Quality Commission in the past year, prompting fears for the welfare of service users. The sharp fall, revealed in a Freedom of Information request by Community Care, follows the introduction of the CQC's new registration system for providers last October, and comes despite the regulator saying that it expected there to be more inspections under the new regime.

Top Kent schools get millions in funding meant for deprived inner city pupils – Your Thanet 30/04/11
More than £4.5 million a year of Government funding is being "unfairly" pumped into selected schools to spend as they wish through a project abolished five years ago. And despite the grants being designed specifically to help schools in deprived urban areas, many of those in Kent receiving the no-strings-attached cash are in affluent areas or are grammar schools according to figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

GPs challenge PCT rationing plans - GP 28/04/11
PCT restrictions on access to NHS treatment has led to a huge rise in GPs having to submit requests for patients to access care, GP has found. The number of such requests rose by 17 per cent from 2008/9 (53,000) to 2010/11 (62,000), according to responses from 103 PCTs to our request under the Freedom of Information Act. Over the same period, the proportion of requests approved fell by 22 per cent.

Trusts insist on local GPs in out-of-hours overhaul – Pulse 28/04/11
GP out-of-hours care is being radically reshaped across England, with PCTs working with consortia to implement 'local doctor only' policies or merging services with the Government’s new 111 urgent care number.75 PCTs are following the lead of NHS East of England according to responses under the Freedom of Information Act.

Syrian officers received training in Britain – The Guardian 27/04/11
The British government has defended its training programme for foreign military leaders after it emerged that it had educated several Syrian officers at Ministry of Defence colleges. The data was released following a freedom of information request by the Guardian.

Britain for Sale – Property Week 21/04/11
A never-before-seen list of government property that is on the market, including a derelict hospital on London's Hampstead Road, a Yorkshire golf club and a grade II-listed office building in Cheltenham, was obtained from by the Government Property Unit through a Freedom of Information Act request. See a map of all the properties here.

Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq - The Independent 19/04/11
Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show. Over 1,000 documents were obtained under Freedom of Information over five years by the oil campaigner Greg Muttitt.

Closures of youth prisons triggered cases of unrest – Children & Young People Now 19/04/11
The closure of young offender institutions (YOIs) has created serious safeguarding issues within the secure estate, CYP Now has learned. A YJB document dating back to last September, released to CYP Now under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that "recent decommissioning of estate appears to have been a relevant factor in two recent significant incidents".

GPs set for greater powers to combat acute trust overspends – Pulse 18/04/11
The Department of Health is poised to add more levers into acute trust contracts to give GPs greater negotiating powers with hospitals, says a senior Department of Health official. It comes as information obtained by Pulse under the Freedom of Information Act revealed the extent of acute overspending that GP commissioners will have to tackle.

Emails expose BP’s attempts to control research into impact of Gulf oil spill – The Guardian 15/04/11
BP officials tried to take control of a $500m fund pledged by the oil company for independent research into the consequences of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, it has emerged. Documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act show BP officials openly discussing how to influence the work of scientists supported by the fund, which was created by the oil company in May last year.

Annual central government FOI statistics 2010

2011-05-03T13:40:00.000+01:00

The Ministry of Justice has published the 2010 annual statistics on the implementation and operation of the FOI Act in central government.

The report shows:

central government bodies received 43,921 "non routine" information requests in 2010, 8% more than in 2009.
Departments of State received 27,410 of these requests, an increase of 16% compared to 2009. Other monitored bodies received 16,511 requests, 2% less than in 2009.
the Ministry of Justice received the largest number of requests (3,174), followed by the Department of Work and Pensions (3,145) Home Office (3,069), Ministry of Defence (2,956), Department for Transport (2,864), Treasury (2,064) and Department of Health (2,023).
86% of all requests were answered within the standard 20 working day deadline, compared to 82% in 2009. Departments of State answered 83% of requests within 20 working days, compared to 91% for other monitored bodies.
57% of all "resolvable" requests were granted in full, 15% were withheld in part and 25% withheld in full.

Ranked in order of their performance in meeting the 20 working day deadline (with no. of requests received in brackets), the list of departments is as follows:

Department of Health 99% (2,023)
HM Treasury 95% (2,062)
Attorney General's Office 93% (127)
Department for Transport 89% (2,887)
Communities and Local Government 89% (929)
Northern Ireland Office 89% (214)
DEFRA 87% (551)
Wales Office 87% (119)
Department of Work and Pensions 87% (3,145)
Department for International Development 86% (402)
Scotland Office 86% (139)
Department for Culture, Media and Sport 85% (607)
Export Credit Guarantee Department 85% (65)
Department of Energy and Climate Change 85% (576)
Ministry of Justice 84% (3,174)
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills 83% (1,034)
Government Equalities Office 80% (106)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 79% (1,184)
Home Office 77% (3,069)
Department for Education (76% (880)
Cabinet Office 72% (1,081)
Ministry of Defence 60% (2,916)

The report is available as a pdf here. The statistics can be downloaded in Excel or CSV format here.

ICO e-newsletter, April 2011

2011-04-28T15:53:00.000+01:00

The April edition of the ICO's e-newsletter is available from:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/enewsletter/previous_enewsletters/English/201104.aspx

Sign up here:
https://www.ico.gov.uk/news/enewsletter/subscribe_to_enewsletter.aspx

FOI Disclosure Stories March 27th-April 13th

2011-04-13T14:25:00.000+01:00

GPs face bans on high-cost drugs – Pulse 12/04/11
GPs are being banned from prescribing high-cost drugs approved by NICE as NHS managers seek drastic savings on prescribing budgets. Responses from 134 PCOs under the Freedom of Information Act show that more than half have blacklists of drugs – in some trusts of more than 100 – that GPs are banned from prescribing.

Musa Kusa linked to lawyer’s killing in London – The Times 10/04/11 (subscription only)
Former Libyan foreign minister was linked to the murder of a Libyan lawyer in London, according to a previously unseen police report. The revelation, in documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, comes amid mounting pressure on the government to prosecute Kusa.

Britain Privatises war-zone intelligence… at a cost of £240m – The Times 08/04/11 (subscription only)
Intelligence in Afghanistan is being gathered by security companies as the contracting-out of military duties becomes much more commonplace. MPs are now examining the growing scope of the contracts, obtained by The Times under the Freedom of Information Act.

Salmon & Trout Association exposes sham of salmon farming industry claims – Salmon & Trout Association 07/04/11
Dossier of material obtained under freedom of information reveals alarming results of Government inspections of Scottish salmon farms including high levels of sea-lice - the major concern for wild fish conservation.

NHS missing out on £5.5m a year in potential savings – Royal College of Nursing 06/04/11
The Royal College of Nursing has revealed that the NHS could potentially save up to £5.5 million a year if health organisations improve the way they dispose of waste. The RCN submitted a Freedom of Information to investigate and subsequently produced a report, Freedom of Information report on waste management. Read the report here.

Rarer Cancers Foundation Report warns of growing cross-border divide in cancer services – Rarer Cancers Foundation 06/04/11
A new RCF report has found that patients in Wales are being denied life-extending cancer treatments which would be made available to them elsewhere in the UK. The figures have come to light under Freedom of Information requests.

Surgery blunders hospital tightens checks – Yorkshire Post 04/04/11
A hospital trust in Yorkshire has paid out a total of almost £1.2m in compensation to women who were left in pain and in some cases scarred for life after their breast operations were botched by the same surgeon. New figures obtained under FOI reveal that a total of £1,189,054 has been paid by the Foundation Trust to 26 women.

Met hacking inquiry chief dined with NOTW staff – The Independent 01/04/11
The police chief who headed Scotland Yard’s inquiry into phone-hacking dined with the News of the World at the height of his criminal investigation into the newspaper. Its disclosure in a Freedom of Information request prompted claims that the force had an unduly “cosy relationship” with News International.

Labour claims police officers will be forced to retire – BBC 29/03/11
Although police officers cannot be made redundant, officers with 30 or more years' experience can be made to retire under existing regulations. Labour said details obtained under Freedom of Information showed 13 forces definitely intended to use this power and that 1,138 officers either have or will be forced to retire by 2015.

MoD pays £1.3m compensation to Afghans for death, injury and damage – The Guardian 28/03/11
Ministry of Defence payouts include £542 for a girl killed in a fire and £4,700 for a shop destroyed by a flare. The list of all claims that were settled or rejected in 2010 has been released after the Guardian made a freedom of information request to the MoD. Read the full list here.

‘This is damning evidence of the dangers of handing control of public services to private firms’ – The Herald 27/03/11
A massive £4.8 billion of public money is being paid to multinational corporations to run water-works that are plagued with breakdowns and pollution. Details of the problems are disclosed in hundreds of internal documents released by Scottish Water to an industry researcher at Strathclyde University under FOI laws.

Foreign Office ‘backed BP in Rosneft talks’ – The Sunday Telegraph 27/03/11
Efforts by BP to hammer out its $16bn (£10bn) share swap and Arctic exploration deal with Russian energy group Rosneft had the full support of the Foreign Office. A series of meetings between the British ambassador in Moscow and BP executives covering discussions about a Rosneft tie are listed in censored cables released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Authorities facing regulatory action for FOI delays

2011-04-12T11:30:00.000+01:00

The Information Commissioner's Office has announced that several public authorities, including the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence, are facing regulatory action for failing to reduce the time they take to respond to Freedom of Information requests:

The ICO monitored the performance of 33 public authorities for a period of three months, following concerns about delays in their responses to FOI requests. Of the 33 authorities, the ICO is in discussions with several organisations about the improvements they still need to put in place. The Commissioner has particular concerns about delays at the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Defence and Birmingham City Council. Discussions on appropriate regulatory action are now taking place.

Four other authorities - the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, the London Borough of Islington, Wolverhampton City Council and Westminster City Council - have been asked to sign undertakings to improve their performance in this area.

The remaining 26 authorities have maintained or improved their response times sufficiently, and no action is being taken against them. However, the ICO has sent letters to the Home Office, the Metropolitan Police Service, NHS North West, the London Borough of Croydon, the Scotland Office and the London Borough of Newham to put on record that, while all of them are now meeting the required standard, the monitoring has revealed some areas of concern.

Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, said:

“I am delighted that over two thirds of the authorities whose performance we have been monitoring have managed to overcome their problems. However, the remaining authorities have not done enough to convince us that they have a clear and credible plan for getting back on track. Over the next four weeks, we shall be discussing appropriate next steps with them.”

The ICO has also published its latest list of authorities whose performance is being monitored. These are:

Barnsley Metropolitan Council
City of London Police
Cornwall Council
Department for Education
East Lancashire NHS Trust
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Highways Agency (an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport)
Kent County Council
Kirklees Council
London Borough of Southwark
NHS South West London (Wandsworth Borough Team – formerly NHS Wandsworth)
North East Lincolnshire Council
North Somerset Council
Nottingham City Council
Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
Surrey County Council
Surrey Police
Waveney District Council

Compromise agreements prohibiting ex-employees from making FOI requests

2011-04-12T11:09:00.001+01:00

Paul Cardin has been highlighting the fact that two councils (Cheshire West & Chester Council and Brent Council) have, as part of compromise agreements reached with former employees, imposed restrictions which prohibit them from making requests under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection acts. The Information Commissioner's Office has advised Paul that, in such situations, an ex-employee could still exercise their right to make requests and the authority would likely be in breach of the legislation if it refused to deal with them. However, if they did so, there may be legal consequences such as action for breach of contract. The issue has been covered by the Chester Chronicle, Roy Greenslade of the Guardian and by David Higgerson.

Paul has received legal advice and is now pursuing a claim against Cheshire West and Chester Council.
Further details about Paul's case are on his website: www.easyvirtualassistance.co.uk/page4.html

Reception to celebrate the life of Peter Forsskal

2011-04-06T14:49:00.000+01:00

The Swedish and Finnish Embassies in London are jointly hosting a symposium and reception, on Thursday 7th April 2011 to celebrate the life of Peter Forsskal (1732 -1763).

He is the author of Thoughts on Civil Liberty (1759), which has recently been translated for the first-time ever into English (working from the uncensored manuscript). Forsskal advocated access to information and freedom of expression, writing

it must be possible for society’s state of affairs to become known to everyone, and it must be possible for everyone to speak his mind freely about it… Matters of war and some foreign negotiations need to be concealed for some time and not become known by many, but not account of proper citizens however, but because of the enemies

His words were an intellectual catalyst for the Swedish Freedom of the Printing Press Act 1766, the world’s first freedom-of-information law.

As well as being a social philosopher, Forsskal was a botanist and zoologist - a ‘disciple’ of Carl Linnaeus. He travelled to Egypt and (modern-day) Yemen 250 years ago as a member of an expedition organised by the King of Denmark. He died in Yemen in 1763, possibly from malaria.

Thoughts on Civil Liberty is available at http://www.peterforsskal.com (also in French, Spanish and Russian; the German version is from the censored manuscript. An Arabic translation is being launched on June 14th).

Campaign says measures to remove copyright restrictions on datasets could be easily circumvented

2011-04-04T17:33:00.000+01:00

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has expressed concern that the measures to remove copyright restrictions on datasets in the Protection of Freedoms Bill could be easily circumvented and has called for copyright to be removed on all information released under the FOI Act, except material which a public authority is commercially exploiting.

The Campaign's concerns are set out in a submission to the Commons' committee dealing with the Protection of Freedoms Bill. It follows the Campaign's oral evidence to the Committee on 24 March 2011. You can watch the evidence session here or read a transcript here.

Using your FOI rights, Glasgow 4 June 2011

2011-04-01T14:22:00.000+01:00

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland is providing a half-day training course for Freedom of Information requesters in Glasgow on 4 June 2011. The course, which covers both the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act and the parallel Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations, will provide an introduction to the legislation and tell you how to use it.

The course will explain:

What information you are entitled to - and from whom
How to make an effective request
Key pitfalls and how to avoid them
What authorities should do to help you
When requests can be refused on cost grounds
How the Act's exemptions and the public interest test work
How to challenge refusals

The course will be presented by Carole Ewart, Co-convener of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland, David Goldberg, a law lecturer and information rights campaigner, and Chris Bartter, who recently retired after 20 years as Communications Officer for UNISON Scotland, a union which has been a major user of FOI in its campaigns.

Further details here.

Scottish Govt challenges disclosure ruling on local income tax information

2011-03-31T17:17:00.000+01:00

Scottish Ministers have appealed to the Court of Session after the Scottish Information Commissioner ordered documents detailing the financial implications of a proposed local income tax scheme be released to the Daily Telegraph.

On February 9, 2011, following a two-year dispute, the Scottish Information Commissioner ordered the information be disclosed:

“The information therein would contribute significantly to public understanding of how and why changing financial and economic circumstances in the period since 2007 had affected the viability of the Ministers’ policy to replace council tax with a local income tax. This could in turn allow informed discussion of the longer term viability of any such plans as economic circumstances have changed in the period since the revised revenue projections were prepared.”

The new appeal means the information will now not be released until well after the Scottish Parliament general election in May.

Read the Scottish Information Commissioner’s decision and the Daily Telegraph story.

ICO seminar on privacy and anonymous data

2011-03-31T11:18:00.000+01:00

ICO news release
30 March 2011

Being anonymous ‘an ever increasing challenge’ in 2011, says Information Commissioner

Advances in the internet, the scale of personal information that is collected by public bodies and businesses, and the pressure to share data in the name of efficiency, make being anonymous in 2011 ‘an ever increasing challenge’ Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, will say today at a seminar the ICO is hosting on anonymisation.

Leading academics and experts from the public sector and business will gather at the Wellcome Trust in London today to consider different perspectives and approaches to anonymisation – the process of removing personal identifiers from information. Speaking alongside the Information Commissioner are Paul Ohm from the University of Colorado, Mark Elliot from the University of Manchester as well as representatives from the Cabinet Office and the Office of National Statistics.

The ICO will publish a report in the coming weeks that will summarise the seminar’s key discussion points as well as setting out next steps.

Full press release here.

Scottish Information Commissioner Newsletter March 2011

2011-03-29T12:04:00.001+01:00

The latest edition of Inform, the Scottish Information Commissioner's newsletter, has been published covering the period January to March 2011 and the launch of the Commissioner's Annual Report.

Local Government Lawyer interviews Deputy Information Commissioner Graham Smith

2011-03-25T16:45:00.000Z

As local authorities and other public bodies continue to grapple with freedom of information and data protection, Philip Hoult speaks to Deputy Information Commissioner (and former local government lawyer) Graham Smith about monetary penalties, vexatious litigants, spending cuts and the inexorable rise of requests for information.

Full interview here.

FOI Disclosure Stories March 13-24

2011-03-25T12:25:00.001Z

Patients died following delay in treatment – Lancashire Evening Post 23/03/11
In one incident, ambulance crew lost a patient for almost five hours while transporting them to hospital. The patient was found in the vehicle in the ambulance station garage at midnight. The findings were revealed by the North West Ambulance Service, following a Freedom of Information request about the number of Serious Untoward Incidents (SUIs) recorded.

GP reforms’ leaders on boards of private firms – Pulse 23/03/11
One GP in 10 on the boards of new commissioning consortia also holds an executive-level position with a private provider, exposing the serious potential for conflict of interest in the Government’s NHS reforms according to data released by PCTs under the Freedom of Information Act.

Doctor 'enraged' by £3.5m bill for consultants over 30 months - The Sentinel 23/03/11
A GP has clashed with leaders of a health trust after revealing they spent £3.5 million on private consultancy fees in 30 months. Dr Sunil Angris told North Staffordshie Primary Care Turst directors that fellow doctors and healthcare professionals were "shocked, alarmed and enraged" by the sum, which he obtained using a Freedom of Information request.

Royal Mail send 25 million items a year to the shredder - Daily Mail 21/03/11
Royal Mail has admitted it destroys an average 25 million letters, packets and parcels every year. The company has destroyed 152million items of post that could not be delivered or returned to sender in the last six years, according to figures obtained following a Freedom of Information request.

Haringey Young People's Counselling Service axed by Haringey Council - Haringey Independent 17/03/11
A counselling service for young people will close in two weeks as a result of budget cuts, Haringey Council has confirmed. The Haringey Young People's Counselling Service provides one-on-one therapy to vulnerable teenagers, but will be axed after the council cut the youth services budget by 75 per cent. This was revealed in a freedom of information request by members of pressure group Save Haringey Youth Service.

Neurology 'lottery' as costs vary 10-fold - Pulse 16/03/11
GP commissioning consortia will inherit an ‘idiosyncratic’ postcode lottery for neurology services from PCTs. Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act suggests the price trusts were paying for new consultant outpatient appointments for neurology in 2009 varied from £67 to £592.

English football's tax debt was £22m 'at low eb' in 2010 - Sporting Intelligence 15/03/11
Clubs from the Premier League owe millions of pounds in tax payments, including VAT, despite being rich enough to pay player’s salaries that run into six figures per week in some cases, according to findings from a Freedom of Information inquiry.

Green spaces sell-off? Bristol City Council has no plan B - Bristol Evening Post 15/03/11
Bristol City Council has never looked at ways of paying for the £87 million parks improvement plan that didn't involve selling off green spaces. The council has repeatedly stated a plan based around developers' money would not be enough. But following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, the authority has been forced to admit it has never actually looked at the detail of such a plan.

Pledges to protect ‘frontline’ officers worthless because no definition exists – Western Morning News 15/03/11
Freedom of Information Act requests have confirmed that neither the Home Office, or Devon and Cornwall Police, actually know what a "frontline"officer is. Neither said theyhad definitions for the role, although the Home Office said it was under "consideration".

Troubles team is accused of bias – Newsletter 15/03/11
A recent freedom of information release has revealed that all but one of the 71 Historical Enquiries Team arrests have been loyalists, leading the Lagan Valley MLA to warn of “considerable unrest” if the continuing peace process “does not recognise that the majority of killings were carried out by the Provisional IRA”.

Travel insurers cash in on NHS - The Sunday Times 13/03/11
Travel insurers that pay out on medical claims have pocketed nearly £4.8m from the NHS since 2005. The figures were released following a Freedom of Information request by The Sunday Times.

Evidence to Protection of Freedoms Bill Committee

2011-03-24T11:54:00.002Z

The Information Commissioner and Campaign for Freedom of Information gave oral evidence to the Protection of Freedoms Bill Committee on 24 March 2011. You can watch a recording of the evidence session here.

A note submitted to the Committee setting out the Campaign's views on the Bill is available here. The Information Commissioner's written evidence to the Committee is here.

New working paper on the Right to Information and Privacy

2011-03-15T15:13:00.000Z

World Bank Institute News

On first inspection, it would appear that the right of access to information and the right to protection of personal privacy are irreconcilable. However the reality is more complex. For the most part, these two rights complement each other in holding governments accountable to individuals. But there is a potential conflict between these rights when there is a demand for access to personal information held by government bodies.

Targeted for practitioners working in governance and transparency issues and as part of its Governance Working Paper series, the World Bank Institute has recently published a sixth working paper on ATI addressing some of these issues.

“The Right to Information and Privacy: Balancing rights and managing conflicts” by David Banisar, Senior Legal Counsel for Article XIX. Available here.

Focusing on the cases of Ireland, Mexico, Slovenia and the UK, while also looking at other experiences, this paper examines legislative and structural means to better define and balance the rights to privacy and to information.

BBC Interview with Lord Clark, author of the FOI white paper

2011-03-15T15:04:00.000Z

The BBC's Daily Politics programme has interviewed Lord Clark of Windermere, author of the freedom of information white paper 'Your Right to Know', as part of a series of interviews, entitled Change Makers, with people who have radically changed Britain.

Lord Clark spoke to Susana Mendonça about how the act was brought in and claimed he was sorry about its impact on the reputation of parliament, but that it was the system and not the act that was to blame.

Lord Clark says the message given by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1997 was "get this Freedom of Information [Act] up and running...we need it, we want it, I want it..."and he was surprised when Mr Blair said introducing the Act has been a mistake in his memoirs.

HT to the BBC's Martin Rosenbaum for this.

ECJ opinion of Advocate General in OFCOM v Information Commissioner

2011-03-15T14:36:00.001Z

On 10 March 2011, an opinion was delivered by Advocate General Kokott in OFCOM v Information Commissioner, which the Supreme Court referred to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the issue of how the public interest balancing test in the Environmental Information Regulations should be approached when two or more exceptions to disclosure are engaged:

The courts of the United Kingdom disagree as to how this balancing exercise is to be undertaken where several interests deserving of protection are simultaneously undermined. Is each exception to be addressed separately, by considering whether the interest served by it or the public interest served by disclosure prevails (the view taken by the courts at the first two instances and by a minority of the judges of the Supreme Court submitting the reference for a preliminary ruling)? Or can the interests served by different exceptions be combined and then together weighed against the public interest served by disclosure (view taken at third instance and by the majority of the Supreme Court)?

The Advocate General backed cumulation and the view of the majority of the Supreme Court:

Contrary to the view expressed by Sweden and the Information Commissioner, the use of the term ‘interest’ in the singular does not preclude a cumulation of several interests...

Nor does emphasis on the particular case in which the balancing exercise is to be carried out proscribe cumulation. As argued by the United Kingdom, the more obvious interpretation is that the term ‘in the particular case’ means that it relates to the specific decision that is pending on the disclosure of information.

Furthermore, the breakdown of interests meriting protection into different exceptions does not preclude their cumulation. As convincingly argued by the United Kingdom, these exceptions are not always clearly distinguishable from each other. Indeed, the interests meriting protection sometimes clearly overlap.
...
Consequently, the answer to the reference for a preliminary ruling should be that where a public authority holds environmental information, disclosure of which would have some adverse effects on the separate interests served by more than one exception under Article 4(2) of the Environmental Information Directive, but it would not do so, in the case of either exception viewed separately, to any extent sufficient to outweigh the public interest in disclosure, the directive requires a further exercise involving the cumulation of the separate interests served by the two exceptions and their weighing together against the public interest in disclosure.

The Court will now deliberate and its judgment will be pronounced shortly. Advocates generals opinions are not binding on the Court but are followed in the majority of cases.

FOI Disclosure Stories Feb 23rd-March 10th

2011-03-11T11:58:00.002Z

New Rarer Cancers Foundation report finds that hundreds of Scottish cancer patients have been refused treatment – 09/03/11 Rarer Cancers Foundation
The report found that 360 patients have been denied access to life-extending cancer treatment in Scotland over the past three years and that nearly 2,500 patients have been forced to rely on exceptional case committees in order to secure access to the treatment recommended by their doctors. Figures were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from Scotland’s 14 NHS boards. See the report: The Scottish Exception? An audit of the progress made in improving access to treatment for people with rarer cancers

Councils could face legal challenges over job cuts says UNISON – UNISON 08/03/11
On the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, UNISON is warning that councils could face legal challenges over job cuts on equality grounds. An FOI request by the union reveals that 72% of councils did not complete equality impact assessments (EIA) over their initial redundancy proposals and 78% of councils did not complete EIAs on their final job loss plans.

Police forces cut thousands of hours in overtime – The Times 08/03/11 (subscription only)
Police forces across the country are cutting tens of thousands of hours in overtime, an investigation by The Times has found, as they battle to reduce their spending as budget cuts start to bite. The figures, obtained from a Freedom of Information request, come as the Government considers plans to cut millions from the police pay bill.

West Midlands planning money remains ‘unspent’ – BBC 07/02/11
Almost £70m of planning "gain" money remains unspent by councils in the West Midlands. Freedom of Information requests to all councils across the region revealed some of them had not spent money given to them by developers.

Hospitals’ cockroach kitchens – The Sunday Times 06/03/11 (subscription only)
Three out of four hospital kitchens in Britain have breached basic food hygiene standards, a damning investigation by The Sunday Times can reveal. Fewer than 200 hospital kitchens were given a clean bill of health in the inspection reports obtained under freedom of information rules.

Private Security Firms paid £29m last year for contracts in Afghanistan – The Guardian 06/03/11
New figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, confirm that a growing reliance on private firms is underpinning Britain's war effort.

Email Trail as England 2018 bid eyed royal ties with Qatar – BBC 05/03/11
The confidential emails on England’s World Cup bid obtained under freedom of information requests by the BBC contain fascinating insights into the sorts of deals and discussions that were going on in the run-up to last year’s vote in Zurich. See the emails in full here.

Postcode lottery for care fees of neediest – Which? 05/03/11
Those with the highest, most complex health needs are supposed to have their full care costs funded by the NHS, whatever their financial situation. But Which? research has discovered there are huge variations in care funding across the country. Using Freedom of Information requests and analysing government data, we found that 8 times as many people per 50,000 in Plymouth receive funding than in Essex.

Ofsted forced to reveal survey findings – TES 04/03/11
Ofsted has released the results of staff and student surveys carried out during an inspection for the first time. Despite publishing the data for one school following a teacher's request under the Freedom of Information Act, the watchdog says that it has no plans to make the survey results available routinely.

GPs are accused of using profits from commissioning to meet practice expenses – Health Service Journal (subscription only) reported in the BMJ 04/03/11
GPs have been accused of lining their own pockets by using the savings made from practice based commissioning to provide basic practice equipment. Freedom of Information requests revealed examples amounting to several millions of pounds among 50 primary care trusts, covering 650 general practices.

Centre for Sustainable Energy publishes full UK public building energy data – Centre for Sustainable Energy 02/03/11
CSE has published the full Display Energy Certificate (DEC) Register for all UK public buildings, making it publicly available in one place for the first time. The dataset includes the address, floorspace, heat and power consumption, carbon emissions, and energy efficiency rating of 40,000 sites. We obtained the data from the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) under the Environmental Information Regulations.

Savings pressures mount on staff terms and conditions – Health Service Journal (subscription only) reported on Nursing Times 02/03/11
Documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show these cuts include £1.5m potential savings from freezing pay increments and £1m from decreasing annual leave by two-five days. Around £400,000 could also be saved from treating a bank holiday as a working day and a further £600,000 from reducing sickness entitlement.

The top 100 government suppliers – The Guardian 02/03/11
SA Mathieson used Freedom of Information requests as a way to gather information on government spending. All the 15 departments and organisations that were approached provided a list of their 100 largest suppliers.

PCTs slash GP out-of-hours spending – GP Online 03/03/11
A quarter of PCTs have cut spending on GP out-of-hours services since last year, a GP investigation reveals. Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show 20 PCTs forecast savings of around £4 million in total on out-of-hours in 2010/11 compared with 2009/10 spending.

Leicester Mercury wins battle to learn facts about ex-MPs’ cash payouts – Leicester Mercury 26/02/11
The Leicester Mercury has won a victory that will force the House of Commons to reveal whether former MPs took "golden goodbye" payments worth up to £60,000. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Commons authorities were asked to provide a list of MPs who had drawn the grant, paid out of public funds.

Volunteers uncover £50 million in corporate funds to UK universities – Corporate Watch 24/02/11
People & Planet uncover £50 million from oil, arms and big pharma being channelled into UK universities. The Reclaim Research group conducted interviews and sent Freedom of Information requests to 17 universities and are starting to reveal the hidden connections between research and corporations at universities.

Britain ‘gave Gadaffi’ police firearms training – The Times (subscription only) 23/02/11
A three-week “command and control” course for senior officers took place in Tripoli in January 2009, which included “use of force and human rights, introduction to the conflict management model and command of spontaneous firearms operations”, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Using the FOI Act - courses for new & experienced requesters

2011-03-09T16:35:00.000Z

Do you want to learn how to use the Freedom of Information Act? Are you already using the Act, but want to know more about how the Information Commissioner and Information Tribunal are interpreting its key provisions?

The Campaign for Freedom of Information is running a training course for FOI requesters in central London on Thursday 16 June 2011. The course is divided into two parts. The morning session will provide an introduction to the legislation covering both the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations. The afternoon session will be more advanced and will examine some of the key decisions made under the two regimes and explain how they can help you obtain information. We think most people will benefit from attending the whole day, but experienced requesters may prefer to attend just the afternoon.

Further information and details on how to book a place are available here.

Scottish Information Commissioner's Annual Report 2010

2011-03-08T12:01:00.000Z

The Scottish Information Commissioner has published his 2010 Annual Report. Launching the report, Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner said:

It is clear from the data published today that the public are increasingly making use of their rights to information. This is sure to continue in the current economic climate, as more and more people want to understand the rationale behind spending cuts.

When public authorities receive information requests they are often faced with a choice between disclosing the information, or refusing to release it. It may well be that the refusal of the request is appropriate, for example where it involves personal data. However, as my decisions over the past year have shown, there are still many cases where authorities have not been justified in withholding information, even where the information might expose them to criticism or adverse publicity.

The good news, however, is that our survey results suggest that public authorities are becoming more comfortable with disclosing information, rather than withholding it, and these conclusions appear to be supported by the levelling-off of appeals coming to my Office. This is a positive sign, and evidence that freedom of information is now beginning to “bed in” in Scotland, with the FOI principles of openness and transparency increasingly being accepted by authorities.

The bad news, though, is a widespread concern amongst authorities that a rise in often complex requests comes at a time when there is a reduction in the resources available to deal with them. Indeed, 41% of respondents to our survey identified this as the biggest FOI challenge they faced.

The Commissioner continued:

Scotland has led the way in the UK since the introduction of FOI six years ago, and the Scottish Government has demonstrated its commitment to FOI by removing exemptions that prevent the release of sensitive information after 15 years. However, the decision not to bring additional bodies, like Kilmarnock Prison or Glasgow Housing Association, under the scope of FOI in this parliament was a significant setback. Increasingly, public services are delivered by arms length organisations and private contractors, it is therefore extremely important that FOI rights continue to follow the public pound.

FOI in Scotland is at a crossroads, and now is not the time to diminish people’s rights. The public must be able to access information on how the decisions that affect public services and public spending are taken.

The Annual Report reveals that:

408 FOI appeals were received by the Commissioner in 2010, following the refusal of information requests by Scottish public authorities;
The Commissioner closed 456 cases;
249 formal decisions were issued, 50% more than in 2009;
The Commissioner issued his 1000th decision since the introduction of FOI in 2005. 1,188 decisions had been issued by the end of the year;
74% of the applications were received by the Commissioner in 2010 came from members of the public;
The number of cases closed without investigation continued to decline over the year, with a drop of 16% on 2009 figures. This suggests that there is an increasing awareness amongst requesters of the FOI appeal process;
The Commissioner found that a public authority had breached the law in some way in 65% of the decisions issued;
The average age of cases being dealt with by the Commissioner continued to decline during 2010, meaning that individual applications are being resolved more quickly. The average age of cases closed during 2010 was 5.2 months.

The Annual Report can be downloaded as a pdf here.
An enhanced version of the Report including video footage, interactive tables, infographic and supporting statistics, can be viewed online here.

Caroline Lucas MP calls for FOI to be extended to major corporations

2011-03-01T17:15:00.001Z

Green Party News
26 February 2011

Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion, called yesterday for Freedom Of Information (FOI) legislation to be extended to banks, telecoms operators and other large corporations providing key services to the public.

In her speech to the Green Party spring conference in Cardiff, Lucas said: "We depend on these corporations in just the same way as we depend on schools or hospitals to deliver our services. When they fail, we all suffer - so they must be opened up to public scrutiny. That's why I am proposing that the current FOI act be extended to cover major corporations."

Under the proposal, the Information Commissioner would be empowered to determine classes of information that companies would have to publish, such as risk registers, payment to sub contractors, or tax payments made overseas.

Full press release here.

FOI Disclosure Stories February 2011

2011-02-25T15:23:00.011Z

Exclusive: 50,000 job losses uncovered by False Economy - False Economy 23/02/11
False Economy can reveal that more than 50,000 NHS staff posts are set for the axe, destroying government claims that the NHS is in safe hands. Our figures have been collated for the most part from the NHS trusts themselves under the Freedom of Information Act.

Radical new gateways reject one in eight GP referrals - Pulse 23/2/11
GP practices are seeing as many as one in eight of their referrals diverted or rejected, under radical new 'total referral management' schemes, a Pulse investigation reveals.

Pickles Under Fire From Tory-Led Councils – Sky News 22/02/11
Conservative-led councils have warned Communities Secretary Eric Pickles that "unfair" spending cuts will have "potentially devastating" consequences. The correspondence, released to Sky News under the Freedom of Information Act, lays bare the depth of frustration felt by local authorities.

Rise in teen pregnancy feared as roles are axed - Children & Young People Now 22/02/11
Teenage pregnancy co-ordinators across the country face job losses after many councils revealed they cannot afford to fund the role. Freedom of information requests sent to all local authorities in England have revealed that 50 out of the 86 councils that currently employ teenage pregnancy co-ordinators cannot commit to funding the posts for 2011/2012.

Lives put at risk as hospitals fail to fix safety problems – The Telegraph 21/02/11
Half of the 406 NHS trusts in England are failing to comply with safety alerts, which cover everything from equipment failure to warnings on correct dosage, according to the charity Action against Medical Accidents.

Councils ‘missed’ £530m in taxes – BBC 18/02/11
Cash-strapped local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales failed to collect £530m in council tax in 2009-2010, a BBC investigation found. The figures were obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

Taxpayers paid £50m a year for non-existent operations – The Telegraph 15/02/11
Under controversial minimum payment contracts, 25 independent sector treatment centres across England were paid a set amount, regardless of how many operations they actually carried out.

The Mystery of England’s 12,000 Vanishing Pupils – TES 11/02/11
Almost 12,000 children are officially "missing" from education, a TES investigation has revealed, with many at "serious risk" of physical, sexual and mental harm.

Racism on the Rise in Scotland – STV 11/02/11
Statistics revealed in a freedom of information request to Scotland's eight police forces showed that 6,171 incidents of racism were recorded in 2009/10 - a 20% increase in racist incidents over the past 12 months.

Danish pastries all round, advises handbook for first-time ministers – The Independent 06/02/11
Some of the most powerful politicians in the UK have been presented with an "idiots' guide" on how to run the country. The manual is one of 23 ministerial training documents obtained under Freedom of Information legislation.

Over half of all VAT decisions issued by HMRC found incorrect on appeal – UHY Hacker Young Chartered Accountants 24/01/11
Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that over the last 18 months HMRC completed 28,912 reviews of technical decisions and VAT penalties imposed on businesses, of which 16,270 were subsequently ruled incorrect.

Pickles: councils should allow meetings to be recorded

2011-02-23T11:47:00.000Z

Communities and Local Government News
23 February 2011

Councils should open up their public meetings to local news 'bloggers' and routinely allow online filming of public discussions as part of increasing their transparency, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said today.

To ensure all parts of the modern-day media are able to scrutinise Local Government, Mr Pickles believes councils should also open up public meetings to the 'citizen journalist' as well as the mainstream media, especially as important budget decisions are being made.

Local Government Minister Bob Neill has written to all councils urging greater openness and calling on them to adopt a modern day approach so that credible community or 'hyper-local' bloggers and online broadcasters get the same routine access to council meetings as the traditional accredited media have.

The letter sent today reminds councils that local authority meetings are already open to the general public, which raises concerns about why in some cases bloggers and press have been barred.

For example Tameside Council has accredited professional journalists to report from meetings using Twitter. The decision means local bloggers, the public and even councillors are not permitted to tweet because they are not considered members of the press.

Eric Pickles said:

"Fifty years ago, Margaret Thatcher changed the law to make councils open their meetings to the press and public. This principle of openness needs to be updated for the 21st Century. More and more local news comes from bloggers or citizen journalists telling us what is happening at their local council.

"Many councils are internet-savvy and stream meetings online, but some don't seem to have caught up with the times and are refusing to let bloggers or hyper-local news sites in. With local authorities in the process of setting next year's budget this is more important than ever.

"Opening the door to new media costs nothing and will help improve public scrutiny. The greater powers and freedoms that we are giving local councils must be accompanied by stronger local accountability.

"We are in the digital age and this analogue interpretation of the press access rules is holding back a new wave of local scrutiny, accountability and armchair auditors."

The letter also reassured councils that giving greater access will not contradict data protection law requirements following concerns over personal information. In the majority of cases the citizen blogging about how they see the democratic process working is unlikely to breach the data protection principles.

Chris Taggart, of www.OpenlyLocal.com (external link), which has long championed the need to open council business up to public scrutiny, added:

"In a world where hi-definition video cameras are under £100 and hyperlocal bloggers are doing some of the best council reporting in the country, it is crazy that councils are prohibiting members of the public from videoing, tweeting and live-blogging their meetings.

"Councils need to genuinely engage their communities and giving wider access to their meetings through these technologies is one way they can do this."

Full press release here.

Campaign welcomes FOI changes in Protection of Freedoms Bill but calls for them to be extended

2011-02-11T16:48:00.001Z

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has welcomed the changes to the Freedom of Information Act set out in the Protection of Freedoms Bill, published today.

Requiring public authorities to publish data sets proactively, under the ‘publication schemes’ that all authorities are required to have under the Act, was a positive step, the Campaign said. It was also helpful that when applying for datasets applicants would be entitled to specify that they be released in a reusable electronic format. The Campaign said that should prevent authorities deliberately turning a spreadsheet into a pdf, before releasing it, to stop requesters running their own analyses of the spreadsheet itself.

However, the Campaign said the Act’s provisions on the form in which information should be released needed further improvements, to allow requesters to specify that they wanted photocopies of original documents. At present, requesters can only express preference between obtaining information in hard copy or electronic form or inspecting records but are not entitled to specify that they want photocopies of actual correspondence or documents.

The new Bill also seeks to prevent authorities invoking copyright to prevent requesters republishing datasets released under the Act, where the authority is the copyright holder. The Campaign said this was a positive step which should be extended beyond datasets. Authorities frequently insist that requesters apply to them for a copyright license to reproduce information about the authorities’ own policies and performance. It said this was an unnecessary restriction which obstructs the use of information which has no commercial value to the authorities themselves.

The Campaign also welcomed the decision to bring companies that are jointly owned by several public authorities under the Act.

Training course on FOI decisions 19 May 2011

2011-02-09T16:06:00.000Z

'Information Commissioner & Tribunal Decisions - what do they mean in practice?'

A half-day course in Central London 19 May 2011

The course deals only with recent decisions and does not repeat material covered in previous courses. It is aimed at experienced FOI practitioners and others with a good working knowledge of the FOI Act. Its exact content is dependent on the decisions that have been issued during the period, but typically covers issues such as: "fair" and "unfair" disclosures of personal data; the FOI/EIR borderline; the commercial interests and confidentiality exemptions; where the public interest line is being drawn; applying the cost limit, vexatious requests and advice and assistance.

The course will be presented by Maurice Frankel, the Campaign's director, who has worked in the field for 27 years.

Significant discounts are available for more than one booking from the same organisation.

Download the booking form http://www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/foidecisions_may2011.pdf

4th Northumbria Information Rights Conference call for papers

2011-02-09T15:53:00.000Z

I have been asked to post the following call for papers for the Fourth Northumbria Information Rights Conference, which takes place on Monday 6 June 2011 at Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

The theme of the conference will be “Privacy, Openness and Accountability”. Our aim is to explore the relationships and tensions between these objectives in a multi-disciplinary forum. John Wadham, Group Legal Director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission will give the keynote address.

Those interested in presenting a paper are invited to submit abstracts as set out below.

The following topics will be explored within the overall theme, and papers will be grouped for presentation accordingly. Each speaker will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation of their paper plus time for round-table discussion:
Access to information (including, but not limited to, papers on freedom of information and access to environmental information, impact on government transparency and accountability, and subject access requests under the Data Protection Act 1998)
Susan Wolf susan.wolf@northumbria.ac.uk
Protecting personal privacy (including, but not limited to, papers on data protection and data security, confidentiality, the right to respect for privacy)
Andrew Watson andrew3.watson@northumbria.ac.uk
Information sharing (including, but not limited to, information sharing in the commercial context, electronic care records, information sharing to protect the vulnerable or to manage risk)
Helen Morris helen.morris@northumbria.ac.uk
Access to justice (including, but not limited to, papers on public interest immunity and privileged information, the use of special advocates, media access, openness and the family courts)
Claire Bessant claire.bessant@northumbria.ac.uk
This call is open to academics, postgraduate students and practitioners from all disciplines, but particularly law, politics, information science and records management. Please contact the convenor of your intended stream if you wish to discuss your idea for a paper before submitting an abstract.

Abstracts not exceeding 300 words should be submitted to the relevant stream convenor by 21 February 2011. Submission must be by Word document e-mail attachment to the stream convenor’s email address shown above and should include, in addition to the abstract, your title, name and organisation/institutional affiliation and your email address for correspondence.

If your proposed paper does not fall within one of the streams but is nonetheless relevant to the overall theme, please send your abstract to Helen Morris, details above, who should also be contacted with any general enquiries.

All proposals will be reviewed, and successful applicants will be notified at the latest by 1 April 2011.

Please note that speakers will not be exempt from the registration fee for the conference but will be entitled to the early registration discount. A booking form with full registration fees will be available in January 2011.

Please contact maureen.cooke@northumbria.ac.uk for any general enquiries about the conference or telephone 0191 243 7597.

Campaign "disappointed and astonished" at Scottish Government's FOI "retreat"

2011-01-27T17:41:00.002Z

Press release: 27 January 2011

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland (CFOIinS) said it was deeply disappointed by yesterday’s announcement by the Scottish Government that it was shelving plans to make private contractors subject to Scotland’s Freedom of Information Act. The government cited opposition from the contractors and their representative bodies as a key factor behind their decision. It had been proposing to extend the Act during the current Parliamentary session.

Carole Ewart, co-convenor of Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland said:

“We are deeply disappointed that the Government has reversed its position on extending the Act because of opposition from the private sector bodies themselves. It would have been obvious to ministers before making these proposals that the contractors did not want to be covered, and we are amazed that merely because they have now said they don’t like the idea the government has shelved it. If FOI was only applied to bodies that volunteered to be covered we wouldn’t have a Freedom of Information Act in Scotland at all.”

In December 2009 the Scottish Government announced that it was considering extending the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA) to: contractors who build and maintain hospitals and schools, who operate and maintain trunk roads under the PFI Initiative or who run privately managed prisons or provide prison escort services. Only contracts above certain values would be covered. Trusts running local authority sports, leisure and cultural facilities were also being considered for inclusion along with the Glasgow Housing Association and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. However, following a consultation exercise, the government yesterday announced that the proposals would not now proceed. It said that a majority of the bodies concerned had opposed being brought under the Act, although there was “near universal support” from everyone else who had commented on the proposals.

The Scottish Government also said that there was “minimal evidence” of people having difficulty obtaining information about the private contracts, for example on road building. But the Campaign pointed out that only two weeks ago the Scottish Information Commissioner ruled that information about the cost of utility contracts on the Edinburgh Trams Project could not be disclosed because the information had been provided by the contractors in confidence to tie Ltd, the public body responsible for the project. (Decision 006/2011 Mr Jim Cooney and tie Limited, Value of tie contracts, 11 January 2011).

Plans to bring the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland under the Act are also now not proceeding, after ACPOS questioned the value of the move. The Campaign pointed out that the equivalent body in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – ACPO - had volunteered be brought under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act. The Westminster government confirmed only two weeks ago that ACPO would be covered by the UK Act, a decision originally announced by the last Labour government.

Ms Ewart said “the Scottish public will now have less information about its policing than the public in the rest of the United Kingdom.” She added: “The Westminster government is also proposing to extend the UK FOI Act to other bodies including the Local Government Association, the NHS Confederation, the Law Society and the Bar Council – but there are no moves to bring their Scottish counterparts under Scotland’s FOI Act. Scotland is now falling behind England in FOI terms. When the legislation was originally passed, the Scottish Act was widely regarded as better than that which applied across the rest of the UK.”

Full press release here.

Amendments to Royal exemption come into force

2011-01-19T18:35:00.000Z

An Order bringing into force the amendments to the FOI Act's exemption for communications with the Royal Family that were contained in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act has been made and comes into force today (19 January 2011). This means that from now on information relating to communications with the monarch, the heir to the throne and second in the line to the throne will be subject to an absolute exemption for 20 years or until 5 years after the death of the individual, whichever is later.

In a written ministerial statement, Ken Clarke MP, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, stated:

This amendment to the FOI Act is necessary to protect the long-standing conventions surrounding the monarchy and its records, for example the sovereign's right and duty to counsel, encourage and warn her Government, as well as the heir to the throne's right to be instructed in the business of Government in preparation for their future role as monarch. The changes will come into force tomorrow.

The Campaign for Freedom of Information was unhappy at the decision to implement a more restrictive exemption for senior members of the Royal Family. A previous note on the relationship between the Royal Family and FOI before the changes came into force is here.

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (2010) (Commencement No. 4 and Saving Provision) Order 2011 is here and Explanatory Notes here.

Campaign's response to Government's plans to extend the FOI Act

2011-01-07T17:36:00.001Z

The Campaign for Freedom of Information has welcomed the coalition government’s announcement (see earlier post here) that it proposed:

to extend the FOI Act to a range of regulatory, representative and other bodies
to implement the last government’s measures to release old government records after 20 years instead of 30 years
apply the Act to companies that are jointly owned by more than one public authority.

The Campaign said these were valuable improvements to the FOI regime.

However it pointed out that before the election both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had promised that Network Rail would be covered and that the Conservatives’ had also promised to cover Northern Rock. Neither body is being covered. Many other individual bodies, including electoral registration officers and returning officers should also be added, the Campaign said.

It also called for companies providing contracted out functions to be brought under the Act, particularly those relating to health, social services, education and criminal justice and for the Act to be extended to housing associations. The Campaign pointed out that the Scottish Government was proposing to extend the Scottish FOI Act to contractors who build or maintain schools, hospitals and roads (where the contract value is above certain thresholds), to private bodies running prisons or providing prison escort services to contractors running local authority sports or leisure centres and to the Glasgow Housing Association.

The Campaign said it was also unhappy at the decision to implement a more restrictive exemption for senior members of the Royal Family. At present, communications with the Royal Family are exempt, but potentially disclosable on public interest grounds. In future the public interest test will be removed for communications with the monarch and the next two in line to the throne. The Campaign said that where Prince Charles was seeking to actively intervene in policy decisions, his input would be withheld in all circumstances, even if it had played the decisive role.

Finally, the Campaign suggested the proposal to allow the Information Commissioner to serve for only a single 5 year term was a potentially double-edged sword. Limiting appointment to a single term only meant that the Commissioner could not be tempted to comply with the government’s wishes in order to be reappointed. But appointing a new Commissioner every 5 years could be potentially disruptive, as a new Commissioner needed at least a year to master the brief, and the Campaign suggested the Commissioner’s term of appointment should be extended to 6 or 7 years.

Full press release here.

Government plans to extend the FOI Act

2011-01-07T10:59:00.001Z

The Ministry of Justice has announced plans to extend the scope of the FOI Act. The plans include:

increasing the number of organisations to which FOI requests can be made, bringing in bodies such as the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Financial Services Ombudsman, and higher education admissions body UCAS; and also all companies wholly owned by any number of public authorities

consulting on bringing a range of further bodies which are believed to perform functions of a public nature under the FOI umbrella, including Examination Boards, Harbour Authorities, the Local Government Association and the NHS Confederation

making most public records available at The National Archives and other places of deposit ten years sooner, when they are 20 years old; the package will also reduce the time some types of information - including court records, ministerial correspondence and policy formulation - can be withheld, to 20 years instead of 30

undertaking post legislative scrutiny, to see how well the Act is working in practice and whether there are further changes to be made.

The full press release is here and response issued by the Information Commissioner's Office here. Further comment to follow later today.

Scottish Information Commissioner's Decisions courses Feb 2011 - places still available

2011-01-06T16:26:00.001Z

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland is providing a half-day training course in Glasgow on Tuesday 1 February 2011 and in Aberdeen on Wednesday 2 February 2011, both at 1.30 to 5pm. The training will be lead by Maurice Frankel, Director of the Campaign.

While the course will focus on the decisions issued by the Scottish Information Commissioner, it will also cover decisions issued by the UK Commissioner and Tribunal and the Court of Session that have implications for Scottish public authorities.

Details of the training course and booking form can be downloaded from http://www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/sicdecisions2011.pdf

Please note:
There is a 30% discount for second and subsequent bookings from the same organisation

Advocates and solicitors may wish to claim 3 hr CPD

Next Information Commissioner & Tribunal Decisions course

2010-12-22T15:11:00.001Z

The Campaign for Freedom of Information's next course on significant Information Commissioner and Tribunal decisions will be held on 19 May 2011.

Information Commissioner & Tribunal Decisions - what do they mean in practice?

A half-day course in central London 19 May 2011

This course deals with recent decisions issued in the last 6 months and does not repeat material covered in previous courses. It is aimed at experienced FOI practitioners and others with a good working knowledge of the FOI Act. Its exact content is dependent on the actual decisions that have been issued in recent months, but typically covers issues such as:
"fair" and "unfair" disclosures of personal data;
the FOI/EIR borderline;
the application of specific exemptions including those for breach of confidence and commercial interests;
where the public interest line is being drawn;
applying the cost limit, vexatious requests and advice and assistance.
The course will be presented by Maurice Frankel, the Campaign's director, who has worked in the field for 27 years.

Significant discounts are available for more than one booking from the same organisation.

Further information - http://www.cfoi.org.uk/pdf/foidecisions_may2011.pdf

Royal Family and FOI - the state of play

2010-12-15T11:02:00.003Z

The Daily Mail has reported that there is a dispute within the coalition government over the extent to which the Royal Family are subject to the Freedom of Information Act:

The Queen is at the centre of a Government row over proposed moves that would give the public sweeping rights to demand secret information.

The Liberal Democrats have been incensed by Conservatives’ attempts to restrict a new ‘right to data’ law so that it excludes the Royal Family.

The new open access law, which was secured by the Lib Dems as part of the Coalition agreement, would extend the freedom of information rules, which have unearthed scandals such as last year’s furore over MPs’ expenses.

But after lobbying from Buckingham Palace – which is worried that it would lead to a rash of fresh revelations – the Justice Ministry has proposed a blanket ban on the release of details about the Royals.

At present, the Royal Family itself is not covered by the FOI Act. Where government departments and other public authorities hold communications with Royal Family, that information is subject to the Act and potentially disclosable.

Section 37(1)(a) of the Act provides an exemption for communications with Her Majesty, other members of the Royal Family or with the Royal Household, but the exemption is currently a qualified one subject to the Act's public interest test.

The Information Commissioner has issued a series of decisions involving requests for correspondence or lists of correspondence with the Prince of Wales. In each case to date, the Commissioner has supported the government department’s decision not to release the information, finding that the balance of public interest favoured confidentiality (see, for example, Department for Business Innovation and Skills FS50080233) These decisions were based not only on the Royal Family exemption (s.37(1)(a)) but also on the exemptions for personal data (s 40) and breach of confidence (s 41).

However, the Commissioner has ordered information about the cost of maintaining the Royal palaces to be disclosed on public interest grounds (see FS50154684). The Department for Culture, Media and Sport appealed this decision to the Information Tribunal, though it has now disclosed the information.

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, which received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010, amended Section 37 of the FOI Act to create a new absolute exemption for communications with the monarch, heir to the throne and second in line. The effect of the amendments will be:

to exempt information relating to communications with the monarch, the heir to the throne and the second in line to the throne (i) till 5 years after the individual’s death, or (ii) for 20 years, whichever is later.

that this exemption would no longer be subject to the Act’s public interest test, so there would be no possibility of disclosure on public interest grounds during the specified time limit.

that communications with other members of the Royal Family would also be protected until 5 years after the individual’s death or for 20 years, but in these cases the public interest test would still apply.

These amendments, together with those to reduce the 30 year rule to 20 years, also contained in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act, require a statutory instrument to be brought into effect. The Daily Mail report suggests the government are now considering whether to implement the changes. Implementing the changes to the exemption for Royal communications would, however, breach the coalition government's commitment to extending the scope of the FOI Act (see earlier post here).

Meanwhile, a Guardian appeal to the Tribunal against a decision by the Commissioner upholding the withholding of Prince Charles' letters to ministers was adjourned until the new year for reasons the Tribunal panel could "not go into". And the Commissioner recently referred to the unimplemented changes to Section 37 in a decision where he upheld the Ministry of Justice's refusal to release representations made by the Queen or Royal Household regarding the FOI Act itself:

These changes will, when brought into force, result in communications with the Sovereign, the Heir to the Throne and the second in line to the Throne becoming absolutely exempt from disclosure under the Act....

In the circumstances of this case the Commissioner recognises that there is significant interest in, and debate surrounding, the proposed changes to the Act, which are likely to have a direct bearing on the future release of communications with the Royal Family and the Royal Household.

Interestingly, the MoJ did confirm that it held information relevant to the request. However, the Commissioner found the balance of public interest favoured withholding the information:

The Commissioner accepts that the information consists of communications which fall within the heart of government, being correspondence from or on behalf of The Queen to the public authority. Accordingly, he again concludes that it would not be in the public interest for the operation of the established convention of confidentiality to be undermined. Furthermore, he accepts that disclosure of the information covered could undermine The Queens’ political neutrality and, as noted above, he accepts that it is inherent in the exemption contained at section 37(1)(a) that it is in the public interest for the political neutrality of all members of the Royal Family to be preserved. However, the Commissioner would like to clarify here that he is not suggesting that this exemption is, effectively, ‘absolute’ and that there may be cases where the public interest balance would be different if there was an equally weighty public interest in disclosure.

The effect of the recent amendments of course would be to prevent such disclosure on public interest grounds taking place.

See also:
Explanatory Notes to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act here.

Scottish Borders Council turns FOI compliance around

2010-12-08T12:44:00.000Z

Scottish Information Commissioner
News Release: 7 December 2010

The Scottish Information Commissioner has welcomed a report showing that Scottish Borders Council has improved its performance in complying with freedom of information (FOI) requirements, to the extent that it is now demonstrating some exemplary practice.

In 2009, the Council had only complied with the statutory 20 working days allowed for responding to FOI requests in 71% of cases. Between 1 June and 31 October 2010, however, the Council had improved this performance to 99.7%

It has also implemented improvements in its staff training, systems and guidance for the public on making information requests to the Council.

The improvements follow an on-site practice assessment at the Council, undertaken by the Commissioner's staff, in February. Practice assessments help the Commissioner identify where an authority is failing to comply with FOI laws, and then work with the authority to agree an action plan to improve its practice and achieve compliance.

The Commissioner issued his first Practice Recommendation to the Council following the assessment, calling for specific practice improvements, including compliance with statutory timescales.

Kevin Dunion, Scottish Information Commissioner, said:

"The turnaround at Scottish Borders Council is highly commendable, and shows what can be achieved when we work together. Practice assessments are a vital part of my enforcement strategy which aims to help authorities improve their response to freedom of information requests from the public. Good practice reduces the number of appeals that people have to make to me, reduces the burden on authorities and gets information into the hands of the public more quickly."

Full press release here.
Assessment Report and Action Plan can be downloaded here.

ICO under financial pressure from MoJ

2010-11-25T14:17:00.002Z

The minutes from the latest Information Commissioner's management board meeting show that the ICO is facing significant financial pressure from the Ministry of Justice.

It was reported that £160k of grant in aid had been surrendered to the MoJ as year-in savings...The MoJ had however asked about further in-year savings of grant in aid. Discussions with the MoJ were ongoing. It was noted that the business case for £500k of grant in aid to clear the backlog of freedom of information cases this year has yet to be agreed.

Any reduction in grant-in-aid risks reversing the substantial progress that has been made by the ICO in reducing the backlog over the last 12-18 months.

FOI Disclosure Stories November 1st-18th

2010-11-24T14:14:00.001Z

8,000 vulnerable children denied social workers – communitycare.co.uk 17/11/10
Councils have failed to allocate social workers to more than 8,000 vulnerable children across the country, a Community Care investigation revealed after making a Freedom of Information request.

27,000 NHS jobs to go, says Royal College of Nursing – The Telegraph 12/11/10
Almost 27,000 NHS jobs could go in cuts across hospitals and other acute services, according to the Royal College of Nursing which compiled information from board meeting papers and Freedom of Information requests.
Read the Royal College of Nursing report

£720k a year: Camden’s bill for housing 20 families - Hampstead & Highgate Express 9/11/10
One family, the highest claimant of housing benefit in Camden, receives a massive £6,565 a month – the equivalent of £78,780 a year, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act state.

Don't knock our flats down, they're all safe, say Bristol residents - Bristol Evening Post 03/11/10
Residents campaigning to save homes earmarked for demolition say councillors have been making decisions based on false statements according to official council documents obtained stating that the properties are structurally sound and can be refurbished.

Chocfinger’s Tory donation pays off – The Sunday Times 31/10/10
The secretary of state for international development intervened to help a cocoa trader beat sanctions for smuggling in Ghana according to internal documents released under Freedom of Information.

Pickles squashes bid to charge for FOI requests

2010-11-12T10:21:00.001Z

HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk

by Paul Linford

Local government secretary Eric Pickles has moved swiftly to squash an attempt to enable councils to charge newspapers for Freedom of Information requests.

As reported on HTFP yesterday, Hampshire County Council had called for a change in the law to enable local authorities to charge organisations who may benefit commercially from receiving the
information.

The council wanted the Local Government Association to take up its cause with ministers, claiming it spent £346,000 answering FoI requests during 2009-10.

But within hours of our story appearing, Mr Pickles had issued a statement which effectively slammed the door on the idea. He said: "If councillors and council officers are to be held to account, the press and public need access to the information that will enable them to do it.

"If town halls want to reduce the amount they spend on responding to freedom of information requests they should consider making the information freely available in the first place.

"The simple act of throwing open the books, rather than waiting for them to be prised apart by the force of an FoI, might even save a few pounds in the process.

"Greater local accountability is essential to accompany the greater powers and freedoms that the new government is giving to local government."

Mr Pickles' statement will be seen as a shot in the arm for the Society of Editors after its executive director Bob Satchwell criticised the council's move.

Bob said: "It's ludicrous. Hampshire County Council should remember this information doesn't belong to them, it belongs to the public."

http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk:80/foi/101112pickles.shtml?

Lords approves FOI (Time for Compliance with Request) Regulations 2010

2010-11-09T11:31:00.000Z

The House of Lords have approved Regulations giving academy schools more time to respond to Freedom of Information requests during school holidays. The Department for Education minister Nick Gibb recently confirmed that the FOI Act would apply to schools converting to academies from September 2010 and to existing academies from January 2011.

The Regulations ensure that academies will be subject to the same timeframes as the schools covered by The Freedom of Information (Time for Compliance with Request) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/3364) and The Freedom of Information (Time for Compliance with Request) Regulations 2009 (S.I. 2009/1369).

During a short debate on the Regulations, Lord Campbell-Savours highlighted a case of severe delay by a school responding to FOI requests made by the MP Ann Clywd.

FOI Disclosure Stories Oct 2010

2010-10-28T14:43:00.001+01:00

Michael Gove's ex-adviser given £500,000 free schools grant - The Guardian 28/10/2010
Pro-free schools lobby group run by Gove’s 25-year-old ex-advisor won project work – which was not advertised – to offer impartial advice on the proposals, FOI request reveals.

How the state failed to protect vulnerable children - Belfast Telegraph 27/10/2010
The summaries of four confidential Case Management Reviews on the deaths of vulnerable children in Northern Ireland highlight raise concerns about how their cases were dealt with by social services and other agencies.

British forces exposed over Afghan attacks – The Guardian 27/10/2010
Ministry of Defence releases documents linking three military units to bulk of civilian casualties.

Liberty challenges immigration detention of children - Morning Star 26/10/2010
A landmark case challenging the government's continued detention of children was launched at the High Court in London. Liberty obtained information under the Freedom of Information Act showing that in 2009 alone, 1065 children were held in immigration detention.

40 deaths linked to child vaccines over seven years – The Sunday Times 24/10/10
Data, disclosed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that, since 2003, there have been more than 2,100 serious adverse reactions to childhood vaccines, some of which were life-threatening.

MoD papers reveal catalogue of nuclear safety failures – The Herald 17/10/10
Potentially catastrophic lapses in nuclear weapons safety at the Clyde naval base have been exposed by secret Ministry of Defence reports released after a three-year freedom of information battle.

Porton Down film shows Cold War plague tests on animals – BBC 10/10/2010
An amateur historian uncovered a top secret film from the 1950's showing testing of a biological bomb on animals by scientists from Porton Down in Wiltshire.

London 2012: A Rubbish Olympics - Games Monitor 26/09/2010
A campaign group watching the Olympic Games in London has produced a detailed report of the radioactive waste contamination on the Olympics Site based on documents disclosed under the FOI act.

Seminar on how to deal with vexatious requests

2010-10-28T13:50:00.001+01:00

The Centre for Freedom of Information in Scotland’s autumn seminar series continues with an event on Wednesday 17 November 2010, looking at how to deal with vexatious requests. The event will be in the Dalhousie building, University of Dundee. A buffet lunch is served at 1pm, and the seminar will run from 2pm to 4pm. Speakers are:

Jane Munro, Junior Counsel, Ampersand. Jane will share her thoughts on the various legal perspectives of ‘vexatious’ in civil litigation. What does it mean in the wider context, and how does its specific meaning within the FOI Act in Scotland compare?
Maurice Frankel, Director of the Campaign for FOI – Maurice is travelling up from England to share his thoughts on the Commissioner’s decisions which relate to section 14 of FOISA, ‘Vexatious or repeated requests’
Valerie Malloch, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. The SPSO has undertaken work looking at how to deal with difficult behaviour in the complaints process. Valerie will share their current thinking and practical thoughts for discussion, and look at where FOI fits into this bigger picture.

Why should you attend this seminar?

This is a topic which past delegates tell us is of particular interest to them. We seek to add direct and current value to ensure that attendance is worthwhile in these difficult economic times;
The seminars provide access to some of Scotland and the UK’s biggest experts in FOI and other related matters;
Sessions are intentionally brief, focused and audiences relatively small, to ensure that delegates get the greatest personal benefit from attending.

The full programme for this seminar is available from www.centrefoi.org.uk/. If you would like to attend, please email centrefoi@dundee.ac.uk or download and post the booking form to Donna Hendry, School of Law, Scrymgeour Building, University of Dundee DD1 4HN.

Meeting between ICO and higher education sector on implications FOI/EIRs

2010-10-28T12:13:00.000+01:00

The Information Commissioner's Office has published the note of a meeting between the ICO and representatives of the higher education sector to discuss the implications of Freedom of Information for the sector on 29 September 2010.

At the meeting it was agreed to establish a working group representing the HE sector to work with the ICO in developing sector‐led and sector‐specific guidelines around the issues of research data, teaching materials and IPR.

Church of Scientology rates relief information disclosed

2010-10-21T15:52:00.000+01:00

The City of London has disclosed information relating to the decision to grant the Church of Scientology Religious Education College (COSREC) mandatory relief from business rates for its premises at 146 Queen Victoria Street in London. The disclosure follows a ruling from the Information Commissioner (FS50265544) that minutes of a meeting between the CoL and COSREC in August 2006 should be disclosed. The CoL had sought to withhold the minutes under sections 31(1)(d), 41(1) and 40(2) of the FOI Act.

The Commissioner’s decision notice states:

The Commissioner considers that there is a significant legitimate public interest in obtaining information about the process that led to COSREC being granted mandatory rate relief to enable the public to better understand how this organisation qualified for this form of tax relief. Particularly as the COSREC is controversial, there is significant public concern about the relief being awarded to this organisation, the amounts involved are substantial and the cost of mandatory rate relief is met by the public purse.

The documents made available by the CoL also include:

A legal opinion by Jonathan Crow QC from October 2008, correspondence with the Department for Communities and Local Government and a report considered by the Finance Committee at a meeting on 27 September 2010, where it was resolved to maintain the grant of mandatory relief.

The minutes were requested by William Thackeray.

PQs on compliance by departments being monitored by ICO for delays

2010-10-15T17:41:00.001+01:00

Updated: 20 Oct 2010

19 Oct 2010 : Column 640W
Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking to improve its level of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [16939]

Lynne Featherstone [holding answer 13 October 2010]: The Home Office has recognised that its performance in handling Freedom of Information requests must improve. We have taken a number of steps to achieve this, including a full review of the process for handling requests and better monitoring and reporting procedures. These measures have led to an increase in each of the last three months in the proportion of requests answered

14 Oct 2010 : Column 408W
Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps his Department is taking to improve its level of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [16998]

David Mundell: The Scotland Office endeavours to handle all FOI requests in accordance with statutory requirements and good practice. Internal procedures have been reviewed to ensure that all requests are answered as quickly as possible; all relevant staff have been briefed on the Information Commissioner's recent report; and the Scotland Office senior management team monitors performance on a monthly basis. For the most recent quarter, the Scotland Office exceeded 86% within 20 working days, which is above the Information Commissioner's acceptable level of performance.

13 Oct 2010 : Column 338W
Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps his Department is taking to improve its level of compliance with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [16940]

Steve Webb: The Department takes very seriously its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act. It has experienced a significant increase in the number of Freedom of Information requests received. Despite this, internal monitoring shows that more than 90% of the Department's Freedom of Information requests were dealt with on time in June, July and August this year, the most recent months for which figures are available. The Department is also committed to increasing the transparency of its responses.

NCVO guide on using FOI in campaigning

2010-10-13T16:59:00.000+01:00

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has published a new guide Voicing your right to know: A guide to using Freedom of Information in campaigning.

This new guide illustrates how the Freedom of Information Act has been used as a powerful and versatile campaigning tool from the local to the national level. It's findings show how campaigners are at the forefront of developing our ‘right to know’, making government more transparent.

Illustrated by five case studies, Bliss, Corner House, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, TreeHouse and the Campaign for Clean Air in London, the guide explores ways in which Freedom of Information requests have been used in campaigns from developing the evidence base of a campaign or to gain crucial information on how decisions are made. It also explores why and how campaigns can benefit from using Freedom of Information requests and tackles some of the potential difficulties that can arise.

The guide has been put together by Philip Hadley for Campaigning Effectiveness, NCVO.

Cabinet minutes released for the first time

2010-10-13T12:43:00.000+01:00

The government have complied with a ruling by the Tribunal and disclosed the minutes of the 1986 cabinet meeting where Michael Heseltine resigned over the Westland affair. The minutes were requested by the BBC's Martin Rosenbaum in February 2005. Martin's blog post on the disclosure is here.

This is the first time that cabinet minutes have been disclosed under the FOI Act. The previous government vetoed the release of cabinet minutes on the Iraq war and cabinet sub-committee minutes on devolution from 1997.

Lib Dem criticises Met Commissioner on FOI fees

2010-10-13T12:05:00.000+01:00

In response to a report in The Guardian, that the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson has lobbied the Home Secretary to introduce a fee for making freedom of information requests, the Lib Dem London Assembly policing spokeperson, Dee Doocey, has said:

It is appalling that the Met Commission is seeking to restrict freedom of information requests being made to the Met. Records already show that the Met has an appalling record in answering requests within the legal deadline, so instead of trying to improve their systems it seems the Met is just seeking to wriggle out of being held accountable.

Of course a few freedom of information requests might seem trivial, but overall such legislation goes a long way to demonstrating the openness and accountability of any public organisation.

Many freedom of information requests have also revealed wasteful expenditure, so often end up saving public money in the long term.

Sir Paul should think again.

ENDS

On the 1st October the Information Commissioner's office published a list of 30 public bodies that have been flouting the Freedom of Information Act. The Metropolitan Police Service was listed as one of these 30 organisations:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/freedom_of_information/notices/list_of_ico_monitored_bodies.pdf

See:
Keep to the law and stop complaining - Dee Doocey criticises Met proposals to limit FOI requests
Protect police from lawsuits, says Met chief - The Guardian, 10 October 2010

FoI discussed at Lib Dem fringe meeting

2010-10-06T19:05:00.000+01:00

The Campaign for Freedom of Information held a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool on 18 September 2010. The meeting was addressed by Lord McNally, the minister responsible for freedom of information, and Sir Alan Beith MP, the chair of the House of Commons Justice Committee. A brief summary of what they said is available here.

At the meeting, Lord McNally confirmed that an announcement would be made later this year following a review of FOI issues. He said: "what the coalition has committed itself to is an examination of how the Freedom of Information Act has worked, where it could be extended within its present powers and where it might be extended by primary legislation."

Guidance for central govt on publishing spending over £25,000

2010-10-06T14:58:00.000+01:00

The Treasury has published guidance for central government on publishing spending over £25,000 from November 2010. This was one of the specific government commitments set out in the Prime Minister's letter to government departments on opening up data of 31 May 2010.

The guidance and a template showing the expected format of published data can be downloaded from:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_transparency_index.htm

The FOI Officer's perspective

2010-10-06T14:26:00.002+01:00

Readers might like to know about an interesting new blog on FOI written by a FOI practitioner:

I’ve been keen for some time to find a forum to write about FOI. When I talk to colleagues or people I meet who have not really understood the benefits of this legislation, I have wanted to address their concerns. When I read other blogs or articles in the Press about FOI, criticising fellow FOI Officers, dismissing the use of exemptions, berating organisations for their seeming lack of openness, I have wanted to read somewhere of the other point of view. Sometimes there are good reasons for refusing requests. Sometimes it is as frustrating for the FOI Officer themselves that they have failed to persuade colleagues or superiors to disclose information. Sometimes I am annoyed by the attitudes of public sector bodies myself and want to point out that their reasoning is wrong.

So this blog looks at FOI from a new point of view. From the inside.

The FOI Man blog is at http://foiman.com/

Scottish Information Commissioner Decisions

2010-10-05T15:35:00.001+01:00

The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland is running two half-day training courses in Glasgow on 1 February 2011 and Aberdeen on 2 February 2011. The training will be lead by Maurice Frankel, Director of the Campaign.

While the courses will focus on the decisions issued by the Scottish Information Commissioner and Court of Session, they will also cover decisions issued by the UK Commissioner and Tribunal that have implications for Scottish public authorities.

Download the course leaflet here.

ICO publishes list of bodies being monitored for FOI delays

2010-10-01T10:59:00.000+01:00

The Information Commissioner's Office has today published a list of public authorities which it is monitoring because it appears they are not meeting the FOI Act's time limits:

In putting the list together the ICO looked at the number of complaints it had received, published data showing where less than 85% of requests had received a response within appropriate timescales and also occasions where authorities had exceeded time limits by a significant margin.

The ICO’s Deputy Commissioner, Graham Smith said:

‘In the five years since the Freedom of Information Act was brought into force, a significant number of the complaints we receive are about organisations that take too long to respond to information requests.

‘We will monitor the authorities named today for three months, but may take action during this timeframe if an authority’s standard of compliance is revealed to be particularly poor, or if it is unwilling to make the improvements necessary.

‘This is a perfect opportunity for the authorities named to get their houses in order and demonstrate that they take freedom of information requests seriously.’

See:
Full press release
List of monitored bodies

Open Government Licence enables re-use of information

2010-09-30T14:22:00.000+01:00

The National Archives
30 September 2010

The National Archives is today launching a new Open Government Licence, which makes it faster and easier than ever before to re-use public sector information.

The UK Open Government Licence is a key element of the Government's commitment to greater transparency. It provides a single set of terms and conditions for anyone wishing to use or license government information and removes some of the existing barriers to re-use.

Developers and entrepreneurs wishing to use government data to create new websites and applications will no longer need to register or formally apply for permission to re-use the data. The new licence is interoperable with other internationally recognised licensing models, such as Creative Commons.

Bringing information to life

Commenting on the launch of the new licence, Lord McNally, Minister for The National Archives and Public Sector Information, said: 'The National Archives isn't simply a repository of our nation's history, its task is to bring information to life, make it accessible and enable its re-use. This innovative licence gives everyone the opportunity to create products and services which benefit society.'

The licence covers a broad range of public sector information, including Crown Copyright, databases and source codes and can be used across the entire public sector. It is published today in a machine-readable format on the Information management section of The National Archives website.

To support the UK Open Government Licence, The National Archives has developed the UK Government Licensing Framework which sets out the Government's overall policy on licensing and the re-use of public sector information.

FOI Act shines a torch on public services, says Information Commissioner

2010-09-28T10:55:00.001+01:00

ICO Press release
28 September 2010

“Freedom of Information has a key role to play in helping to deliver greater transparency and accountability. These are key priorities in public policy”, says Information Commissioner Christopher Graham in a message to mark International Right to Know Day.

International Right to Know Day is designed to raise awareness of individuals’ rights to access information held by public authorities and gain better understanding of how public money is spent.

Christopher Graham says: “Freedom of Information shines a torch into the dark corners of public service, identifying wasted money and duplication of effort. Freedom of Information must have paid for itself many times over in the beneficial impact it has had on reducing unnecessary spending – and that contribution can only increase in the years ahead.

“Organisations, whether public or private, need to invest in information rights - whether it’s Freedom of Information, good records management, or data protection. Where organisations fall down on their information rights obligations they do so at the cost of destroying citizen and consumer trust.”

Under the Freedom of Information Act, public authorities are required to operate a Publication Scheme. Under this scheme authorities must produce a guide to the information they hold and are encouraged to publish as much information as possible as a matter of routine.

Christopher Graham continues: “In the current circumstances of reduced budgets and increased concern for transparency and accountability, information rights are a front line service, not a mere back office function. We all have to do more for less, but much is expected of all of us working in the information rights field.”

Over the past 12 months, Decision Notices by the ICO have ordered the disclosure of the Youth Justice Board Physical Control in Care Prison Service manual, details of bonuses received by the City of London Police Force and information relating to the amount the BBC spends on taxi booking services.

“These headline successes by the ICO are only part of the story,” says Mr Graham. “More and more, public authorities are volunteering to publish information without being ordered to do so by the Information Commissioner. That means less money is being wasted on long drawn out investigations and appeals.”

Ends

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/pressreleases/2010/irtk_day_280910.pdf

Freedom of Information - What Difference has it Made?

2010-09-27T15:18:00.000+01:00

The Scottish Information Commissioner hosted an event at the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics event on the impact that FOI has had in Scotland.

This event brought together a range of people who have actively used Scotland's FOI laws and who have achieved significant successes as a result. Participants included Michelle Stewart of the C Diff Justice Group, Bill Scott from the disabled persons' organisation Inclusion Scotland and Sandy Longmuir, founder of the Scottish Rural Schools Network. Each discussed how FOI has enabled them to access important information which would almost certainly have been inaccessible prior to 2005 - information which has gone on to play a pivotal role in their wider campaigning activity.

You can listen to recordings of all the presentations from 'Freedom of Information - what difference has it made?' on the Scottish Information Commissioner's website at: www.itspublicknowledge.info/FestivalOfPolitics